help with animating in "painter"

[whowho]

hi
im a new corel painter user
i have a problem with the animation feature
when i use "Tracing Paper" in order to see my previous frame
it gets confusing drawing the new one
since they both seem to have the same opacity and color
after doing one stroke, i cant tell which stroke is on the current frame
and which is from my previous one
what i would really want, is that while, for example, drawing with
a black pencile, the previous frame would, for example, appear red, so i could tell that everything's red is previous frame, and everything black is current frame.
this is just an idea which i dont know how to do, but anything similar would be nice.
can anyone help me?
is my question clear enough anyway?
please help me !
thanks

[Jinny Brown]

Hi whosho,

It sounds like something you might want to request as an enhancement. If you do want to to that, you can send your request directly to the Corel Painter Development Team at:

painterteam@corel.com

There's no guarantee it'll be done, because they have to prioritize things, partly based on how many users want the change, but it's worth trying anyway.

[whowho]

i will do that, thank you!
do you have any idea for me in the meanwhile?
do you know anyone or any forum that specializes in animating with corel painter?
or maybe you have a recommendation for another app?

[handrawn]

The previous frames should not have the same opacity when viewed.

If the previous frame is showing the same opacity - try reopening it with several levels of tracing paper [you may need to add frames] and scroll up and down the frames before you begin.
I find I need to do this - using painter X windows XP.

you could try the attached file [zipped because cant upload painter files directly] - but its 800KB sorry if thats a bit big.
If you open it with 5 levels of tracing paper - it should look like the attached image when viewing the last frame.

NOTE: this animation is designed to run at 4/6 frames per second - painter default of 25 frames per second may be a bit fast for those sensitive to such things.

[whowho]

thank you so much!!
it works!
i use painter 9.5 and it works
it doesnt toatally solve my problem since i hate working
with more than one tracing paper but its better
thanks a lot for your help!
now for another question...
is it possible to manually save frm files or do they just being saved automatically?
edit - i must say that it doesnt solve my problem at all, because i find it even more confusing to work with more than one tracing paper....

[handrawn]

Glad to be of help.

Its my understanding that frame stacks [frm] are updated auromatically, work in progress so to speak - painter does not consider a movie 'saved' until it is exported as .mov/.avi

[whowho]

when working with one tracing paper, the current and previous frame have the same opacity...which is kind of dumb when you think of it.
i mean, imagine REAL onion skin : obviously, the tracing paper has a much lower opacity than the one you currently work on.
i think Corel should have made it like this : current layer = 80% opacity, tracing paper = 20%.
i mean how could they make them both have 50%??
oh well
i guess no animating for me meanwhile
i cant work with 5 tracing papers! its too much of a mess and besides the opacity issue is still there
oof

[handrawn]

edit - i must say that it doesnt solve my problem at all, because i find it even more confusing to work with more than one tracing paper....

Can you get away with just using 3 levels - if so you can insert a blank frame as the third level whilst you are working, and delete it when youv'e finished - pain I know, but a work around.
I really don't know why painter does this - presumably its ok on MAC.

[whowho]

i should try something like this....
thank you....
if you happen to have any more ideas...post! heheh

[Jinny Brown]

Hi,

There's a simple animation Featured Tutorial named Animating Frames with Corel® Painter™ X, by Gitanjali Rao in the June 2007 issue of The Painter Canvas and another quite extensive tutorial on animation available as well.

Both are linked on my website at:

Links to the Painter X Newsletter, The Painter Canvas Issues and Other Links

The June 2007 issue of the Painter Canvas is at the top of the page. Scroll down to the bottom for the more extensive tutorial link:

Animation PDF by Joyce Ryan: 12 MB
Mac Exercise files SIT file: 126 MB
Windows Exercise Files ZIP file: 126 MB