Animations — expono User Guide

📌

Animations are attached to scenes in Story mode. Select a scene, then use Flow, Accent, or Reveal in the ribbon's Scene group — then click an element on the canvas to target it.

How animations work

Each animation is a declarative record stored in the scene. The same record plays on the canvas while you script, in the presenter's mirror, and on the audience window. You can have multiple animations in one scene; they run simultaneously by default, or you can sequence them.

Type	Target	Behavior	Timing
Flow	An ordered list of connectors (a path)	A marker (dot, emoji, or image) travels the path repeatedly	Loops while the scene is active
Accent	A single shape / shape / frame / text	A looping attention effect — glow, scale, or ring	Loops while the scene is active
Reveal	An ordered sequence of elements & annotations	Elements "draw on" or fade in one after another	One-shot on scene entry

Spotlight — some objects lit, the rest dimmed — is a scene override, not an animation; the transition between scenes animates the change.

Flow animations

A flow shows data or requests traveling through your diagram — a dot moving along a connector path. Perfect for architecture talks ("the request goes from the load balancer to the API") or process flows.

Creating a flow

Select the target scene.
Click Flow in the ribbon's Scene group.
Click one or more connectors on the canvas to build the path. Each click appends to the ordered list.
The animation card appears in the Animation inspector section.

Flow options

Option	What it does
Speed	Slow / Normal / Fast — controls how quickly the marker travels.
Copies	Number of markers on the path at once (1–8). Multiple dots create a "stream" effect.
Reverse	Marker travels the path in reverse order.
Bounce	Marker ping-pongs between the path ends instead of looping. The marker flips to face its travel direction at each turnaround.
Start delay	Milliseconds before this animation starts playing after scene entry.
Gate next	Animations below this one in the list wait until the first dot completes one traversal. Creates cause-and-effect timing.
Hide connector	Hides the connector path while the flow is actively playing — only the marker is visible. The connector reappears when the scene exits.

Flow markers

By default the marker is a themed accent dot. You can change it:

Dot — the default accent-colored dot.
Emoji / Text — any character, e.g. 📄 for a document, 👤 for a user, ⚡ for a request. Use the quick-pick row of 8 common emojis or type any character.
Image — a picture from the document's images.

Enable Face direction of travel to rotate the marker to face the direction it's moving — great for arrow markers.

Accent animations

An accent animation draws attention to a single element with a looping visual effect. Use it to say "focus here" while you talk about that component.

Adding an accent

Select the target scene.
Click an element on the canvas to select it.
Click Accent in the ribbon's Scene group. The animation targets the selected element.

Accent styles

Style	Effect
Glow	A soft luminous halo around the element that breathes in and out (opacity-based). The default color is the accent. Vivid and attention-grabbing for "this is the important part."
Scale	The element itself breathes bigger and smaller about its center. Connectors stay anchored — they read from the static element bounds, not the transform. Clean, unobtrusive animation that doesn't disrupt the surrounding diagram.
Ring	A trace that travels outward from the element's border and fades. Like a ripple or pulse radiating from the component.

Accent controls

Control	Available on	What it does
Amount	All styles	Percentage of the default magnitude — controls how pronounced the effect is.
Color	Glow, Ring	Halo/ring color. Defaults to accent for glow, element border for ring.
Thickness	Ring	How wide the ring trace is.
Direction	Ring	Out (radiates outward), In (contracts inward), or Both (one ring that pulses in then out — a single continuous trace).
Steady (no pulse)	All styles	Holds the effect at its peak with no pulsing — a constant glow halo, permanently enlarged element, or static outline ring.
Speed	All styles	Hidden when Steady is on. Controls pulse frequency.
Start delay	All styles	Milliseconds before this animation starts.

Reveal animations

A reveal plays once on scene entry, building the visible picture step by step. Connectors "draw on"; shapes and shapes fade/pop in. Use it to progressively introduce the components of a diagram.

Creating a reveal

Select elements and/or annotations on the canvas (Shift/⌘-click for multiple).
Click Reveal in the ribbon. A reveal animation is created with your selection as the sequence, in click order.

Reveal options

Option	What it does
Sequence	The ordered list of elements to reveal. Drag to reorder.
Stagger	Milliseconds between each element in the sequence. 0 = all elements appear simultaneously.
Start delay	Milliseconds before the reveal sequence begins on scene entry.

💡

A reveal can include both diagram elements and saved annotations in the same sequence — so a callout arrow can reveal alongside the shape it points at.

Sequencing animations

By default, all animations in a scene start simultaneously on scene entry. You can create cause-and-effect timing:

Start delay — give an animation an explicit delay (ms) relative to scene entry.
Gate next (flow only) — animations below a gated flow in the list wait until the flow's first dot completes one traversal. This makes the arriving flow appear to "trigger" the next effect (e.g. an accent on the target shape).
Reorder — drag animation cards up and down to change the order; this affects gate timing.

A reveal with a finite duration also acts as a gate — downstream animations wait for the build-up to finish before starting.

Tips and patterns

Show a data flow

Add a Flow animation along the connector path. Use multiple copies to suggest continuous streaming. Combine with accent on key components — set Gate next on the flow so the accent starts after the first dot arrives.

Highlight a hot path

Spotlight the path's objects, then add a Glow accent on each key shape. The rest of the diagram fades back while the path glows.

Progressive reveal

Put everything in the act's default visibility → hidden list. For each scene, show one more element. Use Reveal with a short stagger (e.g. 120ms) to make them appear in sequence on entry.

Pulse a failure state

Use a Ring · Both accent on the failing component with Amount at 120% and a vivid color like red. It reads as an alarm radiating from the point of failure.