# Motion Path for Figma — Preview at 24 · 30 · 60 fps, Full-Screen, with Zoom & Pan _July 29, 2026 · 3 min read · by Systergon_ > A preview upgrade for Motion Path, straight off the Figma forum. Check your timing at the frame rate you’ll ship at with a Smooth / 24 / 30 / 60 playback pill, open the preview into a full-screen theater with play / pause / stop transport, and zoom and pan like the Figma canvas — scroll to zoom toward your cursor, drag to pan. No exporting a video just to judge cadence. Still native Figma Motion keyframes. Tags: Figma, Motion, Plugin, Update URL: https://systergon.com/blog/motion-path-figma-preview-fps-theater-zoom --- [Install Motion Path — it’s free →](https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1654530170219655744) [See the product page](https://systergon.com/products/figma-plugins/motion-path) This update started with a post on the Figma forum. A designer testing Motion asked a simple, fair question: _“The preview is always at 60fps… there’s no way to change it. I’d need to export the video at 30fps or 24fps every time I want to check the animation timing.”_ They’re right. Figma’s native Motion preview runs at your display’s refresh rate, and film (24) or broadcast/social (30) cadence reads _differently_ from a buttery 60. If you’re syncing to audio or delivering to a spec, “looks smooth in the panel” isn’t the answer you need — and exporting a video just to eyeball timing is a slow loop. We can’t change Figma’s native preview, but **Motion Path has its own preview**, so we fixed it there. Three additions. ## 1. Preview at your delivery frame rate There’s a small **playback-rate pill** in the preview controls. Tap it to cycle **Smooth → 24 → 30 → 60**. Pick 24 and the preview _steps_ exactly the way your exported 24fps video will — same motion, same duration, just quantized to the cadence you’re shipping at. The stutter you’d see in the render, you now see live. ![The same left-to-right motion shown twice: a Smooth dot gliding continuously, and a 24 fps dot stepping in discrete frames along an identical track](https://systergon.com/blog/motion-path-figma-preview-fps-theater-zoom/images/fps-preview.svg) It sits right in the preview controls, next to zoom and fit — here showing **Smooth**: ![The Motion Path preview control cluster in Figma: an object toggle, zoom out, fit, zoom in, the playback-rate pill reading Smooth, and a collapse button, beside the Motion Path title bar](https://systergon.com/blog/motion-path-figma-preview-fps-theater-zoom/images/controls-real.png) Nothing about what we write to the canvas changes: Motion Path still bakes **real, native Figma Motion keyframes** in true seconds. The frame rate is a preview lens, not a change to your animation. ## 2. Go full-screen, with real transport The preview panel is small — fine for a glance, not for scrutinising timing. So there’s now an **expand button** that opens the preview into a **full-screen theater**: the plugin window grows to fill your screen, the motion fills the space, and a **transport bar** appears at the bottom. - **Play / Pause** — freeze on any moment to inspect a pose. - **Stop** — rewind to the first frame. Hit **Esc** or the collapse button to drop straight back to the panel. ![The expanded theater view: a wide dark stage with an object banking along a curve, the playback-rate and zoom controls top-right, and a play/pause and stop transport bar along the bottom](https://systergon.com/blog/motion-path-figma-preview-fps-theater-zoom/images/theater-transport.svg) Here’s the transport bar itself, running in the plugin — a blue Play/Pause beside Stop: ![The Motion Path theater transport bar in Figma: a blue circular Play/Pause button showing the pause icon, next to a square Stop button](https://systergon.com/blog/motion-path-figma-preview-fps-theater-zoom/images/transport-real.png) ## 3. Zoom and pan like the canvas Whether it’s the panel or the theater, the preview now behaves like the Figma canvas: **scroll to zoom toward your cursor**, **drag to pan**. Frame a tight corner of a long path, follow a fast-moving object, or pull back to see the whole trajectory — the **+ / − / Fit** buttons still work too. ![The preview zooming in toward a fixed cursor crosshair on the path, the way the Figma canvas zooms under the pointer](https://systergon.com/blog/motion-path-figma-preview-fps-theater-zoom/images/zoom-pan.svg) ## Why it matters Good motion is about _timing_, and timing is easiest to judge at the cadence you’ll deliver — up close, at full size, paused on the exact frame you’re unsure about. That used to mean an export-and-scrub loop. Now it’s in the preview. And it came straight from a forum post. If you’ve got a rough edge in your workflow, tell us — this is exactly the kind of thing we love to fix. Update from the Community page and the new preview controls will be waiting. _Still writes real, native Figma Motion keyframes._ [Install Motion Path — it’s free →](https://www.figma.com/community/plugin/1654530170219655744) [See the product page](https://systergon.com/products/figma-plugins/motion-path)