Controlling playback

You control playback using the playback buttons. These buttons let you play the animation, move forward or backward a frame at a time, or move to the first or last frame of the animation.

The playback buttons play the level of the timeline where you're currently editing. This is useful for looking at a single level of animation. For example, it plays an animation in a movie clip only if you are inside the movie clip's timeline.

Note: The Play button does not play animations inside movie clip groups. Note also that Play doesn't work with object or frame scripts. Use a preview option to view these.

To play an animation:

1. Move the current-time marker to where you want the animation to start.
2. Click the Play button  in the Timeline window, or the spacebar on the keyboard, to preview the animation.

The Play button changes to a Pause button , and the animation plays, starting at the position of the current-time marker.

3. To pause the animation, click the Pause button in the Timeline window, or the spacebar on the keyboard.
4. To move the current-time marker (which determines the frame you are currently viewing), click any of the following playback buttons:
• Click the First Frame button  to move the animation to the first frame in the composition time track.
• Click the Frame Backward button  to move the animation backward a single frame.
• Click the Frame Forward button  to move the animation forward a single frame.
• Click the Last Frame button  to move the animation to the last frame in the composition time track.