Playback Controls

Once you’ve built a multi-step play with trails and annotations, it’s time to watch it in action. UltiStackr’s playback controls let you animate your plays, step through them frame by frame, or slow everything down for a detailed breakdown. Whether you’re reviewing a play yourself or presenting it to the team, playback turns a static diagram into a moving picture.

The Playback Bar

The playback controls are located at the bottom of the Play Designer, in the play viewer, and in shared and embedded views. They appear whenever your play has more than one step. The controls include:

• A scrubber with a dot for each step — tap any dot to jump straight to that step. Steps that are decision points in a branching play show an highlighted ring.
• Previous Step and Next Step buttons (disabled at the start and end of the play)
• A large Play/Pause button in the center, which turns into a Restart button once playback reaches the end
• A playback speed control
• A mute/unmute toggle, shown only when the current step has an audio annotation
• A step counter showing which step you’re currently viewing (e.g., “3 / 7”)

Play and Pause

The Play button starts auto-playback from the current step. When you press play:

1. Player tokens animate along their trails from the current step to the next
2. Once the animation completes, the play advances to the following step
3. This continues through all remaining steps
4. Playback stops automatically after the last step

Press Pause at any time to freeze the animation at its current position. Press Play again to resume from where you stopped.

Step Forward and Backward

For more precise control, use the step navigation buttons:

• Step Forward advances to the next step, playing the transition animation
• Step Backward returns to the previous step, reversing the animation

This is useful for:

• Reviewing a specific transition in detail
• Going back and forth between two steps to study the movement
• Walking through the play at your own pace during a teaching session

Navigating with the Timeline

You can also jump directly to any step by clicking on it in the Timeline Sidebar. This skips the animation and immediately shows the selected step’s positions.

Auto-Play Through All Steps

When you press Play from Step 1, the entire play animates from start to finish. The auto-play sequence:

1. Starts at the current step
2. Animates each transition between steps
3. Pauses briefly at each step so the viewer can absorb the position
4. Continues until the final step
5. Stops automatically

If the play has branches, auto-play follows the currently selected branch path. To watch a different branch, select it in the Timeline Sidebar before pressing Play.

Playback Speed

Instead of a single slow-motion toggle, playback now offers four speeds: 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, and 2x. Slowing things down is especially valuable for:

• Teaching new players who need extra time to process what’s happening
• Analyzing complex multi-cut sequences where several players move simultaneously
• Studying defensive rotations where timing between players matters
• Identifying spacing issues where players might be crowding each other

Speeding up is useful for reviewing a play you already know well, or for skimming through a long branching sequence.

Changing the Speed

1. Tap the speed pill in the playback bar (it shows the current speed, e.g. “1x”)
2. Choose a speed from the list that appears
3. A checkmark marks the currently selected speed
4. Press Play or step through to see the play run at the new speed

The speed you choose applies to Play, Step Forward, and Step Backward alike, and carries over whether you’re in the Play Designer, the play viewer, a shared view, or an embedded play.

Step-by-Step Navigation

For precise control, use Step Forward and Step Backward to move between discrete steps in the play:

1. Use Step Forward to advance to the next defined step
2. Use Step Backward to return to the previous defined step

Each press moves you to the next or previous step position. Stepping does not pause at interpolated positions between steps — it jumps directly to the next discrete step in the sequence.

Playback with Branches

When your play has a play tree with multiple branches, a Decision Row appears docked above the playback bar at each branch point. It shows:

• The name of the current decision point
• A row of chips, one per branch, labeled with that branch’s condition (or “Continue” if it’s unconditional) — the default branch is marked with a star
• “No branches yet” if you haven’t added any branches at that point, or “End of play” once there’s nothing further

Tap a chip to choose that branch and continue playback down the selected path. In shared and embedded viewers, choosing a branch now animates directly into that branch instead of snapping to the next step. Each branch plays back independently with its own transitions and timing.

Presenting Branches to Your Team

A good workflow for presenting branching plays:

1. Start at Step 1 and play through the first branch to completion
2. Rewind to the branch point using the scrubber
3. Tap the other chip in the Decision Row to switch branches
4. Play through the alternative path
5. Discuss the decision point and what triggers each branch

Tips for Effective Playback

1. Normal speed first, slow-play second — Give the team the big picture before diving into details. The overall flow of a play is just as important as the individual cuts.

2. Pause at key moments — Stop at the point where the handler needs to make a decision, or where the cutter’s timing matters most. Use that pause to ask questions or highlight the critical read.

3. Use step navigation for Q&A — When a player asks “wait, where am I in Step 3?”, jump straight to that step instead of replaying from the beginning.

4. Combine with annotations — If you’ve added text labels or arrows, they’ll be visible during playback, reinforcing the key concepts as the play animates.

5. Practice presenting plays — Run through the playback a few times before presenting to the team. Know where the key moments are so you can pause and explain at the right times.

What’s Next

• Sharing Playbooks — Share your animated plays with your team so they can review them on their own devices
• Managing Playbooks — Organize, duplicate, and control access to your playbooks