Work Area & Loop Modes

Work area

The work area lets you define an in/out range on the timeline. When set, playback loops within this range, and rendering only exports frames within the work area. This is useful for:

• Previewing a specific section of a longer animation.
• Exporting just a portion of your timeline.
• Iterating on a specific transition without watching the full animation.

Setting the work area

• Click the [ ] Work Area icon in the toolbar to enable work area mode.
• Drag the left bracket to set the start time.
• Drag the right bracket to set the end time.
• The work area is shown as a highlighted region on the time ruler.
• Click the work area icon again to clear it and return to full-timeline playback.

Loop modes

MotionKit supports three loop modes that control how the animation plays back. Toggle between them with L or from the toolbar:

Once (Play Once)

The animation plays from start to end and stops. The playhead clamps at the end of the timeline (or work area). This is the default for most export scenarios.

Loop

The animation repeats infinitely. When the playhead reaches the end, it jumps back to the start and plays again: 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3…

Ping-Pong

The animation plays forward, then reverses, then forward again — creating a seamless back-and-forth effect: 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1…

Note that ping-pong avoids duplicating frames at the turning points — the last frame of the forward pass is not repeated at the start of the reverse pass.

Extending duration for export

When exporting with a loop or ping-pong mode, you can set a desired duration that's longer than the base animation. MotionKit will automatically extend the frames by repeating the pattern for the specified duration. This is useful for creating seamless looping GIFs or videos.