Phases: building a move, reordering it and setting its pace

Step by step

1. 1

   Add a phase

   Copies this phase and adds it after. Move the players on the copy, and the movement between the two becomes the animation.

2. 2

   Move the players on the new phase

   You never draw the movement. You build the same board twice and we work the animation out from the difference.

3. 3

   Watch it back

   Runs your phases in order so you can watch the movement. You need two phases before there is anything to watch.

   Stop and go back to editing.

Copying, reordering and deleting phases

Makes a second copy of this phase directly after it, with everything on it: the players where they stand, the arrows, the shading, the writing and the camera. Use it to keep a moment you are happy with before you change it, or to build a slow reveal out of one board.

Reorders your phases: this one changes places with the one before it, so it happens earlier in the move.

Reorders your phases: this one changes places with the one after it, so it happens later in the move.

Removes this phase. The others close up around it.

Moving between phases

Goes back to the phase before this one. Nothing is changed or moved: you are just looking at a different moment.

Goes on to the next phase. The left and right arrow keys do the same thing.

Titles, captions and notes

A short name for this moment: "The trigger", "The switch". It shows under the board and in the strip of phases.

One line explaining what is happening, in the words you would use to the group.

The longer version, for the printed page rather than the room: the coaching points, the triggers, what you want them watching for. Leave it empty and nothing shows.

Pace: the hold and the move

The two halves of a beat, set apart. The hold is how long a phase stands still, which is reading time. The move is how long it takes to become the next one, which is the football. Bring the hold down and stretch the move and you get the shape a coach rehearsing something familiar wants: poses they already know gone quickly, transitions they are teaching drawn out. The hold goes all the way down to nothing, which is a film with no pauses in it at all: every phase starts becoming the next one the moment it lands. Both belong to the system rather than to whoever is watching, so the film, the share link and Play all move together.

Players set off gently and hold their speed the whole way, instead of covering most of the ground in the first instant and drifting in.

Undo

Takes back the last thing you changed. Nothing you do here is permanent: move things, try it, take it back.

Puts back the change you just took away.

Questions