Gradient or color animation is not working

Symptoms

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

• •The colour transition passes through a muddy midpoint
• •A gradient animation jumps instead of sweeping
• •Only one gradient stop animates
• •An unintended hue appears mid-transition

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

   RGB interpolation is selected.

   RGB passes through the RGB midpoint and can introduce hue shifts halfway through a transition. Switch back to LAB via the color track context menu for perceptually uniform results.

2. 2

   The gradients at each keyframe have different stop counts.

   Gradient animation interpolates stop by stop. Give both keyframes the same number of stops in the same order so each one has a counterpart to move towards.

3. 3

   The wrong gradient property is keyframed.

   Stop Color, Stop Position, Gradient Angle and Center Position are separate tracks. Animating stop positions sweeps colour bands across the element; animating the angle rotates the whole ramp.

4. 4

   Hold keyframes are producing a hard cut.

   That is correct behaviour for a flash or strobe — a two-keyframe Hold change over one or two frames is how impact flashes are built. Use standard keyframes for a smooth blend.

5. 5

   Record Mode is off.

   Enable it with Ctrl+Alt+R before changing colors, or use the diamond icon next to the specific colour property.

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