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Question

Expose Current Playhead Position (Timeline Position) and Rotation Origin in the Plugin API

  • July 3, 2026
  • 6 replies
  • 97 views
Tabish Rafiq

Figma Motion is an amazing addition, and the API support is quite impressive considering it's still in beta. In particular, the ability to add keyframes manually is a great feature.

However, I was disappointed to find that there's currently no way to add a keyframe at the current playhead position. This significantly limits the usefulness of manual keyframing workflows. It would be extremely helpful if you could either expose the current playhead position through the API or provide an option to insert a keyframe directly at the current playhead position.

Additionally, "Rotate at Origin" is an essential part of Figma Motion's functionality, but as a plugin developer, I cannot support it in my plugin because this information is not exposed through the API.

Please consider adding support for both of these features, as they are very important for plugin developers and would greatly improve the capabilities of the Figma Motion ecosystem.

    6 replies

    Sasha_Radojevic

    +1


    I wanted to build a plugin that exports a transparent PNG every N milliseconds and stitch those together vertically into an animation strip.

     

    Unfortunately, there’s no way to set the Motion’s Current Time (playhead) via the plugin API.

    Please! 🙏🏻🍒🍰

    Jaycee Lewis
    Figmate

    Hey friends ​@Sasha_Radojevic  ​@Tabish Rafiq 🤩 We recently rolled out playheadPosition for the Plugin API 🎬 Check it out and let us know what you love, what you need more of, and if anything is behaving unexpectedly. Cheers! — Jaycee 

    Sasha_Radojevic

    Hey Jaycee,

     

    Thanks for your reply, and all of you for making our work/lives better! ♥

     

    The thing that I miss from the playheadPosition is being able to set it to a desired value because it’s a read-only object.

     

    Anyhow, my ultimate goal is being able to export animation frames as a strip, stacked vertically (or horizontally), as transparent PNG.

    With current features I’d have to export a Static frame as a transparent PNG, move the Playhead Position manually, export another frame, move the playhead… and repeat the steps about 100 times per graphic element. Then stitch all those frames into a vertical strip “manually”.

     

    Should I place that as a feature suggestion?

     

    Thanks,
    Sasha

    Jaycee Lewis
    Figmate

    Hey ​@Sasha_Radojevic 🙌 Adding to the Suggest a Feature section would be great. I’ll also share your feedback and dream with the Motion team. My guess is if you’re thinking it, so are others 🤩 — Jaycee 

      Sasha_Radojevic

      Awesome, thank you! 🙌

      Jaycee Lewis
      Figmate

      Thanks for your feedback ​@Sasha_Radojevic  ​@Tabish Rafiq  🙌

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