Play Menu

The Play menu lets you play back animation and sound. Use it to scrub the sound to create your lip-sync, loop the playback, navigate through frames, and change the playback range and speed.

Command Description

Play

Plays the scene in the Camera or Drawing view.

Render and Play

Renders your scene's frames, then opens the rendered frames in Play for playback.

This allows you to preview your scene's animation in real time, with the effects rendered and with no risk of slowdown.

Record and Play

Exports your scene as it appears in the Camera view into a movie file, then opens it in your workstation's default video player.

This allows you to preview your animation without any risk of slowdown, but it does not preview the effects in your scene. However, it is much faster than Render and Play.

This button automates the usage of the Export OpenGL Frames dialog see

Test SWF Movie

Quickly exports your scene as a Flash Movie (.swf), then opens it in your workstation's default web browser.

Stop

Stops playback.

Mini Playback

Open the Mini Playback dialog. This dialog allows you to set the amount of frames before and after the current frame to playback when using Mini Playback, to set the speed of Mini Playback and to start Mini Playback.

Start Mini Playback

Begins Mini Playback using the last settings entered in the Mini Playback dialog. By default, Mini Playback will play 5 frames before and after the current frame, at the scene's frame rate.

Playback Speed

Opens the Set New Frame Rate dialog box where you can set the frame rate at which the playback plays.

Loop

If pressed, your scene will repeat indefinitely when playing. Otherwise, it will stop when the end is reached.

Enable Sound

Turns on sound during playback.

Enable Sound Scrubbing

Turns on sound scrubbing during playback.

Start Frame

Opens the Set Playback Start Frame dialog box , in which you can enter the frame number from which to start playback.

Stop Frame

Opens the Set Playback Stop Frame dialog box, in which you can set the frame number at which to stop playback.

First Frame

Moves the red playhead to the first frame.

Previous Frame

Moves the red playhead to the previous frame.

Next Frame

Moves the red playhead to the next frame.

Last Frame

Moves the red playhead to the last frame.

Go to Frame

Opens the Go to Frame dialog box where you can enter the frame number on which the red playhead to be positioned in the Timeline view.

Enable Playback

Top View

Plays back your animation in the Top view.

Side View

Plays back your animation in the Side view.

Perspective View

Plays back your animation in the Perspective view.