I have just switched from SmartBuilder V3 to SmartBuilder V4. I am trying to familiarise myself with the functions and options available. I have this query below re animating a group of objects.

My page layout is attached below.

This is what I want to achieve.

When the page loads,
1) The title text is displayed by default (no animation)
2) Then 6 icons appear all together (with fade animation)
3) Then each explanation box with text appears one by one starting from next to the first icon on the left.

I have learnt that I can right click an object and "Add to timeline". This means I have to add 18 objects to the timeline (6 icons, 6 explanation box background object, 6 explaination text objects). It's not a big deal but I have some other pages where I have more complex layouts like requiring 50 objects to be added to timeline. So I was thinking if there is a better way to manage it by grouping content. That way any future updates to content can be managed easily. Perhaps somewhat similar to V3 display set which groups the objects and the whole display set's visibility can be toggled on / off from the timeline.

Is something like that possible in V4? I have learnt a little about Layers ... but layers don't have that option on right click to "Add to timeline". What method do you suggest?

Thanks

Hi D,
Thanks for posting this question on the forum!  There are a couple ways to do this.  Note that for all these options, you can set the "Transition In" and "Transition Out" on multiple objects by multiselecting them on the authoring stage, and changing those properties in the Properties panel.

1. Use the Timeline to show each object (you already know this).  If you have a Player Bar that controls the Timeline (allows it to move backward, or jump to a time), this is the only way to ensure that everything is shown and hidden properly.  If your Timeline only moves forward, then the following methods will allow you to group objects.
2. Add cue points to your TImeline that you can catch with actions to show Layers.  It will take a few modifications to the Layers.  Note that you must right click on the top bar with the dashes to add the cue points:
   https://www.screencast.com/t/gFzmaf99C3
   https://www.screencast.com/t/2RjJIAzMT
3. If you prefer, you might not even want to use the Timeline, and instead use Actions to entirely handle your animation, similar to this: https://www.screencast.com/t/VF32sz1C0

Hope that helps!

That's great. Thanks