[SOLVED] Loop function to play random movieclip

Loop function to play random movieclip

I'm using Adobe Animate to create a simple HTML5 Canvas animation that has stars animating randomly in the background. I have 10 stars named star1 - star10 as I want to only have 10 of them playing in specific places. I've been trying to create a function that will loop, pick a random number from 1-10 then play that movieclip.

This is my current code:

setInterval(function(){
    var myNum = Math.round(Math.random() * 10) + 1;
    thisMc = this["star" + myNum];
    thisMc.play();
}, 800);

The function is looping and is picking a random number between 1-10, but I just can't get it to play the movieclip. When I use this["star" + myNum]; it comes back as unidentified, but if I use ["star" + myNum]; then it comes back as ["star1"]. I'm not sure how to get the code to compile the actual movieclip name and to play it.

Solution

You have to save the context to another object outside the setInterval() function, and use that inside the function.

let ctx = this;
setInterval(function(){
    var myNum = Math.round(Math.random() * 10) + 1;
    thisMc = ctx["star" + myNum];
    thisMc.play();
}, 800);

This should work.