How to change which anchor point on a path is the "starting anchor"?

Question

I'm trying to do some animations for my website with SVG images that I saved in Illustrator. I'm running into the issue that the animation is starting from the wrong part of the path, and I'd like to set the "start" of the path to a different anchor. I've searched and searched and I'm not sure that there's a way to do this without redrawing the path. It's a closed path so I can't just hit reverse.

Is there some option in Illustrator to select an anchor on a closed path and make it the "first" anchor on a closed path?

Answer 1

Use the Scissor tool to open the path where you want the start point to fall. Then, if you need to, you can close the path. The start point will remain where you "cut" the path.

Answer 2

This is easier done with the Direct Selection Tool. In Illustrator CS6:

1. Select the Direct Selection Tool (default Windows keyboard shortcut: A)
2. Select the relevant anchor point.
3. Click the "Cut path at selected anchor points" button in the "Anchors" section of the "Anchor Point" toolbar. This cuts a single anchor point into two overlapping anchor points.
4. Click and drag to create a selection box over the anchor points to select both of them.
5. Click the "Convert selected anchor points to corner" button in the "Convert" section of the "Anchor Point" toolbar. This merges the two created anchor points back into a single anchor point.