Delay
Replay the layer's own keyframed motion, late.
Delay makes a layer do exactly what it already does, a fraction of a second later. Nothing else changes — same path, same easing, same distances.
Stack it across several layers with increasing delays and you get follow-through: a leading element and a tail of things catching up. It is the cheapest secondary animation in the tool.
When to reach for it#
- Trails behind a moving object.
- Staggered groups where each element repeats the one in front.
- Limbs and appendages lagging behind a body.
How it works#
Delay samples the property at time minus the delay and returns that. It replaces the value rather than adding to it, which is why the motion is identical rather than doubled.
It needs motion to copy. On a layer with no keyframes on the target property there is nothing to be late for, and the driver does nothing.
Parameters#
Seconds behind. Under 0.1 reads as weight. Around 0.3 reads as a separate object following. Above 1 the two are clearly unrelated, which can be the point in a staggered layout.
Which property to echo. Add one Delay per property if you want a full copy of the motion.
Recipes#
A three-element trail
- Keyframe the lead layer moving.
- Duplicate it twice.
- Add Delay to the first copy at 0.08 s, and to the second at 0.16 s.
- Drop the opacity of the copies to about 0.5 and 0.25.
Equal delay steps read as a mechanical echo. Try 0.06 and 0.16 instead — uneven spacing looks more like physics.
Things that catch people out#
Delay does nothing on a layer whose target property is static or driven only by another driver. It reads keyframed motion specifically.
At a time earlier than the delay, the sampled value is whatever the property was at the start. The delayed copy sits still until the source has been moving for longer than the delay.
See also#
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