InDesign Color Fade Animation. I see what you did there!

One of the demo’d animations in InDesign CS5’s Animation Encyclopedia is the Color Fade. But there is no option for that anywhere in the animation panel! Upon closer examination, the color fade is actually two objects, animated right on top of each other , while one gradually fades away, revealing the differently colored object underneath.

I wanted to point this out because InDesign’s animations have some pretty severe limitations when compared to the likes of Flash. But with a little ingenuity, you can work arond a lot of the limitations.

The Animation Encyclopedia, by the way, can be found under the Scripts Panel.

InDesign CS5: Animation Encyclopedia

Yup, that’s what it’s called, Animation Encyclopedia. Go to Window > Utilities > Scripts > Application > Samples > Javascript and you’ll find the AnimationEncyclopedia.jsx. Run it and InDesign will create a file showcasing all the animation capabilities. Not all of the animation can be done through the GUI though, some require scripting.

From Claudia McCue’s Fearless Flash.