How to make an animated football tactics board

Step by step

1. 1

   This is your board

   The counters are your players. Press and hold one and drag it where you want it, the same as sliding a magnet across a whiteboard.

   The panels either side set up the football: which part of the pitch you are looking at, flat or tilted back like a television camera, and the shape each side lines up in.

2. 2

   A phase is a moment, not a slide

   Set the players up the way the move starts. That is phase one.

   Then add a phase. You get the same board again, and you move the players to where they end up.

   You never draw the movement. We work it out from the difference between the two, and that is what you get back as film.

3. 3

   Say what you mean, not how to draw it

   Pick Pass or Run at the top, tap the player it starts with, then tap where it goes. Line draws a line across the pitch with no arrowhead: the height of the press, the line they hold.

   You choose the intention. We choose the line, the arrowhead and the colour, so every board you make looks like the ones on the channel.

   A gold lock on a button means it comes with a paid plan: Carry, Press and Loft, shaded areas and text on the pitch. Press one and it tells you what it adds.

4. 4

   The arrow says it. The next phase does it

   An arrow on its own moves nobody. It is what you are telling whoever watches, and the movement still comes from the next phase.

   Draw it with two taps and that next phase is posed for you: the ball arrives, the runner gets there. Drag it instead and you get the arrow on its own, so move the players on the next phase yourself.

   Bow an arrow and whatever it describes takes the curve, on Play and in the film.

5. 5

   Press Play to see it move

   Once you have two phases, Play runs them in order and shows you the real thing, with the same timing and the same easing as the videos.

   Nothing is sent or exported yet. Play as often as you like while you get it right.

   For the finishing touch, turn on Trajectories in The film: players and the ball leave a fading trail as it plays, so the route shows as well as the move.

6. 6

   It saves itself

   Every change goes to your account as you make it. Close the tab, sign in on another computer, and it is all there.

   The step-by-step list on the right walks you through your first system. And if you ever cannot find something, press ? at the top and type what you are after: it takes you straight to it.

Arrows can be shaped

Select an arrow and drag its middle to bend it. Turn on S-curve and it bends twice, so a run can go round a defender instead of through him.

Its colour, thickness, line and ends are under Style, and Arrow type changes what it is without drawing it again.

Give the pitch the whole screen (Amateur and above)

Press Focus at the top, or F on your keyboard. The grass runs to the edges of the window, the bars float over it in the colours of your pitch, and Tools, Board setup and This phase open as drawers on the right.

Questions