Creating a Character as a Symbol?

[Gardenia Flower]

I created a character performing a walk cycle and made it a symbol. I'm still new to Animate, so I'm wondering if it is a good practice to make a character a symbol? The reason I ask is that after the character walks, then I find that I have to stop using the symbol and instead animate the next movement by using layers on the main timeline. So I am switching back and forth between using the symbol if the character is walking, back to using layers on the main timeline. I feel like there must be a better way of going about this? Thank you to anyone who can share advice!

[n. tilcheff]

Good practice suggests that you never work on the main timeline, but always at least one level deep.

What you do is correct. A cycle needs to be put inside a container, so that you can loop or tween it across stage.

Non-cyclical actions do not need to be wrapped, but can be. Depends on how you organise your work.

For an example of a good file structure, you can look here:

https://flash-powertools.com/edapt-movie-template-free-download/

[Gardenia Flower]

This was so helpful, thank you for explaining and thank you for the link to the file structure, I am checking that out now. Thanks again!