Link D3 data to slider and play / pause

Question

I am looking to implement a map with a play / pause function that will overlay elements as the timeline advances. However, I also wanted to give users the opportunity to set the time themselves. Very similar to

Mike works here

Any ideas on the best way to implement this? I would like to avoid the html elements of the slider due to the lack of styling options (as far as filling a bar with different colors, it becomes a dirty SVG overlay). There is also d3.slider (independent open source on git), but no documentation. Does brush handler use the best option?

Thanks!