User guide for iOS
iOS - Android - macOS - Windows

(Up to date as of version 4.15)

Contents:



Basics:

Press "New project" and choose your desired resolution and framerate. The project will open.


In a new project, the timeline will be only one frame long to begin with. You will see a Background layer (this cannot be deleted) and a default "Layer 1" with one drawing, and above that the playhead indicating the current frame.


To extend how long a drawing stays on screen when played back, drag the "Drawing duration" slider; or drag the arrow on the right side of the currently selected drawing on the timeline.

Draw in the drawing canvas. For drawing you have available a Brush tool , an Eraser tool , a Fill tool , and a Lasso selection tool .

To go to the next drawing, press the button. If there isn't a next drawing yet, one will be added. Or, you can press the "Add drawing" button.

You can use the buttons to flip back and forth along the timeline; or, drag along the top bar of the timeline to scrub; or, drag up/down from the button.

The Onion Skin feature lets you see previous and following drawings overlaid on the current frame. Toggle it on and off with the Onion skin button in the Tools panel, and adjust the range of drawings visible in the Tool Options panel.

Press the button in the Tools panel to play back a preview of your animation. In the menu you can export it as a Quicktime video, GIF, or PNG image sequence.



Keyboard shortcuts:

(You can customize these in the preferences.)

BBrush tool
EEraser tool
FFill tool
LLasso tool
Command ZUndo
Command Shift ZRedo
EnterPlay/Stop
OToggle onion skin
IColor eyedropper
QToggle fullscreen canvas
,Previous frame
.Next frame
←Previous drawing
→Next drawing
Command ←Move drawing back
Command →Move drawing forward
F5 or +Increase drawing duration
Shift F5 or -Decrease drawing duration
F6Duplicate drawing at playhead
Shift F6Duplicate drawing after
Command F6Duplicate drawing halfway
F7Add drawing at playhead
Shift F7Add drawing after
Command F7Add drawing halfway
Shift DeleteDelete drawing
[Decrease brush size
]Increase brush size
Command CCopy selection
Command VPaste selection
Command XCut selection
DeleteDelete selection
Command ASelect all
Command Shift ASelect none
Arrow keysNudge selection by 1px
Shift arrow keysNudge selection by 10px

If "desktop mode" is turned on:
ZZoom tool (hold Option key to zoom out)
Command +Zoom in
Command -Zoom out
RRotate tool
HPan tool
SpacebarPan tool while held down




Menus:

Press the button in the Tools panel to open the menu.



Tools:

  • Add layer
    • Add empty layer - Adds a layer with one empty drawing.
    • Duplicate layer - Makes a complete duplicate of the current layer, including all drawing content.
    • Duplicate layer timing to blank drawings - Adds a layer with the same number of drawings and same duration as the current layer, but without the content of the drawings. (Useful for coloring: you can place this new layer under the line art layer and do your coloring on it, without affecting the line art itself.)
    • Move selected drawing(s) to new layer - Lifts the selected drawings onto a new layer above the old one, leaving the rest of the old layer behind.
  • Add drawing - Add a drawing to the timeline.
    • Add after - Adds a blank drawing after the current drawing on the timeline, of the same duration as the current drawing and pushing all later drawings down the timeline.
    • Add split halfway - Adds a blank inbetween drawing, halfway from the current drawing to the next drawing on the timeline, shortening the current drawing's duration by half to keep overall timing the same.
    • Add split at playhead - Adds a blank inbetween drawing at the current frame on the timeline, shortening the current drawing's duration to keep overall timing the same.
    • Duplicate after - Adds a copy of the current drawing, after the current drawing on the timeline, of the same duration as the current drawing and pushing all later drawings down the timeline.
    • Duplicate split halfway - Splits the current drawing halfway along its duration, into two identical drawings of half the length each.
    • Duplicate split at playhead - Splits the current drawing at the current frame on the timeline, into two identical drawings.

