Auto align animation is not working

Symptoms

If one or more of these match what you are seeing, you are on the right page.

• •Aligned elements drift apart again during playback
• •Aligning writes an unexpected keyframe
• •Alignment moves the element for the whole timeline, not one frame
• •Elements align at one moment and not at another

Causes and fixes

Ordered from most to least likely. Work down the list — each cause is paired with what to do about it.

1. 1

   Alignment is being applied to elements that are animating.

   Alignment acts on positions at the playhead. On animated elements it either records a keyframe there (Record Mode on) or shifts the baseline everywhere (Record Mode off) — decide which you want before aligning.

2. 2

   The elements need to stay aligned over time.

   Parent them to a null object and animate the null. Children inherit the parent transform, so they move together and stay in their arrangement.

3. 3

   Fewer than two elements are selected.

   The alignment controls only appear with a multiple selection, and distribution needs three or more.

4. 4

   One element should stay put while the others move to it.

   Click an already-selected element to make it the key object — it gains a thicker border and does not move while the rest align to it.

5. 5

   A snapping behaviour was expected rather than an alignment command.

   Snapping assists while dragging on the canvas and has its own strength setting; alignment is a discrete command. They are separate systems.

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