Advanced Prototyping with ProtoPie

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Create high-fidelity prototypes with variables, formula, conditions and sensors

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Advanced Prototyping in ProtoPie

Advanced Prototyping with ProtoPie

11:48

Quick Prototyping

11:46

Start Animation and Sequence

12:36

Drag and Release

9:38

Toggle with Conditions

11:48

Screen Transition

12:53

Pull to Dismiss

6:59

Page Scroll Position

11:57

Input and Submit

13:41

Chain and Drag 3D

7:45

Formula and Detect

16:37

Range and Card Animation

15:32

Variable and Detect Mouse

12:02

Sensors and Receive

12:47

About this Course

In this course, we'll learn the ins and outs of ProtoPie, from basic techniques to advanced prototyping. We'll start the course with a solid workflow and quick prototyping techniques in order to create a working prototype that can be previewed on your device. Then, we'll dive deep into animation techniques and complex interactions that will really elevate your design. This course isn't just about the tool, it's also about learning how to design an app, bringing it to life and getting tons of tips and tricks in between. As with most prototyping tools, you need to be somewhat familiar with design tools to be able to understand the core concepts of prototyping.

It's recommended to use Sketch, but you can easily import the design files to Figma or XD.

1. Intro to ProtoPie

There are plenty of techniques to learn in ProtoPie. We'll start the whole course by understanding all its capabilities and in what context it should be used for your team. Version 4 comes with a lot of new features such as Components, Constraints and various improvements.

2. Quick Prototyping

Just like most prototyping tools, you can quickly create a quick prototype that navigates to every screen of your app, with preset screen transitions like Fade, Pop, Slide In, Slide Out and Flip. Learn the basics of ProtoPie, starting with configurations, triggers and responses. We'll build a simple prototype with 6 screens that's imported from Sketch.

3. Start Sequence Animation

Crafting animations that gracefully follow in a specific order can be time-consuming. It's also an increasingly popular technique found on many popular web and mobile apps. In this section, we'll learn how to set up animation timing and delays to create something that delights.

4. Drag and Release

Gestures like Drag, Pinch, Long Press and 3D Touch are easy to create in ProtoPie. You can set animations like Move, Scale and 3D Rotate that reacts nicely to those gestures.

5. Toggle with Conditions

Often times, you'll want to toggle different animation states back and forth. Conditions are perfect for that scenario and they take very little time to set up. A good example is the toggle ON/OFF that you often see in iOS and Android. Based on the X position of a layer, you can set the appropriate visual states and animations.

6. Screen Transition

Animated transitions between screens are becoming common, especially in iOS 13. For example, the Apple App Store lets you tap a thumbnail and it will gracefully transition to a detail screen without breaking the flow. To achieve, we'll need to properly use constraints and native Shape layers.

7. Pull to Dismiss

Once you're in the Detail screen, we'll learn how to create some interesting gestures that transitions back. We'll use Pull to detect progress of the dismiss behavior and then animate accordingly.

8. Page Scroll Variable

Scrolling is an important part of any app design. With the progress of that behavior along with Conditions, you can do interesting animations.

9. Input and Submit

Creating a Login experience with input and submit is impossible for most prototyping tools. This usually requires coding. With ProtoPie, you can easily achieve this with Conditions and Formula. Additionally, we'll learn how to bring a GIF or Movie file to your prototype.

10. Chain and Drag 3D

ProtoPie isn't only for mobile. You can also design for a variety of device sizes, such as iPad and MacBook. In this section, we'll learn how to take a Drag interaction and apply a 3D rotate using Chain. Chain allows you to apply a range of values from one to another.

11. Formula and Detect

Formula lets you mix and match variables and object properties. For example, you can get the height of a Rectangle and show that number inside a Text layer. Since the Rectangle grows on drag, the number will dynamically change as you interact with it.

12. Range and Card Animation

Range is like a Condition but as a Trigger. You can set a Range condition based on Y and if it fits, then it'll trigger an animation or a Jump. This can be useful for example, when an animation is deemed over, Jump to another screen.

13. Variable and Detect Mouse

You can store data across your prototype by using variables. Those variables can be changed from triggers and responses. Variables can be used across all screens. This can create prototype almost as deep as those made in code.

14. Sensors and Device Testing

ProtoPie is the only prototyping tool that allows you to use its sensors, including the Accelerometer, proximity, 3D touch and more.

What's new in ProtoPie 4?

ProtoPie 4 comes with a number of new features like Components and Constraints, which are insanely useful for more complex prototypes. It also has many improvements like better onboarding, context menus and an improved Scene panel.

Components

You can now re-use components in your prototype. Just like in the design tool, components can have overrides and those overrides can be edited inside or outside the component. This is especially useful for navigation like a Tab bar or a Navigation Bar that gets reused multiple times across your prototype.

