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Long Timeline - Best Practices

Engaged ,
Sep 03, 2018 Sep 03, 2018

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Hi there,

I am creating a piece that would be about two minutes.

There will be about 5 separate topics/messages - some text, a character and some graphics. They will come one after the other. No interactivity - this will be exported as a video.

The objective is to remind several important things so I wanted to have a nicer way to present these concepts and export as a video. it is HTML5 Canvas.

I am working with 24 fps.

The thing is that if I use about 200 frames per topic the whole project becomes long and I just wanted to check if someone has a best practice when working with long timelines.

To give you an idea I am attaching an image. I am using folders for each topic/case and also labels. I am working only on the main timeline.

Is that the best way?

Thanks in advance

Bobby

aa.png

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correct answers 1 Correct answer

Community Expert , Sep 05, 2018 Sep 05, 2018

on the first frame of your main timeline use

this.stop();

and place the first movieclip on frame 0, the next on frame 1 etc

on the last frame of each movieclip (that has another movieclip following it) use:

this.stop();

exportRoot.gotoAndStop(exportRoot.currentFrame+1);

on the last frame of the last movieclip use:

this.stop();

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Community Expert ,
Sep 03, 2018 Sep 03, 2018

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i would create 5 movieclips and add them to the main timeline sequentially.

i wouldn't necessarily call that a 'best' practice but i think a good argument could be made that it's a better approach than putting everything on the main timeline like you're doing.

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Engaged ,
Sep 04, 2018 Sep 04, 2018

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Thanks kglad

I think this makes sense.

I that case, if I have 5 separate movies on the main timeline and if each of the movies is about 300 frames, I need to place them appropriately with 300 frames between the Movies on the main timeline.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 04, 2018 Sep 04, 2018

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i would use code to play them.  that way you have a lot more flexibility with edits/changes.

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Advocate ,
Sep 04, 2018 Sep 04, 2018

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Yes - it's ok, but sometimes is very difficult to synchronise clips on stage. If you use one timeline you can easy adjust frames.

You can also use some code to stop, revind and play clips. It's not difficult but borring

pawel

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LEGEND ,
Sep 04, 2018 Sep 04, 2018

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No, the whole point of putting each animation in its own movieclip is to encapsulate it so changes to individual animations don't requiring changing anything else.

Your main timeline should just have a single frame for each animation, containing only the movieclip containing the animation. In that frame you'd put a stop();  statement. Then on the last frame of each animation movieclip put:

stop();

MovieClip(parent).play();

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Engaged ,
Sep 05, 2018 Sep 05, 2018

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Thanks ClayUUID

This seems as a neat solution.

So I will add a stop() on the main timeline on the same frame where the mc is.

Then inside the mc itself I will add the script you say but I am not sure what to substitute it with.

What should be "parent"? Thanks

PS. Actually I have about 20 frames transition mc between the main mc so how would that work?

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Community Expert ,
Sep 05, 2018 Sep 05, 2018

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on the first frame of your main timeline use

this.stop();

and place the first movieclip on frame 0, the next on frame 1 etc

on the last frame of each movieclip (that has another movieclip following it) use:

this.stop();

exportRoot.gotoAndStop(exportRoot.currentFrame+1);

on the last frame of the last movieclip use:

this.stop();

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LEGEND ,
Sep 05, 2018 Sep 05, 2018

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Ah, correct, the code I posted was for an AS3 document.

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Engaged ,
Sep 07, 2018 Sep 07, 2018

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Thanks kglad, this is really a good solution.

However, I am using a transition between the different movies.The transition is about 10 frames - basically a shape that moves from left to right and from 0 to 100 alpha.It starts 5 frames before the end of the previous movie and goes 5 frames into the next movie.

So the feeling is that the same transition introduces the new movie. The idea you propose would not do it because I do not see how to start the transition while there are still 5 frames of the previous movie. I hope you understand what I mean?

Thanks once again.

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Community Expert ,
Sep 07, 2018 Sep 07, 2018

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then place:

this.stop()

on the frames where the transition ends (and the next movieclip is ready to play).

and:

this.stop();

exportRoot.play();

on the last frame of each movieclip that has a following movieclip.

and:

this.stop()

on the last frame of the last movieclip

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Engaged ,
Sep 07, 2018 Sep 07, 2018

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But how to make the transition start 5 frames before the end of the previous movie?

Thanks

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Community Expert ,
Sep 07, 2018 Sep 07, 2018

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place this:

exportRoot.play();

5 frames before the end of a movieclip timeline and

this.stop()

on the last frame of that movieclip.

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LEGEND ,
Sep 07, 2018 Sep 07, 2018

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If there's only one layer with each movieclip in its own frame, that will just cause the movieclip to fall off the stage 5 frames early.

An alternate solution that would allow transitions would be to have every movieclip in the same frame, and named, so the handoff code at the end of each clip would be something like:

this.stop();

exportRoot.clip2.play();

etc.

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Engaged ,
Sep 11, 2018 Sep 11, 2018

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Thanks

I will try that

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Community Expert ,
Sep 05, 2018 Sep 05, 2018

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There are many different ways to do it. the way you are doing it is very organized. In the end, its whatever works best for you.

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