If you've been struggling with a roblox studio animation time position script, you're definitely not alone. It's one of those things that sounds simple on paper—just tell the animation where to go, right?—but then you actually try to code it and things get weird. Maybe the animation keeps playing when you want it to stay still, or maybe it just resets to the beginning every time you try to change the position.
The TimePosition property is basically the "seek bar" of your animation. If you've ever watched a video and dragged the little slider to skip to a specific part, that's exactly what we're doing here, just with code. It's an incredibly powerful tool if you want to create things like cutscenes, character customization screens, or even a simple "pose" system where a character stays in a specific frame.
Why TimePosition matters for your game
Most of the time, we just call :Play() on an animation and let it do its thing. But there are plenty of times when you need more control than that. Imagine you're building a game where the player can choose a pose for a photo mode. You don't want the animation to loop; you want it to stop at exactly 1.5 seconds and stay there.
That's where the roblox studio animation time position script comes into play. It gives you the ability to jump to any point in the animation's timeline. You can even use it to sync up multiple animations across different characters or create a custom "scrubbing" UI where players can manually move the animation back and forth.
Setting up your animation track properly
Before you can even mess with the TimePosition, you need to have your AnimationTrack ready to go. You can't just set the time on the Animation object itself (that's just the container for the data). You have to load it onto the Humanoid or AnimationController first.
The boilerplate code you need
Here is the basic setup you'll usually see. I'm assuming you've already got an animation ID and a character in the workspace.
```lua local character = script.Parent local humanoid = character:WaitForChild("Humanoid") local animator = humanoid:WaitForChild("Animator")
local myAnimation = Instance.new("Animation") myAnimation.Animati
local track = animator:LoadAnimation(myAnimation) ```
Now, here is the part that trips everyone up. If you just set track.TimePosition = 2 right after loading it, nothing will happen. Why? Because the animation isn't "active" yet. Roblox won't let you manipulate the playback position if the track isn't technically playing or hasn't been initialized by the engine.
Making the animation stay in one spot
If your goal is to jump to a specific frame and have the character "freeze" there, you have to get a little bit clever with how you handle the speed. If the animation speed is set to 1 (the default), the TimePosition will immediately start ticking upward as soon as you set it.
To lock an animation at a specific time, you'll usually want to do this:
- Call
:Play()on the track. - Set the
AdjustSpeed(0)property immediately. - Then set your
TimePosition.
It looks something like this in a roblox studio animation time position script:
lua track:Play() track:AdjustSpeed(0) -- This freezes the animation in place track.TimePosition = 1.25 -- Moves it to 1.25 seconds in
By setting the speed to zero, you're essentially pausing the clock. Now, whenever you change the TimePosition, the character will snap to that specific pose and stay there until you either change the speed back to normal or stop the track. This is perfect for something like a "statue" effect or a custom emote selector.
Building a simple animation scrubber
Let's say you want to get fancy and make a slider in your UI that lets players control an animation. This is a great way to practice using the TimePosition property. You'd take the value from your slider (usually a number between 0 and 1) and multiply it by the animation's total length.
Every AnimationTrack has a Length property. It's worth noting, though, that Length isn't always available the millisecond the animation is loaded. You might need to wait for the Length to be greater than zero before you try to use it in your math.
lua if track.Length > 0 then local targetTime = sliderValue * track.Length track.TimePosition = targetTime end
If you're doing this inside a RenderStepped loop or a Changed event, you can create some really smooth visual effects. It's much more professional looking than just playing and stopping animations randomly.
Common headaches and how to fix them
I've spent way too many hours debugging why my roblox studio animation time position script wasn't working, and usually, it's one of three things.
First, there's the "it keeps resetting" issue. If you have an animation set to loop in the Animation Editor, sometimes manually setting the TimePosition near the very end of the track triggers the loop logic, and it snaps back to the start. If you're trying to precision-control the timing, it's often better to turn looping off in the script.
Second, don't forget about Animation Priorities. If you're trying to set a TimePosition for a pose, but the character's default "Idle" animation is playing at a higher priority, your changes might be overwritten or blended so much that you can't see them. Always make sure your track priority is set to Action if you want it to be the dominant visual.
Third, and this is a big one: the server vs. client boundary. Generally speaking, animations should be handled on the client (in a LocalScript). If you try to jump the TimePosition around on the server, you might see some jitteriness or lag because the server has to tell the client where to move the bones, and then the client has to render it. It's much smoother if the player's own computer handles the math.
Math: Converting frames to seconds
The Animation Editor in Roblox Studio usually shows you frames (like frame 30, frame 60). However, the TimePosition property is strictly in seconds. If your animation was made at 30 frames per second (the standard), and you want to jump to frame 45, you'll need to do a tiny bit of division.
The formula is just Frame Number / 30. So, for frame 45, you'd set your script to track.TimePosition = 1.5. If you're working with a 60 FPS animation, obviously you'd divide by 60 instead. Keeping a little calculator handy or just doing the math inside the script makes life a lot easier.
Final thoughts on timing things right
Mastering the roblox studio animation time position script really opens up what you can do with character expression. It moves you away from just "pushing play" and into the realm of actually controlling the cinematic feel of your game.
Whether you're building a complex cutscene system where dialogue has to match a specific gesture, or you're just making a cool pose tool for your players, TimePosition is your best friend. Just remember to load your track, play it, set the speed if you need to freeze it, and always double-check your animation priorities. Once you get the hang of it, you'll wonder how you ever made games without it.
It takes a bit of trial and error to get the timing perfect—especially when dealing with network latency or different character models—but keep at it. Coding is all about those small adjustments until everything finally clicks into place.