InStep: Tumbling Tricks

Mike Rankin

Create a cascade of animated… anything.

This article appeared in Issue 83 of InDesign Magazine.

Recently, I wrote a few articles here at InDesignSecrets on how to make holiday-themed graphic effects. One of the effects was falling snow, which I created with InDesign’s animation tools and then posted to Adobe Publish Online.

You can view the falling snow animation here. In it, snowflakes of different sizes slowly drop around the title “Happy Holidays,” curving and turning as they go to create a glimmering winter wonderland.

This is a cool effect, but what’s even cooler is how you can easily adapt it to create all kinds of other fun and festive looks for different holidays, seasons, and special occasions.

For example, you can create some gently falling leaves to enhance a project in autumn.

Or try a blustery day effect with some umbrellas floating on the wind.

Or drop a bunch of celebratory balloons any time you want to mark a birthday, anniversary, or achievement.

There are endless variations and themes you can play with, and they all start with the steps I’ll show you in this article.