How can I create SEAMLESS looping in videos

Dec 04, 2012

I'm trying to get video animations to loop seamlessly a certain number of times and then advance to the next slide. I've had limited success having tried these methods (see below) but none are ideal.

1) Set the triggers, Play media X when the timeline starts, then Play media X again when the media completes. This works ok. Ok only because it does loop but not seamlessly.... There is about a 1 second gap (or more) where the animation stop/stutters and then plays again. I also made some variables which I can set so it loops a certain number of times and then advances the slide. This is the ideal solution I've found thus far (minus the stuttering) because I only have a single instance of my animation in the project and I have control over how many times I want it to loop. I really think that this stuttering is possibly a Flash issue related to something that's changed in some recent updates to the Flash Player. I have this problem in other Flash based looping animations that used to work seamlessly but now don't.. See here with someone having the same issue: https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3349340

Articulate: Should my solution 1 loop seamlessly. And if Adobe has introduced a problem with their flash player update maybe you can also push them to fix (and thus make Storyline a more functional product).

2) Using a video editing program I, stitch together the animations the desired amount of times I want it to loop. This solution works great but at the cost of extra time! Also it makes the encoded animation bigger than it really needs to be.

3) A suggestion on the forum was to use layers... And when the animation finishes, to show another layer with the same animation in the same position. Then swap back and forth between the layers. This also seems to work pretty well (can notice the transition slightly). The problem is that I have multiple instances of the same animation in the project which is just a waste of space and bandwidth. Also the setup is messy and I understand that this solution doesn't work well on ipads.

Any other ideas?

Really need an option directly in Storyline to loop video Z number of times. And make it seamless!

12 Replies

Steve Flowers

over 11 years ago12/04/12 at 11:43 am (UTC)

Hi, Gordon -

I haven't played with this much but I think your best option is using layers as you've mentioned in #3 above. No worries of multiple instances of the same animation. If you copied and pasted the video and it remains the same size, Storyline is smart enough to maintain one copy of the file with a link between instances. It should work OK on iPads in the Mobile Player. HTML5 could be hinky.

Using a counter when your layers load could control the number of loops.

Gordon Evans
Author

over 11 years ago12/04/12 at 12:25 pm (UTC)

Steve,

Thanks for the hint.. I guess I didn't realize that copying a video made the copy an instance. I tested your suggestion and confirmed that this is the case.

Still like to see someone from Articulate comment on my solution #1 and see if flash player is broken.

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago12/04/12 at 1:45 pm (UTC)

Hey Gordon,

Regarding your first solution, we'd be happy to take a closer look at it and diagnose the issue further. We'd need you to open a support case, include your .story file, and provide details on which browser you're using, which version of Flash player you have installed, and any other details that may help us investigate this thoroughly. And please feel free to come back and leave your case number so that I can make sure it gets into the right hands. Thanks!

Gordon Evans
Author

over 11 years ago12/04/12 at 2:26 pm (UTC)

Thanks Peter,

I've done as suggested and opened a support case. #00307980

Hopefully it can be resolved.

Cheers,

Gord

Peter Anderson
Staff

over 11 years ago12/04/12 at 2:30 pm (UTC)

Thanks, Gord. We got it and will have a chance to check it out soon. Appreciate you giving us a chance to look it over.

almost 9 years ago06/26/15 at 12:10 pm (UTC)

Peter Anderson

Thanks, Gord. We got it and will have a chance to check it out soon. Appreciate you giving us a chance to look it over.

This post is two years old... has this issue been resolved in storyline 2? It is slightly mind boggling this is not a standard feature.

Leslie McKerchie
Staff

almost 9 years ago06/29/15 at 2:09 pm (UTC)

Hi Midi! This thread is a bit dated.

If the video is on the same slide have you looked at just setting the slide to "jump to slide" when the timeline ends - and that way the slide would just replay? You'll want to ensure the slide is set to "reset to initial state" as well.

almost 9 years ago06/29/15 at 10:36 pm (UTC)

Hello Peter,

I don't really know if it was ever resolved in Storyline 2 as I have not
tested it. It was something that was a requirement for our projects and we
ended up not being able to wait years for the changes to be considered.

Good Luck,

almost 9 years ago06/29/15 at 10:54 pm (UTC)

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Midi! This thread is a bit dated.

If the video is on the same slide have you looked at just setting the slide to "jump to slide" when the timeline ends - and that way the slide would just replay? You'll want to ensure the slide is set to "reset to initial state" as well.

Yeah, this thread is a bit dated. I am pretty sure the rest of them have no answers either though. I have tried all the work arounds suggested to try and get something that would seem like a pretty simple thing to work. You either get stuttering, or the video simply stops at some point.

I guess I should submit a feature request...