  • - Draw lines with the brush tool. Press the brush button twice to save/load brush presets.
    • - The brush color, press to open/close the color picker panel.
    • - Eyedropper tool, press this button and then press anywhere on the drawing canvas to pick the color from that point of the drawing.
    • - Choose the brush shape.
      • Add brush shape - Import an image to use as a brush shape. Brush shape images must be PNG format with a transparent background. Ideally 300 x 300 pixels.
    • Pressure sensitivity - Use stylus pressure (if available) to affect brush size/opacity.
    • Randomize rotation - Toggle to randomize the rotation of the brush shape.
    • Brush size - The width of the brush.
    • Opacity - Opacity of each stroke of the brush.
    • Flow - Opacity of each individual stamp of the brush along a stroke.
    • Spacing - The distance between marks in a brush stroke.
    • Smoothing - Smooths out wobbly lines.
    • Draws in front - New brush strokes will cover existing drawing on same layer.
    • Draws behind - New brush strokes will appear behind existing drawing on same layer.
    • Draws inside - Preserves transparency (good for shading).
    • - Choose to draw freehand, straight lines, squares, rectangles, circles, or ellipses
  • - Erase with the eraser tool. Press the eraser button twice to save/load eraser brush presets.
    • Erase size - The width of the eraser.
    • Opacity - Opacity of each stroke of the brush.
    • Flow - Opacity of each individual stamp of the brush along a stroke.
    • Spacing - The distance between marks in an eraser stroke.
    • Smoothing - Smooths out wobbly lines.
  • - Paint bucket tool fills an area inside lines with color.
    • Sample this layer - Fill inside lines drawn on current layer.
    • Sample this & above - Fill inside lines drawn on this layer and all layers above it.
    • Sample all layers - Fill inside lines drawn on all layers.
    • Fills in front - New fills will cover existing drawing on same layer.
    • Fills behind - New fills will appear behind existing drawing on same layer.
    • Fills inside - Preserves transparency. (Good for changing color of existing drawing.)
    • Blur fill - Blurs the area to be filled by this many pixels. (Helps avoid jagged edges.)
    • Expand fill - Expands the area to be filled by this many pixels. (Helps avoid jagged edges.)
    • Tolerance - The range of difference in color from the sampled point to include in the area to be filled.
    • Close gaps - Attempts to automatically keep color from spilling out of gaps in lines.
    • Fill by lasso selection - (aka lasso fill tool) - Manually draw a shape to be filled with color.
  • - Lasso select/move tool.
    • Select all - Selects the entire drawing.
    • Select none - De-selects anything selected.
    • Delete - Delete the current selection.
    • Copy - Copy the current selection.
    • Paste - Paste the last copied selection.
    • X translate - Move the current selection horizontally.
    • Y translate - Move the current selection vertically.
    • Rotate - Rotate the current selection.
    • Scale - Scale the current selection.
    • Flip horizontal - Flip the current selection horizontally.
    • Flip vertical - Flip the current selection vertically.
    • Feather - Blurs the edges of the selection. (Helps avoid jagged edges.)

  • - Undo the last action.
  • - Redo undone actions.

  • - Play back the animation.
  • - Go to the previous drawing on the timeline.
  • - Drag up/down to scrub through the animation.
  • - Go to the next drawing on the timeline.

  • Onion skin - Shows you previous/next drawings overlaid on the current drawing.
    •


    Timeline:

  • Drawing duration - How many frames the current drawing will remain on screen when played back.

  • Playback range Start & End - Adjust these sliders to play only part of the animation when previewing. You can also choose when exporting to export only the playback range.

  • Delete drawing - Deletes the current drawing.
  • Label drawing - Give the current drawing a label, which will be displayed on its button in the timeline. (Useful for organization.)
  • Make cycle - Converts the current drawing into a loop of the previous X number of drawings on the timeline that you choose. Any changes to those drawings will be reflected automatically in the repeated cycle of them. The cycle will appear blue on the timeline, or red if it cannot work (either you are trying to cycle more drawings than exist, or you are trying to cycle a cycle). Here's a demo video
  • - Swaps the current drawing with the previous drawing on the timeline.
  • - Swaps the current drawing with the next drawing on the timeline.
  • Edit multiple - Select multiple drawings in a range of frames on the timeline and edit them all at once.
  • - Camera tool, use to animate camera pans/zooms.

    • The top row of the timeline has tick marks to indicate each frame, numbers indicating each second, and a white playhead indicating the current frame you're on. You can drag it left and right to scrub through the animation.

    For each layer:

    Each drawing is represented by a gray rectangle on the timeline. Press any one to go to that drawing.

    Press and hold to drag and rearrange the order of drawings on the timeline.

    You can press and hold, then drag up or down, to duplicate or add an empty drawing.

    You can use a two finger zoom gesture to zoom in/out on the timeline.




    Preferences:

    Press the button in the Tools panel to open the preferences.

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