Frames & the timeline

A frame is one drawing in your animation. Play them in order, quickly, and they become motion. The frames strip at the bottom of the screen is where you manage them.

Working with frames

• Add a frame: tap + in the frames strip. A new, blank frame appears after the current one. Touch and hold the + to switch it between Add frame and Duplicate last frame: the button remembers your choice (and changes its icon), so you can keep one-tapping to duplicate as you animate.
• Move between frames: tap a frame in the strip to edit it.
• Duplicate a frame: make a copy, then change it a little. This is the fastest way to animate, you are not redrawing everything each time.
• Copy and paste a frame: touch and hold a frame and choose Copy. A paste button then appears next to the + in the frames strip; tap it to drop that frame in at the end. Handy for reusing a pose later in the timeline.
• Reorder frames: open the Frames Viewer (the grid button) and drag a frame to its new spot. In the strip, touch and hold a frame for Move Left and Move Right.
• Delete a frame: remove one you do not want.

Every frame shares the same layers.

Frame notes

A frame note is a line of text about a frame: "extreme pose here", "hold for the door slam", "fix the left hand". Touch and hold a frame in the strip and pick Add Note, type, and tap Done. The frame shows a small note badge, and touching and holding it again offers Edit Note, where Remove takes the note off.

A note is written about the drawing rather than on it. It is never drawn on the canvas, never plays back, and never reaches any export, so it is safe to leave notes all over a project you are about to publish. Notes are free, and they travel with the frame when you move, copy or delete it.

If you want to draw on a frame instead, with a pen, that is frame annotations.

Holds (making a frame last longer)

Sometimes you want a drawing to stay on screen for a beat, a pause, a held pose. Instead of copying the same drawing many times, you can give a frame a longer exposure so it holds for more of a second. This keeps your project small and easy to edit.

Touch and hold a frame in the strip and pick Hold: the frame stays on screen for that many timeline steps. A held frame shows its hold on the number badge (for example 3 ×2), and playback and every export honour it.

A good way to work

1. Draw your first frame.
2. Turn on onion skin so you can see the previous frame as a ghost.
3. Duplicate the frame (or add a new one) and change the drawing a little.
4. Repeat. Check your progress with Play often.

Start rough

Block out the big movements with a few frames first (a ball at the bottom, middle, and top). Once the motion feels right, go back and add frames in between to smooth it out.

There is a generous limit on frames per project, plenty for long animations.