Animates the position of an element over time.

Members Table

The following table lists the members exposed by the animateMotion object. Click a tab on the left to choose the type of member you want to view.

Attributes/Properties

Attribute	Property	Description
ACCELERATE	accelerate	Sets or retrieves a value that applies an acceleration to an element's timeline.
ACCUMULATE	accumulate	Sets or retrieves a value that indicates whether the animation is cumulative.
ADDITIVE	additive	Sets or retrieves a value that indicates whether the animation is additive with other animations.
AUTOREVERSE	autoReverse	Sets or retrieves whether the timeline on an element begins playing in reverse immediately after completing in the forward direction.
BEGIN	begin	Sets or retrieves the delay time before the timeline begins playing on the element.
BY	by	Sets or retrieves a relative offset value for an animation.
CALCMODE	calcMode	Sets or retrieves the interpolation mode for the animateMotion object.
DECELERATE	decelerate	Sets or retrieves a value that applies a deceleration to the end of a simple duration.
DUR	dur	Sets or retrieves a value indicating the amount of time the element remains active or displayed.
END	end	Sets or retrieves a value indicating the end time for the element, or the end of the simple duration when the element is set to repeat.
FILL	fill	Sets or retrieves the action an element takes if its timeline ends before the timeline on its parent element ends.
FROM	from	Sets or retrieves the starting value of an animation.
	hasMedia	Retrieves a Boolean value that indicates whether the element is an Introduction to HTML+TIME media element.
KEYSPLINES	keySplines	Sets or retrieves a set of Bezier control points that define the interval pacing of an animation.
KEYTIMES	keyTimes	Sets or retrieves a list of time values used to control the pacing of an animation.
ORIGIN	origin	Sets or retrieves the origin of motion for the animation.
PATH	path	Sets or retrieves a set of values that describe a path as a function of time.
REPEATCOUNT	repeatCount	Sets or retrieves the number of times an element's timeline repeats.
REPEATDUR	repeatDur	Sets or retrieves the number of seconds that an element's timeline repeats.
RESTART	restart	Sets or retrieves the conditions under which an element can be restarted on a timeline.
SPEED	speed	Sets or retrieves the playback speed of an element relative to its parent time container.
systemBitrate		Retrieves the approximate bandwidth available to the system in bits-per-second.
systemCaptions		Indicates whether or not to display a text equivalent of the audio portion of the presentation.
systemLanguage		Indicates whether a given language is selected in a user's system preferences.
systemOverdubOrSubtitle		Specifies whether overdubs or subtitles render during a presentation.
TARGETELEMENT	targetElement	Sets or retrieves the target element to be animated.
TIMECONTAINER	timeContainer	Sets or retrieves the type of timeline associated with an element.
	timeParent	Retrieves the parent time container element of the current element.
TO	to	Sets or retrieves the ending value of an animation.
VALUES	values	Sets or retrieves a list of semicolon-separated values of an animation.

Events

Event	Description
onbegin	Fires when the timeline starts on an element.
onend	Fires when the timeline stops on an element.
onpause	Fires when the timeline on an element pauses.
onrepeat	Fires when the timeline repeats on an element, beginning with the second iteration.
onreset	Fires when the timeline reaches the value of the BEGIN attribute or when the resetElement method is called on the element.
onresume	Fires when an element's timeline resumes from a paused state.
onreverse	Fires when the timeline on an element begins to play backward.

Methods

Method	Description
activeTimeToParentTime	Converts a value in the element's active timeline to the corresponding point in the parent timeline.
activeTimeToSegmentTime	Converts a value in the element's active timeline to the corresponding point in the segment timeline.
beginElement	Starts the element on the timeline.
beginElementAt	Starts an element's timeline at the specified time.
documentTimeToParentTime	Converts a value in the document timeline to the corresponding point in the element's parent timeline.
endElement	Stops the element on the timeline.
endElementAt	Ends an element's timeline at the specified time.
parentTimeToActiveTime	Converts a value in the parent timeline to the corresponding point in the element's active timeline.
parentTimeToDocumentTime	Converts a value in the element's parent timeline to the corresponding point in the document timeline.
pauseElement	Stops playing an element's timeline at the current point.
resetElement	Removes any changes made to the element and returns the element to its original state.
resumeElement	Restarts the element's timeline from a paused state.
seekActiveTime	Locates a specified point on the element's active timeline and begins playing from that point.
seekSegmentTime	Locates the specified point on the element's segment timeline, and begins playing from that point.
seekTo	Locates a specified point on the element's segment timeline, including repetitions, and begins playing from that point.
seekToFrame	Locates a specified frame in the object.
segmentTimeToActiveTime	Converts a value in the element's segment timeline to the corresponding point in the element's active timeline.
segmentTimeToSimpleTime	Converts a value in the element's segment timeline to the corresponding point in the element's simple timeline.
simpleTimeToSegmentTime	Converts a value in the element's simple timeline to the corresponding point in the element's segment timeline.

Objects

Object	Description
currTimeState	Contains information about an HTML+TIME timeline.

Remarks

When animating style properties on an object, the property and any related properties must be initialized in the object's style. For example, when animating the top or left properties, you must initialize the top and left properties, as well as the position.

The following example demonstrates how to use the t:ANIMATEMOTION element to move a div.

<HTML XMLNS:t ="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:time">
<HEAD>
<TITLE>t:ANIMATEMOTION Demo</TITLE>
<?IMPORT namespace="t" implementation="#default#time2">
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV ID="oDIV" STYLE="position:absolute; top:100px; left:50px; width:100px;
height:50px; border:solid black 1px; text-align:center;">Moving DIV!</DIV>
<t:ANIMATEMOTION targetElement="oDIV" to="200,200" dur="5" fill="hold"/>
</BODY>
</HTML>

The prefix t: is used to associate this element with an Extensible Markup Language (XML) namespace. You must declare the XML namespace in the html tag of your document when using this element.

<HTML XMLNS:t ="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:time">

You must then import the tag definitions from the time2 behavior by using the IMPORT processing instruction.

<?IMPORT namespace="t" implementation="#default#time2">

Specify BY, FROM, and TO attribute values in comma-separated x,y pairs.

<t:ANIMATEMOTION TO="200,200" .../>

When writing script to dynamically change the properties of an active animation, developers should consider a couple of issues. Because results might be unpredictable or undefined when you change the properties of an active animation, restart the animation with beginElement after you have made the change. For example:

<SCRIPT>
object.endElement();
object.path="M 0 0 L 100 100";
object.beginElement();
</SCRIPT>

The members listed in the following table might not be accessible through scripting until the window.onload event fires. Waiting for this event to fire ensures that the page is completely loaded, that all behaviors have been applied to corresponding elements on the page, and that all the behavior's properties, methods, and events are available for scripting. Using any of the behavior-defined members before the window.onload event fires could result in a scripting error, indicating that the object does not support that particular member.

For the animate, animateMotion, and animateColor objects, the time2 behavior uses the following model to evaluate which properties to animate.

• The path property overrides any setting for the values, from, to, or by properties.
• The values property, if specified, overrides any setting for the from, to, or by properties.
• The from property is used unless the values or path properties are specified.
• The to property, if specified, overrides any setting for the by property.
• The by property doesn't override any properties.

To change an active animation from a path to a values list through script:

<SCRIPT>
object.endElement();
object.path=null;
object.values="100,100;0,0";
object.beginElement();
</SCRIPT>

This element is not rendered.

This element requires a closing tag.

Standards Information

This object is defined in Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 2.0 .

See Also

animate, animateColor, Introduction to HTML+TIME, set, time2