How To Create A Fake 3D Effect With A 2D Animation Tool

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a spinning coin animation that flips in space, showing both front and back designs using only 2D shapes, transforms, and opacity adjustments.

Step 1 - Create The Coin Face

Start by creating a circle for the coin’s face and center it on the canvas. Duplicate it, scale the duplicate slightly smaller for inner detail, and change the fills to two shades of orange for a golden look. Group the circles and name the group coin face for easier animation.

Step 2 - Add Design Elements

Add a design element like a crown from the library, center it on the coin, and scale it to fit. Group the crown with the coin face so they can animate as a single unit.

Step 3 - Prepare Front And Back Groups

Duplicate the coin group and name the copies front and back. Add position and scale animators to both. Move the playhead to the timeline’s middle and set scale x to zero for a flattened edge effect.

Step 4 - Animate Position And Edge

Shift the front group left and the back group right to separate them evenly. Create a thin rectangle for the coin edge, place it between the groups, and add a scale animator. Set its initial scale x to zero and duplicate the first keyframes at the timeline’s end to complete the loop.

Step 5 - Apply Opacity For Flip

Duplicate the back group to the top layer and hide it. Remove the crown and inner circle from the original back group. Add an opacity animator to the front group’s crown and inner circle at the timeline middle and set opacity to zero one millisecond later. Make the top back group visible, add an opacity animator, set it to zero, and then 100% one millisecond forward to show the back detail.

Step 6 - Add Easing For Realism

Apply ease in to the first half of the animation and ease out to the second half, creating natural acceleration toward the center and deceleration as each face appears.

This layering technique works for any rotating object that must display multiple sides with smooth motion.