# Using the Motion Controller

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There are many different animation-related tasks you can accomplish using the Motion Controller.

You can also use Animation buttons and Movement buttons to move objects automatically.

| Start an Animation

1. | Select one or more objects to animate. The objects must be geometric objects or parameters.
2. | Click the Animate button in the Motion Controller. Each selected object begins moving.
The only objects you can’t animate are captions, calculations, functions, action buttons, measurements, and pictures. (Except for action buttons, each of these objects can be attached to a point, and the point can be animated.) The Animate button has the same effect as the Display | Animate command.

| Select a Moving Object

To modify the motion of a particular moving object, you must select the object to make it the target of the Motion Controller. If the object were not moving, you would simply click it with the Arrow tool to select it — but it’s not always so easy to click a moving object. You may be able to select the desired moving object with a mouse click if it’s moving slowly or with a selection rectangle if there aren’t any other objects near it. If not, follow these steps.
1. | Press and hold on the Target menu to show the list of target objects.
2. | If the object you want appears on the list, choose it. The object is selected, and you’re done.
If the object is not an independent point, a point on path, or a parameter, the object is moved by moving its parents, and it doesn’t appear on the list. In this case, continue with steps 3 through 5.
3. | Click the Pause button in the Motion Controller.
Motion stops.
4. | Select the object.
5. | Click the Pause button again to release the button and restart the motion.
The object remains selected and is listed as the target object.

| Stop a Moving Object

You can stop the motion of a single object while leaving other objects in motion.
1. | Select the moving object as described in the previous section.
2. | Click the Stop button in the Motion Controller. The selected object stops moving.
Clicking Stop with nothing selected stops all moving objects. The Stop button has the same effect as the Display | Stop Animation command.

| Reverse the Direction of a Moving Object

You can reverse the direction of any moving object as long as it’s not animating randomly.
1. | Select the moving object as described above.
2. | Click the Reverse button in the Motion Controller. The selected object reverses its direction.
Clicking Reverse with nothing selected reverses the direction of all moving objects.

| Set, Increase, or Decrease the Speed of a Moving Object

You can change the speed of any moving object.
1. | Select the moving object by clicking the Target button and choosing the object from the pop-up menu.
2. | Set a new speed by either typing a new speed into the Motion Controller’s speed control or by clicking the up or down arrows of the speed control.
3. | The selected object moves at the new speed.
When you have several objects moving at different speeds and you want to make all of them go faster or slower, use the speed arrows rather than typing a specific speed. The up and down arrows have the same effect as the Display | Increase Speed and Display | Decrease Speed commands.

See also:

Principles of Animation

Parts of the Motion Controller