At a loss — How do I get my animation to loop a set number of times before stopping?

[HannaB]

I'm a beginner. Sorry! But I've created an animation that works. It's simple and very straight forward.

But it doesn't do what I want which is to start when I click "Start" then loop three times and stop at the end of the animation at frame 58.

Here's what I have:

in Layer 1, frame 1 of the animation I have this:

var _this = this;
_this.stop();

In Layer 1, frame 2 and to the end (frame 58 is end) I have this:

if (!this.looped) this.looped = 1;

if (this.looped++ > 3) this.gotoAndStop('58');

In Layer 2, frame 1 and to the end I have this (and a "Start" button):

var _this = this;
_this.button_2.on('click', function(){
_this.gotoAndPlay('2');
});

Animation starts when I click "Start" but it only plays once, then goes back to beginning and stops. It seems my "Stop" in Layer 1, frame 1 overrides the loop command? But what do I do to prevent the animation to auto play on load if I don't have a Stop action in there?

[ClayUUID]

It sounds like you're creating a banner ad. But your code is AS3, which won't work in an HTML5 Canvas document, which is what you have to use for ads now.

Which is it?

[HannaB]

HI, I'm creating a simple animation to be placed on a page on a website. Not a banner ad. So far I've gotten a little farther than above, but still not getting it right. For now, the video loops the number of times I like and then stops. BUT, as soon as I add in a "Stop" function, the looping won't work. I want the animation to start when I click "Start", not auto-play as soon as page loads. But I can't figure out where on the timeline to place the Stop without it interfering with the loop command. Can I send you a file somehow?

[ClayUUID]

You seem to have ignored the part of my post where I said you can't use AS3 code. You can't use AS3 code. You have to use JavaScript. Look at the code hints for Canvas documents. Look at the browser developer console for errors when testing the page.

[HannaB]

Not ignoring anything — I'm just not very skilled in this or understand coding. I was hoping to get a piece of code to insert rather than a reference to hints and JavaScript. I am a little old lady who doesn't program...

[HannaB]

I've revised my original post to include the actual code I've used. Would greatly appreciate help with this!

[resdesign]

Hey Hanna. Here is an example of how you could do it.

https://app.box.com/s/toxn0ixv2944r0yv5emuj6joh5smi60c

[HannaB]

Eagerly waiting to find out what solution you were going to show me 😉

[ClayUUID]

Why do you have your frame numbers in quotes? Did you create frame labels "58" and "2"?

[HannaB]

I got the code from this forum and copied it and updated with my own frame numbers. I have not set labels. Don't know how to do that.

[HannaB]

To Resdesign — I'm not sure what to learn from the .fla file you sent me. It loops indefinitely for me. And it also doesn't have a start button so it auto plays. If you see my original post, I'm explaining my issue there. I'm a beginner here so please bear with me!

[resdesign]

This is strange. It loops only 3 times for me and stops. Agreed about the frame number It should not be in quotes. Anyway, I was not trying to make the whole thing for you, only showing you a way to stop after playing 3 times. Please play it again. I added a visible counter for you to see. download it again. Code is in the movie clip. https://app.box.com/s/toxn0ixv2944r0yv5emuj6joh5smi60c

[resdesign]

please press enter from ANCC to play in you default browser. there is no way this plays continually in any browser.

[HannaB]

Yup. Just keeps playing and playing when I do "Test" — maybe I'm using the wrong way to test it? And the counter just says "counter" and doesn't show any numbers per loop. I stopped counting at 6th loop. Weird!

[resdesign]

you must be doing it wrong. from ANCC, press ctrl-enter or cmd-enter. It should open your browser.

[HannaB]

Same result. It plays and plays. But did you look at my original issue? I can get my animation to loop the number of times I want but I need a Stop action in the beginning so it doesn't auto-start. Where do I put that "Stop" action so it doesn't interfere with the loop once started? Can I send it to you? How?

[resdesign]

That's insane! I tried it on multiple browser and this is the correct way to do it.

If it is a video, then in the component parameters check off autoplay.

[HannaB]

I uploaded my animation in case you can take a look at it. Maybe it works for you since nothing works for me when it should... https://app.box.com/s/rbl4unpj76yp8gznfthkj6w6dpy4bkjj

[HannaB]

I'm using Adobe Animate, if that makes a difference. Not doing anything other than opening your file in Animate and then Cmd + Return.

[HannaB]

Oh, and I had to put back the ' ' around the frame numbers or it wouldn't work at all.

[resdesign · Accepted solution]

try this: https://app.box.com/s/2ajf86jgmbms81dqykkc5uqviur6zip5

[HannaB]

That is almost perfect! Only thing now is that when it's done its loops and you restart, it only runs once but I want it to restart the looping. Question, to make it loop 5 times instead, do I change the "if(i<4){" in frame 59 to "if(i<6){" instead?

[resdesign]

yes. 5 is less than 6. You will have to reset i to 0 for it to start again.

[HannaB]

Any chance you can tell me how to do that or should I wing it to reset "something" to 0?

[resdesign]

Change the code to:

i++;

if(i<6){
	this.gotoAndPlay(2);
} else{
	this.gotoAndStop(0);
	
}