Animations and transitions
Elements can be animated as they enter and exit, as one element transitions into the next, and while they are on screen. Creatomate has fades, slides, scales, wipes and 3D flips, slow pans across a photo (the Ken Burns effect), shakes and bounces, and text that appears line by line, word by word or letter by letter, types itself out or counts up. You apply them in the Animation tab of the properties panel. They only play in templates that render a video or a GIF.
Attached to the element, not to the video
An enter animation is attached to the start of its element, and an exit animation to its end. When the element starts later or lasts longer in another render, its animations move along, so a title that slides in still slides in at the right moment, whatever came before it.
The entrance moves with the title's start, and the exit with its end
A scene animation is attached to neither: it plays at a set moment after the element starts. Set its duration to Full to attach it to both ends, so that it always spans the whole element. That is what a slow pan across a photo needs when the photo's time on screen varies.
A pan at a set moment stays put; on Full, it spans the photo and follows its length
The timeline can change this. When you drag an animation on the element's Animations row, it stays attached to the start only if it still begins there, and to the end only if it still finishes there. An entrance dragged away from the start then plays a set time after the element starts, rather than right at its start.
Dragged off the end, the exit no longer follows it
Transitions need an overlap
An entrance and a transition both bring an element in, but at different moments. An entrance plays at the start of its element, after the element before it has ended, so between two clips on the same track, the next one comes in over whatever is below it, or the template's background. A transition plays while the two overlap, so the next clip comes in over the one before it. Between clips on one track, use a transition; keep entrances for something that appears over something else, such as a title over a video.
A transition plays while two elements on the same track overlap, as the first one ends and the next one begins, and it lasts as long as the overlap. Dragging an element onto the end of the one before it creates that overlap and inserts a fade. To use another transition, select the later of the two elements and choose one under Transition.
The fade plays over the overlap and lasts as long as it
A transition on an element that doesn't overlap the one before it does nothing, so when you move the elements apart, the transition stops playing.
Animations and keyframes
Animations are ready-made effects. To animate a single property yourself, such as the position or the opacity of an element, add keyframes to that property on the timeline instead. An element can have both.
In RenderScript
In RenderScript, animations are the animations property of an element; see Element properties.