Alright, here is a step by step guide on how to do this:
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Create a spline
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Draw your arrow
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Put the arrow in a group layer
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Make sure the center point of the group layer is where you want your arrow to rotate around
(most likely in the middle of the arrow).
To achieve that you can hold Ctr while moving the center point of the group layer. This way the objects inside won’t be moved and you can place the handle where needed -
Be sure to align the blue handle of your group layer with orientation of your arrow.
This handle indicates the forward direction relative to the spline and will initially be pointing right.
So when drawing the arrow draw him pointing in that direction or put a rotate layer inside the group to correct for that. -
Select both the spline and the group layer
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With both selected hold ctr to highlight the green origin point of the group layer
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Right click on the spline and select “Link to Spline”
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Animate to your hearts content
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Profit
Pay extra attention to steps 4 and 5, I suspect they are the culprit of why your attempts failed.
If this still doesn’t solve it, I may be able to record a video about this for a newer version of Synfig.
Here is the file for the animation above:
Follow Spline.sifz (3,8 KB)