Playback controls¶

The transport at the left of the time slider plus the Animate menu's playback entries control how the canvas plays back animation during authoring.

Buttons (left to right)¶

Button	Hotkey	Action
Go to Start	Home	Jump to the first frame of the range
Step Back Key	,	Jump to the previous key on the selected channel
Step Back Frame	Left Arrow	Jump back one frame
Play / Pause	Space	Toggle playback
Step Forward Frame	Right Arrow	Jump forward one frame
Step Forward Key	.	Jump to next key on the selected channel
Go to End	End	Jump to the last frame of the range

The Animate menu's Go to Start, Step Backward Frame, Step Forward Frame, Step Backward Key, and Step Forward Key entries are the same actions if you prefer not to use hotkeys.

Playback rate¶

Path	Default
Time slider's rate dropdown	24 fps
`Animate > Playback > Set Rate…`	Same

Options: 12 / 24 / 30 / 48 / 60 fps, or Realtime which honors wall-clock and skips frames if the GPU cannot keep up.

For tight key-stepping work, Realtime is unhelpful because the GPU may drop frames that affect your visual read; switch to 24 or 30 fps for predictable scrubbing.

Loop mode¶

Animate > Playback > Loop Mode:

Mode	Behavior
Once	Stop at the end of the range
Loop	Wrap to the start at the end
Ping-pong	Reverse direction at each end

Loop mode applies to the canvas's preview only; runtime playback in the framework uses its own per-Tween loop modes.

Playback range vs project range¶

Two ranges:

Playback range: the sub-range you scrub within. Edit on the time slider via the small bracket handles.
Project range: the full timeline. Edit in Animate > Playback > Project Range….

Playback range is for "audition this section"; project range is "this is the actual length of the animation".

Onion skinning¶

Animate > Onion Skin > Show paints the previous and next frames in faded overlays. Configure how many frames are shown and their opacities in the dialog.

Useful for animating cycles: you can see the in-between poses relative to the previous and next ones, making spacing adjustments much easier.

Scrub modes¶

The time slider supports two scrub modes:

Live: every drag updates the canvas. Default.
Quick: only snaps on release. Fast on heavy scenes.

Toggle in Animate > Playback > Scrub Mode.

Audio scrubbing¶

If the project has an audio track (added via File > Import > Audio), scrubbing plays the audio synced to the cursor. Useful for lip-sync or musical timing work.

Toggle in Animate > Playback > Scrub Audio.