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A
Amy Charlick
Participant
February 14, 2018
Answered

Animate CC 2018 timeline playback is slow

  • February 14, 2018
  • 7 replies
  • 15475 views

Hi,

Since upgrading to Animate CC 2018 I have found that no matter what complexity my project is, timeline play back lags really badly. I have to publish my work to get any sense of timing, which for an animation tool is incredible inefficient. I also have Flash CS6 installed on my computer, and the same files do not lag when played on the timeline. I am tempted to go back to CS6 for the sake of efficiency, however this is obviously not the solution.

I am using an iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017), 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 16 GB 2400 MHz DDR4. Coincidentally, I upgraded my computer AND Animate CC at the same time. But I have to assume it is the software, not the computer, given that Flash CS6 performs just fine.  FYI, unlike another similar post, I am not using any tapered line work etc. Just super simple animation struggles.

Any help would be great, it's really driving me nuts!
Amy

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer KirstenL11755184

    I'm having a similar problem where Flash...sorry...ANIMATE... would playback slowly, but only sometimes. I'm doing frame by frame animation and thought maybe the line work was too complicate to process quickly, although I've been animating this way for years and haven't had this problem before. My timeline fps is 24, although most of the time I was getting 12fps playback speeds.I just noticed a weird bug/fix which is that if I play back my timeline while selection tool is selected, then playback is fine (24fps). But when I have the Free Transform Tool selected, I get much slower playback.

    Don't know if this will help in your particular case, but was a good discovery for me.

    7 replies

    S
    Stohen5CC8
    Participant
    June 5, 2021

    hi none of the solutions work for me and my upload date is on Tuesday please help

     

    V
    veeart
    Participant
    October 9, 2019

    I was struggling with this issue too, even after trying to switch tools/closing and restarting Animate CC etc...and a fix for me was to make sure all my rough animation were all fills and not lines! I didn't think it'd be a reason for such major lag, but when I made sure each frame was filled (Modify < Shape < Convert Lines to Fills) everything played back smoothly! To check if your frame is a line or fill, select keyframe/frame and if you see the pencil icon beside the stroke colour become selected, you have to change it to a fill. Hope this helps someone as an alternative solution!

      M
      Menghua5CBE
      Participant
      October 9, 2020

      OMG，you totally solve my problem！！！！I love you！！！~~~~

      _keyframer
      Community Expert
      _keyframerCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      September 20, 2019

      Playback lags significantly if the Free Transform tool is selected. Switch to the Selection (black arrow) tool or other.

      Animator and content creator for Animate CC
      Treelady63
      Treelady63
      Participant
      October 24, 2018

      I was having the same issue but it mysteriously solved itself after plugging in my laptop to charge

      mikiasb
      mikiasb
      Participant
      August 1, 2018

      I found A FIX (you might not like it)

      If you're using the camera either wait until the end of your project to include it or turn it off while you're working 

       

      If you're not using camera (do the following)

           try to open old project and play it on animate cc, if it plays-back good, then the project thats not playing back good is corrupted so copy the layers and put it in a new template (the part you're probably not going to like), then it should run smoothly, I hope... Mine did!

        K
        KirstenL11755184Correct answer
        Participant
        June 1, 2018

        I'm having a similar problem where Flash...sorry...ANIMATE... would playback slowly, but only sometimes. I'm doing frame by frame animation and thought maybe the line work was too complicate to process quickly, although I've been animating this way for years and haven't had this problem before. My timeline fps is 24, although most of the time I was getting 12fps playback speeds.I just noticed a weird bug/fix which is that if I play back my timeline while selection tool is selected, then playback is fine (24fps). But when I have the Free Transform Tool selected, I get much slower playback.

        Don't know if this will help in your particular case, but was a good discovery for me.

          A
          Amy CharlickAuthor
          Participant
          June 2, 2018

          Ah thank you so much for posting this! That is such a peculiar bug, but you're right - my animations play fine in the timeline if the selection tool is active. Slow if the transform tool is active. So stupid but I can live with it UNTIL ADOBE FIXES IT WHICH I HOPE THEY WILL BECAUSE ITS STUPID AND ANNOYING.

          Thanks again!

          D
          digitaltwist
          Known Participant
          November 5, 2018

          I'm having this issue on a Retina iMac. The file you posted plays back at average of 12 fps on my iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, Late 2015) with the display set to 2560 x 1440. Switching tools does not seem to affect performance.

          However, when I drag the Animate window onto my Cintiq 22HD (which is a 1920 x 1080 display) the playback never drops below 25 fps.

          I found a solution that worked for me on another thread:

          In Finder, choose File-Get Info (Command-I) with the Animate App icon selected and tick "Open in Low Resolution"

          Now the file plays at full speed on my iMac display.

            Colin Holgate
            Colin Holgate
            Inspiring
            February 14, 2018

            Do you generally animate to a sound in the timeline? If you do, you probably have the sound's sync set to Stream, so that frames are skipped to make it keep up.

            With HTML5 Canvas you don't get Stream, and so every frame is played, giving the impression that it's going slow.

            For general animating it's best to use an ActionScript 3 FLA, then you can use the sound Stream sync, as well as getting more filters and better performance.

            A
            Amy CharlickAuthor
            Participant
            February 14, 2018

            Hi Colin,

            I have no sound and I am using an ActionScript 3 template.

            Colin Holgate
            Colin Holgate
            Inspiring
            February 14, 2018

            An empty FLA, or a template file? Is there something I can try to see the same issue?

            Also, what frame rate are you set to, and what rate does previewing the timeline give you? Is there any difference if you change View/Preview Mode to Fast?

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