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Smart animate

  • November 14, 2025
  • 3 replies
  • 47 views

Hannah M

Hello, 

I am pretty new on Figma and I am learning via online course.

I just started with the topic smart animate and I tried to animate an arrow that is fading in. 
It works, like I follow the both rules, have the arrow on two different pages (included) and also they both have the same name. It works fine, but as soon as I try to change the design of the “start” arrow a little bit, let’s say it is bigger than the “end” arrow so that it sizes down, the animation doesnt work anymore. 

I hope you understand my problem… maybe someone has an idea here? 

Arrows both have the same name, 
they are both imbedded on their appropriate layer page.

The grey to black fade in works, but not the change of the form, as soon as I change the form of the left arrow, the animation doesnt work anymore. 

 

Best answer by Nellya

Hi, Hannah.

Smart animation doesn’t work between different objects in Figma. As soon as you change the arrow’s form, it becomes two different objects. You need to keep the arrows in the same form to be able to smart-animate them.

Also, if you want one arrow to be longer than another and keep smart animation, you need to split it into two vectors — the line and the arrow.

Example

 

3 replies

Hannah M
  • Author
  • New Member
  • November 19, 2025

Thanks :)


Nellya
  • Power Member
  • Answer
  • November 20, 2025

Hi, Hannah.

Smart animation doesn’t work between different objects in Figma. As soon as you change the arrow’s form, it becomes two different objects. You need to keep the arrows in the same form to be able to smart-animate them.

Also, if you want one arrow to be longer than another and keep smart animation, you need to split it into two vectors — the line and the arrow.

Example

 


Hannah M
  • Author
  • New Member
  • November 21, 2025

Hello Nellya, 

thank you so much for your feedback and the short video you provided!

Thanks for confirming what I almost thought. :) Very helpful