VERY new to animate, bit stuck with loop

[Davince.net]

Hi, I've been using Illustrator / PS / indesign etc for about 25 years but Animate CC... about 3 hours lol

So I've watched the basic tutorial videos, but something I'm trying to do I just can't make work. I've got a movie clip nested into another clip on the main timeline, and it's looping. I want it to play once, then stop. Earlier on in going through the tutorials, a thing appeared in the asset properties that said 'loop' and I had the option to have it looping, play once or choose frame. That didn't work first time so I tried approaching it slightly differently, and now I can't even find the 'loop' options. Even finding those options again would be a bonus, if not finding those then telling me how to stop this thing looping would be awesome. It's a 10 second animation in the end so at the moment I've just made the nested clip 20s long and got the bit I've moved hidden off screen, but that is obviously a bodge.

[avid_body16B8]

I am fairly new too but are you working with AS3 or HTML5 though not sure it makes a difference.

I personally put this.stop() at the end of the movieclip so it stops at the end and does not start again.and this is for canvas. the stop might be different for AS3.

[Davince.net]

Than you Resdesign. When I say I'm new... where do you put 'this.stop()' in? I've seen that before when searching but couldn't work out where to put it. BTW it's a HTML5 canvas

[avid_body16B8]

if you choose to do that it would be at the last frame of your movie clip.

[Davince.net]

Resdesign, I mean actually where do you put the code - I can't find where you type it in. I select the last frame then...?

[Myra Ferguson]

You could make a new layer on the main timeline just for actions. On the last frame of the main timeline, add a keyframe (F6). While that keyframe is selected, open Actions either by going to Window > Actions or using F9. You can enter stop(); or use the code snippets to add it for you (That's the 5th icon from the left in the Actions panel. Then in the Code Snippets panel, go to Timeline Navigation to Stop at this Frame. It just adds the code for you. It's handy in case you want to find other code the same way.)

[Myra Ferguson]

Change your movieclip symbol to a graphic symbol in the Properties panel, and you'll get the loop/play once/single frame options back. Or you can use the movieclip with the stop command, but you'll find graphic symbols can be helpful if you want to scrub through your timeline to see your animation.

[Davince.net]

Myra is there any disadvantage to using graphic symbols? All the tutorials I've been following always seem to use movieclops and I'm yet to work out why. Thank you!

[Myra Ferguson]

Here are some of the differences between movieclips and graphic symbols:

If you want to add actionscript, then you would want a movieclip instead of a graphic symbol.

A movieclip plays independently of the timeline where it's placed, so it could actually be in a singe frame on the main timeline and play completely through when you play it but only show the first frame when you scrub through the timeline.

Filesize-wise, movieclips are slightly bigger, if that's a concern for you.

If you put an animation that's inside a graphic symbol on the main timeline and extend the number of frames so that it all shows up in the main timeline, you can scrub the timeline to see your animation.

[avid_body16B8]

Movie clips are good if you want to call them in code since you give them an instance name. If you never address them in code then no need to have a movie clip IMHO.

[avid_body16B8]

I'll try to make a sample for you shortly.

If I understand well

main timeline

symbol on main timelime

symbol inside main timeline with animation

Is that correct?

[Davince.net]

Just tried changing it to a graphic... it still loops. Maybe I've got something else wrong as well.

[Myra Ferguson]

You mentioned that you nested your movieclips. Make sure you've set the parent symbol to play once if that's the one that you don't want to loop.

[Davince.net]

I don't think I've structured it quite right yet Myra, It's quite a shock coming from static imagery to animation I have to say! I've tried setting it to loop once on each level now, it still just loops like crazy. A bit lost but will keep going!

[avid_body16B8 · Accepted solution]

Sample here.

Movieclip 1 - has several colored frames - this.stop()  on the last frame

Movieclip2 inside Movieclip 1 - has this.stop() at the last frame

Hope this helps.

sample.fla - Google Drive

[Davince.net]

You've both been extremely helpful, thank you so much! Coming back to it this morning, and seeing the sample file and with instructions on how to put the code in I got movie clip working very quickly, but, I've actually managed to get both methods working! Really very much appreciated both redesign and Myra!