# Newbie Q: How do I leave a trail?

**URL:** https://forums.synfig.org/t/newbie-q-how-do-i-leave-a-trail/4150
**Category:** Animation discussion
**Created:** [February 22, 2017, 10:19pm UTC](https://forums.synfig.org/t/newbie-q-how-do-i-leave-a-trail/4150 "2017-02-22T22:19:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![ppetree](https://forums.synfig.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@ppetree](https://forums.synfig.org/u/ppetree)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2017, 9:46pm UTC](https://forums.synfig.org/t/newbie-q-how-do-i-leave-a-trail/4150/2 "2017-02-24T21:46:50Z")

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Ok, I think I can leave a trail by animating a gradient fill in a rectangle from white to the desired color but I’m making no progress on this.

I created the rectangle filled with white, create the gradient and grouped it and the rectangle and set the ONTO. That part seems correct. I then set the start and end gradient color to white.

Since this gradient fill trails the red circle I switched to animation mode, added a new key about 1 second behind the red circle and at that key I set the gradient to the color I want the rectangle to fill with.

I hit play and well, yeah, I got nothing usable. I’ve viewed several tutorials but (one of them the guy talks so fast and the screen zooms in and out so much I can’t follow him. I’m glad he knows the product so well he can zip right through things but for the rest of us, it’s kinda useless.) nothing is sticking.

What am I doing wrong?

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