Components can be useful for isolating the animation properties. Sometimes though, you want your component's triggers to affect outside. For that, you'll need to set Send / Receive.

Constraints

ProtoPie feels very much like a design tool. It has most of the same layers, properties and even constraints. When you're dealing with containers, you can animate the parent container and children elements will automatically adjust based on those constraints.

Cross-Platform

Mac or Windows, you'll be able to use ProtoPie without issue. Also, even if you work with Sketch files, you can easily import to XD or Figma first and then import to ProtoPie using the built-in Import tool.

Preview Prototype

The Preview is full of useful options, like animation speed, touch hints, cursor and resizing.

Animation Speed

Animations are generally too fast to be able to judge clearly. Instead of changing your animation timing, you can simply preview the general speed.

Touch Hints

Touch Hints are turned off by default. It might be useful to show these during prototyping as it helps navigate your prototype.

Export to MP4

When previewing your prototype, you can record the interactions and export to an mp4 file, which can be used to demonstrate, or even as a background movie on a site.

GIF and MP4 Animated Assets

You can include animated assets like .gif and .mp4 inside your prototype. These animations can easily be found on sites like LottieFiles.com, which lets you export animations to these formats. Finally, your animation can be used as a Lottie file in the real app when implement.

Cloud Upload and Sharing

Prototypes can be saved on your device or shared as .pie files. If you have an active ProtoPie license, you can also upload to the Cloud and share with anyone with a Link.

Community Examples

There are excellent and completely public examples to learn from. You can also open these from your phone and automatically open the demo there. Additionally, you can download the source files and check the way they were built.

Preview on iOS and Android devices

A lot of features like sensors can only be previewed on an actual device. ProtoPie has an iOS app and Android app that allows you to preview your prototype directly from your device. You can preview using a QR code, IP Address or by connecting via USB. They have a pretty comprehensive documentation about the different ways you can share your prototype.

Setting your Canvas

Import from Sketch, Figma, XD

Nowadays, most designs are made using of these 3 tools: Sketch, Figma and XD. ProtoPie has a plugin for each of those tools that allow you to import your designs effortlessly without having to recreate each element for prototyping.

Tip: when importing Masked layers, you should Group them first.

Let's import all the screens from our Sketch file called Design by clicking on Import. Make sure that the design tool is open.

Designing inside ProtoPie

Once imported, you can customize your layers with the same properties you'd find in a design tool: Position, Size, Constraints, Fill, etc. Additionally, you can draw all your shapes from scratch, giving you more freedom to animate.

Scene Editor

ProtoPie excels as a tool that creates a multi-screen prototype. The Scene editor allows you to organize your screens, create new ones and rename them.

After importing your screens, make sure to name them to the name of the Artboards in Sketch.

Tutorial Examples

You can start learning the basics by opening their examples which will show you how they configure interactions like Scroll, Conditional, Formula and Input. You can view their videos for some of those techniques. I will also cover them in this course.

Download source files

Download the videos and assets to refer and learn offline without interuption.

Design template

Source code for all sections

Video files, ePub and subtitles

Videos

ePub

Assets

Subtitles

Advanced Prototyping with ProtoPie

Create high-fidelity prototypes with variables, formula, conditions and sensors

11:48

Quick Prototyping

Learn the basics of ProtoPie and create a prototype for your entire app in minutes

11:46

Start Animation and Sequence

Learn how to use the Start trigger, animation responses and timing

12:36

Drag and Release

Use Drag, Touch Up and Touch Down to create gestures with cards

9:38

Toggle with Conditions

Create multiple animation states and toggle back and forth between them

11:48

Screen Transition

Create a custom transition between screens and that jumps to another scene

12:53

Pull to Dismiss

Create a dismiss interaction that transitions back to a previous screen

6:59

Page Scroll Position

Prototype an onboarding experience with 3 screens and use the scroll position to set the page indicator

11:57

Input and Submit

Prototype a Login experience with a form, error messages and a success modal

13:41

Chain and Drag 3D

Use the drag position to move and animate with perspective

7:45

Formula and Detect

Use object properties, functions and type conversions to power your prototype

16:37

Range and Card Animation

Detect a range of values to trigger a response and create screen transitions

15:32

Variable and Detect Mouse

Store dynamic values from your mouse and create a parallax effect

12:02

Sensors and Receive

Use Tilt to detect the angle on your device and Send & Receive values

12:47

Meet the instructor

We all try to be consistent with our way of teaching step-by-step, providing source files and prioritizing design in our courses.

Meng To

I design, code and write

Meng To is the author of Design+Code. Meng started off his career as a self-taught designer from Montreal and eventually traveled around the world for 2 years as his US VISA was denied. During his travels, he wrote a book which now has 35,000 readers.

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