syncing various instances of one clip

[bunty]

Hi, first post but I've been lurking with intent for a while now....

I have an apparently simple problem -

I've got an animation which I am working on for a client. In order to make life easier (and faster) when it comes to making changes later on I've constructed the animation in a modular way - each movement/action is in a seperate movie clip. The only problem I have with this is that an object in the scene (in its own clip) is constantly moving - a 30f loop - and when the timeline moves from action to action (each action containing its own instance of this clip) the 30f loop jumps back to frame one no matter where it had just been the frame before.

What is the best solution to keeping each instance of this clip in sync so that the jump from one clip (that contains it) to another is as seamless as a thing without a seam?

Thanks in advance,

Bunty

[pixelwit]

Hi bunty, nice to see you out of the shadows.

Not really sure what you're trying to do. Could you post a small "stripped-down" version of your file?

-PiXELWiT
http://www.pixelwit.com

[bunty]

Ok, I'll try and be clearer now I've had some coffee...

I have clipA which is a 30f loop action of a glass of bubbling beer.

Clips B,C,D and E are all of the man holding the glass - doing various different actions which bring him back to the same start and end position, but all of which are a different length. All of these contain an instance of clipA.

_root.clipB.clipA (55 frames)
_root.clipC.clipA (12 frames)
_root.clipD.clipA (34 frames)
_root.clipE.clipA (6 frames)

Thus we can go in any random order of B,C,D or E.

HOWEVER (and the cause of too little sleep last night) each time the timeline goes to the next clip (B to C, or C to D etc) the instance of clipA in the new clip starts again from its frame 1. In order for the animation to be seemless each instance of ClipA needs to carry on from where the last one left off.

Does this make more sense. I know that there must be a simple solution.. I just can't see it right now.

[pixelwit]

The easiest way is probably to turn clips B, C, D and E into one big clip with A as a single instance throughout all 107 frames of the new big clip. You could then use gotoAndPlay actions to control which action the man performs without resetting the beer clip.

Hope it helps,

-PiXELWiT
http://www.pixelwit.com

[bunty]

I'm considering doing that - however then I'll lose the modular structure that I've already got (meaning it'll be a darn sight harder to change when the client gets all opinionated and starts meddling). What would be a less easy method?

[pixelwit]

When _root.clipB is done playing get the current frame of _root.clipB.clipA and save it as a variable. Then when _root.clipC starts playing tell _root.clipC.clipA to gotoAndPlay the current frame you saved plus 1.

Repeat as necessary.

-PiXELWiT
http://www.pixelwit.com

[bunty]

a belated thanx - I've been head down recently but the advice seems to have worked. However it has made me rethink my work flow in future. For those interested here's the finished piece -

http://www.marcusbrigstocke.com

it's under the BIG KID link.

Thanks again

Bunty