Some MovieClip files are looping some are not

[info427]

I have an HTML5 canvas document that I want to have various tweens and loops on different instances.

I have created 4 movieclip instances, three ships and the other is waves.

I have animated the boats to bob up and down on the water the first two are looping as expected. However, the wave and the last boat movieclips are not looping. The waves should be rocking back and forth continuously but it does that once then stops.

I created the boat animations at the same time and in the same way so again I suspect I've made a silly mistake but not sure what.

Any suggestions as to why the waves and 1 boat aren't looping would be gratefully welcomed I have put a dropbox link below:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqj7nu1sf4xpvlc/Animate%20CC%20wave%20issue%20v2.zip?dl=0

Many Thanks

Hanniel

[ClayUUID]

If you're not planning to script them, there's no reason to use movieclip symbols. Just use graphic symbols and set them to loop.

[info427]

Thanks ClayUUID​, I will change the waves to a graphic and loop as suggested.

The only issue is that I am using the boats as buttons to go to certain sections of the timeline and so adding scripts to those. Can you suggest anything that I have possibly missed, I created the middle and the last boat (the one that does not loop) at the same time using the same method, not sure why they aren't acting the same.

I have updated the dropbox link if you wanted to see what I mean:

Dropbox - Animate issues v3.zip

Many Thanks

Hanniel

[mark@headTrix · Accepted solution]

HI,

I think MovieClips are very useful. If everything is a graphic symbol set to looping, then things will ONLY move when the main timeline is moving. A movieclip is beneficial when you want your water to move constantly even if the boats are stopped on the main timeline. Or if the boats have a sail (I was not able to download the file from DropBox from the link and the zip file would not unzip) the sail could be a movieclip within the boat symbol and even if the boat stops on the main timeline... the sail would still be shaking in the wind.

As far as your issue.... I was not able to open your files.

as long as their is no extra frames in your movieclip, or an action stopping the timeline.... then it should loop forever.

cheers,

mark

[info427]

Hi Mark/ headTrix , thanks for getting back to me, I had actually not realised you had replied and had to put this issue on the back burner.

I have only seen this reply because I have had to come back to the project and had another issue with it.

From my Flash days, what you mentioned above was exactly why I wanted to use a movieclip.

I have uploaded the files again to dropbox, for my new issue, but you will still be able to see the wave issue described above using the same files.

Dropbox - HTML5 animation issue.zip

If you can provide any assistance/feedback you can give would be great! I warn you the files aren't the best Animate CC setup ever, but should be fairly straight forward.

Many Thanks

Hanniel

[mark@headTrix]

Hi Hanniel,

I took a look at your file. It looks like the problem is you are not really using Animate correctly.

The entire point of using Symbols is to save your art in the library to reuse or Update at any time during your production, and it saves space. So for example... your boat called "World" the one with the issue is using a DIFFERENT symbol of the boat in every keyframe! You should ONLY be using the boat symbols ONCE, and duplicating the "INSTANCE" of the symbol (when a symbol from the Library is dragged out onto the stage.... it is then called an Instance, since its ONE instance of that symbol).

If you use ONE symbol, then if you have an hour animation of the boats racing back and forth, and your boss or the client want to change the boat... you just double-click the Symbol in the library for that boat, make the changes, and it AUTOMATICALLY updates EVERY Instance of that symbol throughout your entire project! This makes it very easy to update AND by using the SAME Symbol with just different Instances you also drastically reduce the file size.

Hope this makes sense so far. So if you select an object on your stage, like your boat for example and its NOT a symbol, and you Right-Click the keyframe and add a Class Tween - Animate automatically creates a NEW symbol and it calls it "Tween1". Or if you have only ONE keyframe and you add a classic tween it also adds a new Tween symbol to the library.

In YOUR movie....  for the World boat you have "Tween 45" in keyframe 1, and "Tween 44" in keyframe 2, and "Tween 43" in keyframe 3, etc.

To fix your issue, double click into the "World" boat so you are in its timeline. Click on keyframe one, then click on the instance on the stage... and you will see in Properties panel it is called "Tween 45"(in library you can rename this to "World-Boat" or something like that. Then click on the 2nd keyframe, and click on the instance on the stage, and in Properties panel click "SWAP" to swap out Tween 44 with Tween 45 (which you will rename). Do that for all the keyframes and then test your movie!

Then you will be using the same symbols throughout and your problem goes away.

Seems like you have to re-learn Animate! (let me know if I can help with that)
What you should be doing is creatingyour art (like your boat) then select it all and create a new symbol-  Insert>New Symbol to make it into a symbol (or Press F8), and THEN you would have ONE keyframe on the stage. Then you would select a different frame along the timeline, and press F6 to add a SECOND keyframe.....  BEFORE you create the tween. Now that you have two keyframes, then you can add a Classic Tween without the error of creating extra symbols!
If you create a tween on ONE symbol, Animate will automatically create a tween for the 2nd keyframe.

Hope this all makes sense, and of course I hope it helps!

cheers!

mark