Character state change flashes Storyline 360

Hello! I submitted a support ticket and shared my file (case #03067539) but I thought it'd be helpful to also share with this thread.

I'm also experiencing flickers on my character states. I have a character with 4 states that changes depending on the state of a number variable (defined early on in the activity). The character state is supposed to happen as soon as the timeline starts on the slide (i.e., "change state of character to sad—if avatar=1—when timeline starts on this slide") but the user can noticeably see the state change. There is a quick flickering effect.

Is there a way around the state delay? For instance, is there a way to update the state of a character on ALL slides once the variable is set instead of updating the state on each slide?

Thanks in advance for the thoughts and ideas!