Keyframes and symbols

[lestiga]

Hello guys Im having a problem with animating my nested symbols. The cursor on my main timeline is not consistent when im getting into and out of symbols.

For a example, I'm at frame 100 on my main timeline, when i click into my symbol the cursor is at frame 50 or sometimes frame 1. Its really making life difficult as i need my cursor to be on the same frame whether im in a symbol or not for me to be able to animate. Will greatly appreciate the help.

[Colin Holgate]

The behavior you're seeing is correct for movieclips, because their time is independent of the main timeline. What should happen with movieclips is that when you come out of the symbol the play head goes back to where it was before you went into the symbol, and when you go back into the symbol it may well go back to frame 1.

To get it to go to the matching frame you would want to be using a Graphic symbol and not MovieClip.

[lestiga]

Hello thanks for the response...I have made them graphic symbols but they are still behave that way. Some times they are not sometimes they are not....seems like the more nesting i make the more likely that problem occurs

[Colin Holgate]

It will fail to work if the symbol and its parents have different amounts of frames. There won't be a matching frame number if you go too late in the timeline.

BTW, I think there have been bug reports on this topic in the past, and maybe those have been fixed. It's worth keeping up to date.

[lestiga]

thank you! will look on it

[ClayUUID · Accepted solution]

If you need your symbols to keep their playheads in perfect sync with the main timeline... then why are you using symbols? It sounds more like you should be using layers. The entire point of symbols having their own timelines is that they run independently.

I also don't understand why the thread title is "Keyframes and symbols" since you never mention keyframes.

[lestiga]

I have now already gone with the layers approach you have mentioned...however initially i thought using symbols would make the project more organised....e.g for a person having a head symbol, torso symbol....with the corresponding body parts inside...rather than having a timeline with a lot of layers from eyebrows to toes.