Formula and Detect

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

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

Formula

Formula allows you to use variables and object properties inside fields such as X, Y, Width, Height or Text. You can combine values, use functions and convert pretty much the same way you'd do in code. It's really powerful when combined with triggers and responses.

Getting Started

Start off by heading to ProtoPie and creating a new Pie. Then, go to Sketch and import the artboard titled Dashboard @3x.

Setup

Before starting the animation, make sure to click on the option that says "Convert to Text" which is inside the Inspector and set the font weight to Medium. This automatically takes all the styling and we wouldn't have to recreate the layer from scratch. It also makes it easier for us to animate the layer. Do the same for Pay now. Resize the text to make it fit the screen.

Recreating Button

The button has two layers, the green background and the curved blue shape. We'll start with the first one, click on Shape and then select Rectangle. Resize it to the same size, set the radius to 20 and the color to #44CCDE. Now, for the blue shape, create a Rectangle sized 160x100. Set X to 16 and Y to 50. Set the color to #232CA8 and the radius to 20. Select Rectangle 1 and tick "Use as Mask" at the bottom. Lastly, rename the first rectangle as Mask and the second as Quantity.

Constraints

Constraints always save us a lot of effort and time. Click on Mask and disable both fixed width and fixed height. Now, set constraints to all sides. For Quantity, Pay now and Icon, set the constraints to bottom and right. Finally, delete the previous button.

Background

We'll be creating a background layer to hide everything else while the animation is happening. Create a rectangle and put it underneath Button. Set the width and the height to 100%. Set the fill to the color of the background. Now, drag Button and the rectangle to the top. Please ensure that the bars at the top of everything. Rename the rectangle to Background and set the opacity to 0.

Animation

To start animating, click on Add Trigger and choose Tap. Select Button, add Scale. Set the width to 116 and height to 440. Now, add Move, set X to 130 and Y to 96. To animate the opacity of the background, add Opacity and set it to 100.

Animating Layers

Go to Sketch, click on Make Exportable and export the Confirm Payment button @3x. Now, you can drag & drop it into ProtoPie. Set X to 130 and Y to 551. Set opacity to 0 by default. To animate when you tap, select Button Pay, add Opacity and set it to 100. Do the same for Pay now and Icon, set the opacity to 0. Set a bottom constraint for "Due in 6 days".

Spring Animation

To make Scale and Move more interesting, we'll be using Spring. Select Scale and choose the Spring option in Easing. Set the delay to 0.02.

Drag

The next step is to add a trigger for when you drag the Quantity. Click on Add Trigger and choose Drag. Now, add a response called Scale and set the direction to Upwards. To move the "Due..." text as you drag, add Move and set direction to "↕".

Detect

To change the content of the text when you drag, add a trigger and select Detect. Instead of X, choose Height. This'll detect any change in the height and call a response. Lastly, select "Due..." text and add a response called Text. In content, we'll select Formula instead of Text.

Formula

Now, we'll add Formula to make it dynamic. Click on "fx" and then press tilde to make searching easier. Select the Quantity layer and then the height value. Now, the content changes when you drag. To add the dollar sign, add "$" +, it should look like "$" + Quantity.height. To apply the formula on Tap, copy & paste Text from the Detect trigger to Tap.

Text-Transform

To transform the "Due..." text to upper-case. Add a new trigger called Start, select the text and add the Text response. To set the formula, type in upperCase(Due in 6 days.text) inside the formula input field. Resize the layer so it fits the screen.

Touch Down

This step ensures that we animate back to where we were. Select Quantity and add the Touch Down trigger. Now, select the Button layer and add the 3D Rotate trigger inside Touch Down. Change the Rotation from Rotate By to Rotate to and set the angle to 10.

Touch Up

Select the Quantity layer and add the Touch Up trigger. Then, select the Button layer and add the 3D Rotate trigger inside Touch Up. Change the Rotation from Rotate By to Rotate to and set the angle to 10. To make the rotation look more smooth, select the second option in Direction.

Reset Animation

To reset animation, select Background and add the Tap trigger. Now, add a Reset response for every layer we animated i.e. Button Play, Button, Due in 6 days, Icon, Pay now, Quantity, Mask and Background. To ensure that the "Due..." text remains in upper-case, copy & paste it from Start to Tap. Please make sure that it's at the bottom, below all the Reset triggers.

Background Animation

The last step is to change the background color. To do so, select Background and add the Color trigger to our first Tap block. Set color to #46CBDD. Now, select Mask and follow the same steps. Set the color to #FFFFFF.

Animation Bug

You'll come across an issue when you click on the curved blue shape. It conflicts with Touch Up and Touch Down. Since, this is a prototype, issues like this show up often. What's important is you communicate well with your colleagues and engineers about how the animation should look like. Although, we weren't able to resolve this issue, please feel free to contact if you end up finding a solution.

Conclusion

In this section, we learned a number of techniques including how to use formulas, how this particular transition is built, how to use Drag and how to affect values in the formula. In the next one, we'll learn how to use range to detect values and some really cool card animations.

Steps

Import Scene

Import Dashboard from Design.sketch.

Convert to Text

Select Due, Pay texts in the Button container and click on Convert to Text.

Mask Rectangle

Color 44CCDE

Radius 20

Use as Mask

Constraints All Sides

Quantity Rectangle

Position X 16 Y 50

Size 160 x 100

Fill 232CA8

Radius 20

Constraints Bottom Right

Background Rectangle

Width 100%

Height 100%

Fill EDF2FB

Opacity 0

Import Button Pay

In Sketch, click Make Exportable, set size to 3x. Drag and drop image to ProtoPie from inspector.

Position X 130 Y 551

Opacity 0

Button Tap

Button Scale To 116 x 440, Spring delay 0.02

Button Move To 130 x 96, Spring

Background Opacity 100

Background Color 46CBDD

Mask Color FFF

Button Pay Opacity 100

Quantity Drag

Quantity Scale Direction Up

Due Move Direction Vertical

Quantity Detect Height

Due Text Formula:

"$" + `Quantity`.height

Duplicate to Button Tap

Due Start

Due Text Formula:

upperCase(`Due in 6 days`.text)

Quantity Touch Down

Button 3D Rotate To 10 degrees

Quantity Touch Up

Button 3D Rotate To 0 degrees Direction Reverse

Background Tap

Button Pay Reset

Button Reset

Due Reset

Icon Reset

Pay Reset

Quanity Reset

Mask Reset

Background Reset

Due Text Formula:

upperCase(`Due in 6 days`.text)

BACK TO

Chain and Drag 3D

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

Browse all downloads

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Formula and Detect

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

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Variable and Detect Mouse

Store dynamic values from your mouse and create a parallax effect

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

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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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