Menu Animation

This menu contains functions that refer to the complete animation or a selected sequence of frames. This sequence can be set up in the animation control panel at the bottom of the main window.

Play forward

Plays the selected image sequence forward one time.

Play backward

Plays the selected image sequence backward one time.

Ping Pong

Plays the selected image sequence endless forward and backward.

Loop Forward

Plays the chosen image sequence forward as an endless loop.

Loop Backward

Plays the chosen image sequence backward as an endless loop.

Stop

Stops playing the animation.

Mark Playback Start

Selects the current frame to be the sequence start frame.

Mark Playback End

Selects the current frame to be the sequence end frame.

Number of Frames

Here you can change the number of frames the animation contains.

Insert Frames

Lets you insert a range of frames to the current position.

Delete Frames

Lets you delete a range of frames from the animation.

Reverse Frames

Select a range of frames which have to be set to reverse order.

Create 3d Animation

Lets you create simple animation sequences in 3d based on the current brush that is used as a texture.

Create from Color Cycling

If you have a single image that contains gradients with color cycling enabled then this function can create a complete animation out of the gradient color cycles. If more than one gradient is selected for cycling you must ensure that the cycling speeds and the gradient sizes are selected that way that all gradients synchronize after a small number of cycles. To create an animation of color cycled gradients only makes sense when all gradients finish their cycles equally after some frames so that the animation can smoothly start over. It is quite hard to describe how to define your gradients so that an animation can be created but as a rule of thumb the following small calculation should help:

For all gradients that are enabled to cycle calculate speed * length! The values you then receive should be multiples of each other (from small to large).

Example: We have three gradients...
1. length: 10, speed: 5; length * speed = 10 * 5 = 50
2. length: 20, speed: 10; length * speed = 20 * 10= 200
3. length: 30, speed: 20; length * speed = 30 * 2 = 600

You can see that each value can be divided by 50. The gradients of this example will synchronize after 120 frames which will be the frame count of the created animation. If you for example change the speed of gradient 1 to a value of 6 then the gradients would synchronize after 60120 frames!

Create Sprite Sheet

Creates a new project containing the current animation as Sprite Sheet. Instead of creating a new project you can also save the animation to a PNG or BMP Sprite Sheet file using the function Save Animation As... in menu File.

Create from Modification History

This function tries to create a new project as an animation based on the drawing operations you did. Therefore, the resulting animation contains your drawing steps, and you can see your image to evolve.
There are of course some limitations like when resizing or cropping your project and changing transparent colors. This can lead to unwanted results. This function only works on single frame/image projects and not with animations.

Related topics

Create Animation
Gradient Editor
Insert Frames
Contents
Number of Frames Dialog

Last modified: 29 January 2023