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Create simple animation

  1. In Microsoft® Expression Blend™, open or create a new project. For more information, see Create a new document or project.
  2. Press F7 to switch to the Animation Workspace. Create any objects that you will want to animate.
    Tip Object refers to an item on the artboard in Expression Blend. For example, when you select the Rectangle tool Rectangle tool from the Toolbox and draw a rectangle on the artboard, you create a rectangle object. For more information about objects and controls, see Working with objects and Controls.
  3. Under Objects and Timeline, click the Create new timeline button New timeline button.
    The Create Storyboard Resource dialog appears.
  4. In the Resource name (Key) field, enter a name for the timeline, and then click OK.
    Expression Blend enters timeline recording mode with the playhead Timeline playhead at the 0 second mark. While in recording mode, any property that you set will automatically record a keyframe on the timeline.
    Tip By default, any new timeline created in the root of your document will cause an event trigger to be added under Triggers for the Window.Loaded event. If you want to create some simple interactivity, you can select the event trigger, and then modify it (in the lower half of the Triggers pane) to specify the following:
         When object.PreviewMouseDown is raised
    This will cause your animation timeline to begin when you click on your object.
  5. Under Objects and Timeline, select the object that you wish to animate.
  6. If you want the selected object to start at its current position and appearance, click the Record Keyframe button Record Keyframe button to record the object at the 0 second mark.
    A keyframe Keyframe appears on the timeline in the row that corresponds to the selected object.
  7. Under Objects and Timeline, drag the playhead to the point in time where the animation should complete.
  8. If you want your object to look the same at the end of the animation as it does at the beginning of the animation, click the Record Keyframe button.
  9. Move the playhead to a location in the timeline where you want a property change to occur.
  10. Change a property of the selected object, such as the position, color, or size of the object.
    A keyframe automatically appears on the timeline to record the property change.
    Tip You can view the individual property keyframes by expanding the node for your object. This is useful if you want to move a keyframe for an individual property instead of for the whole object.
  11. To see the animation that you just created, click the Play button at the top of Objects and Timeline.
    Tip To exit timeline recording mode, select the Default timeline from the drop-down box under Objects and Timeline.