Active layer

There is always (at most) one layer which is set to active. You always draw on the active layer. The animation tools detailed here change the behaviour of the active layer.

layer name

• layer index

• show/hide layer

• layer type

  Click on it to change its type.

• layer name

• layer opacity

layer length

• length of the layer in frames

  Click on it to change the length of the layer in frames - be cautious as if you set it to a lower value than it was, then the extra frames will be lost.

• length of the layer in seconds

  Click on it to change the length of the layer in seconds - be cautious as if you set it to a lower value than it was, then the extra frames will be lost.

• the speed of the layer given in FPS (frames per second)

  This cannot be changed.

As explained in the beginning, a layer has a certain tail length which determines how many frames preceding the current frame are visible. There are two ways to count this, taking into account all frames, or taking into account only the frames that have content on them (called keyframes). Additionally, one can set that the visible frames fade out/fade in gradually or not.

The following animation tools affect the active layer (not all of them apply to every type of layer).

tail properties

• fade in on/off

  Click on it to turn on/off the fading off of the frames of the tail that are farthest back from the current frame.

• tail length slider

  This slider shows the length of the tail. Grab the slider to set the tail length to any value. CTRL+click to input exact value.

  When the slider is set to value x then in addition to the current frame, x further frames are shown for a loop layer. These tail frames loop back to the last frame of the layer if necessary. Example: for a loop layer with 20 frames, the current frame is 6 and the tail length is 10 then the following 10 frames are visible: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 20 ,19 ,18 ,17.

  For a finite or infinite layer the tail frames do not loop back to the last frame, so if x is more than the index of the current frame then all the frames preceding the current frame are shown but nothing else. Example: for a finite layer with 20 frames, the current frame is 6 and the tail length is 10 then the following 6 frames are visible: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

  Note that when the tail length is set to 0, no frame of this layer is visible, not even the current frame. Also, when the tail length is set to the full length of the layer than all frames of the layer are shown together without being animated.

• fade out on/off

  Click on it to turn on/off fading off of the frames that are ahead of the current frame. That is, either frames ahead of the current frame are not visible or some of them are visible gradually fading off.

timeline

• rewind

  Click on it to rewind instantly the active layer to its first frame.

• timeline

  This slider shows the current frame of the layer. Keyframes are marked orange on the lower part of the timeline.

  Click on the slider to go to any frame of the layer. Grab and move the slider to scrub through the timeline. CTRL+click to input exact value.

• erase

  Click on this button to erase the contents of all frames. You can undo this with the undo button.

  When the layer is paused the following buttons appear in addition.

• erase frame

  If the current frame is not a keyframe, click on this button to choose one of the following options: * set current frame as blank keyframe (this frame is empty yet taken into account when hold keyframe is on, e.g., in frame-by-frame animation mode) * remove current frame from timeline completely (reducing layer length by 1)

  If the current frame is a keyframe, click on this button to choose one of the following options:

  • erase current frame
  • erase current frame and delete keyframe
  • remove current frame from timeline completely (reducing layer length by 1)

  In certain cases it might be needed that a frame with no drawing on it is regarded as a keyframe, therefore there is an option to delete a frame and also an option to just erase the contents of a frame so that it remains a keyframe.

• add frame

  Click on this button to add frame before or after current frame

• clipboard

  Click on this button to copy/cut the current frame to the clipboard and to paste the clipboard upon the current frame.

set current frame

These buttons allow you to change the current frame in a precise way. Only the play/pause button (the middle one) is visible when the active layer is not paused.

• jump to previous keyframe

• jump backward

  Click on it to go backward x frames, where the value of x is visible on the button.

• play/pause the active layer

• jump forward

  Click on it to go forward x frames, where the value of x is visible on the button.

• jump to next keyframe

• set jump value

  Click on it to change the number of frames the jump backward/forward buttons jump.

Note that the jump backward and forward buttons loop around the beginning and the end of the layer when the active layer is a loop layer, but do not loop around otherwise.

frame-by-frame animation mode

• frame-by-frame animation mode on/off

  Click on this button to turn on/off frame-by-frame mode for the active layer. Note: in this mode you can draw on a frame only when the layer is paused.

• onion skin on/off

  When in frame-by-frame animation mode, click on this button to turn on/off onion skin mode, showing faded out the previous and next frame.

• count only keyframes when counting tail length/hold keyframes on/off

  Click to turn on/off count only keyframes when counting tail length, if it's enabled, then when counting the tail length, only the keyframes are taken into account. In frame-by-frame mode this is called and is equivalent to holding the last keyframe.

  Example: if tail length is set to 1 and count only keyframes is switched on, then exactly one frame is always shown, equivalent to setting frame-by-frame animation with onion skin turned off.

  Example: if tail length is set to 2 and count only keyframes is switched on, then it is equivalent to frame-by-frame animation with onion skin turned on.

Example: drawing a looping frame-by-frame animation

1. Choose or create a loop layer with 120 frames and make it active.

2. Pause and rewind the layer to the first frame.

3. Click on the frame-by-frame animation mode button and then also on the onion skin mode button, ideal for onion skinning as with this setting while drawing you also see the previous and next drawing with some transparency.

4. Right-click on the jump forward button and set the jump value to 5. With this setting we will create a frame-by-frame animation which has 60%5=12 drawings per second (assuming that the playback speed of the layer is 60 FPS).

5. Draw the first frame, click on the jump forward button, draw the second frame, click again on the jump forward button, etc. until you reach again the first frame. If you want it to make a good looking animated loop, keep in mind that the last drawing should also connect smoothly to the first drawing. The fading of the frames before and after the current one behaves like traditional onion skinning, helping you to draw a smooth animated loop. You have to draw 120/5=24 drawings for a full loop.

   Alternately, you can draw the first frame, manually go to any further frame on the timeline, draw the second frame, etc. until you have finished your animation. It does not matter if your drawings are evenly spaced on the timeline or not. You can also add a drawing inbetween two already drawn ones at a later point by manually going there on the timeline.

6. When all drawings are done, click on the onion skin mode button, this way always exactly one drawing is visible.

7. Play (unpause) the layer.