How do I get the movie to loop continuously once it's published as a MP4?

[designer_shrink]

I'm trying to create a room that has several animated features - a fireplace that glows, an aquarium with fish swimming, birds that fly outside the window. I've made each of the animations a movie clip - although I've since been told they should be graphic symbols. But right now, they're mcs.

The problem is that when I export it to an mp4, it plays for about 4 seconds and stops (although some action takes place on the main timeline, most of the movie clips are just a single keyframe with regular frames after it to last to the end of the movie so it's not long. The problem is that I can't get it to loop. I tried putting both gotoAndPlay(1); and this.gotoAndPlay(1); on the final frame but those do nothing when I publish it as an mp4. 

How do I get the whole published movie to loop continuously?

[Joseph Labrecque · Accepted solution]

Video files cannot contain any code - so when you publish as an MP4 it will publish only what exists on the timeline. Depending on the playback platform, you may be able to set it to loop via instructions there.

[n. tilcheff · Accepted solution]

I did mention that yesterday to you: Do not use Movie Clips in a non-interactive project, i.e. an animation intended to be exported as an MP4.

Click on those Movie Clips on the stage and in Properties change them to Graphic. Then make sure they are set to Loop.

(This change has to be done to every keyframe you have for the Movie Clip.)

[designer_shrink]

Oh I'm sorry. I didn't realize that you were saying that I could NOT use movie clips. I thought you were just telling me best practices. Will changing all of them solve my looping issue? Or is it true that I can't use any code within the project? That would be a bummer.

[n. tilcheff · Accepted solution]

You can't use code in non-interactive projects. (This means video.)

Movie Clips are for interactive stuff. (This means SWF or HTML5.)

They loop in Flash Player infinitely when not stopped, but they do not play when scrubbing the timeline and nested timelines do not sync.

Graphic Symbols give you full timeline and sync control of nested timelines and export well, because they are designed for that.

There is a lot more that can be said, and Adobe is guilty of producing a lot of misleading documentation, but keep this simple rule in mind: If you are not a programmer, never use a Movie Clip, unless you have a very good idea why you are preferring a Movie Clip over a Graphic Symbol.

[designer_shrink]

Ok, thanks. I've actually made quite a few interactive projects in the past - but it's been a long time. I think that's why when I needed to do this new project, I defaulted to what I knew. But yes, this particular project is just a video that needs to loop continuously in the background.

Assets like the fire in the fireplace and the aquarium (and others) DO need to continually loop. I can do that with graphic symbols? I really never used multi-layer graphic symbols - didn't even know you could do that.

[n. tilcheff]

Yeah, you can nest as deep as you like and sync the timelines.

This is what is used in TV character animation.

For a quick example, have a look here: https://flash-powertools.com/keeping-cycles-flexible-for-easy-re-timing-by-using-service-frame-and-w...

And also, download this file to study its structure, if you are interested: https://flash-powertools.com/edapt-movie-template-free-download/

Good luck!

[designer_shrink]

This is opening up a whole new world! Thanks so much.

[n. tilcheff]

You are most welcome! 🙂