[Kiki S]

1.) How do I change stabilization? (it says it’s a feature in the features list)

2.) In previous forum posts, I saw mentions of a “Paint” tab, which I don’t seem to have- was it removed? How do I access this tab?

3.) Am I able to export the background as transparent?

 

I’m using a Mac if this makes a difference!

[Rodney Baker]

I’m interested in the answer to this question about stabilization myself.

 

For those that want/need additional stabilization a reasonable option is the Lazy Nezumi program in addition to stabilitization options also has rulers, guides and such for drawing.  I don’t particular like to use it as it just one more level of complexity but if I can’t get the smoothness I need out of a program I usually launch it.

 

Unfortunately, Lazy Nezumi is Windows only but perhaps there is an equivalent for Mac?

 

[Niels]

Hi Kiki, thanks for your questions!

1) We have special stabilization build into the core of Animation Paper. It doesn’t work as the traditional smoothing algorithms that other programs tend to use – which is having drawbacks in certain situations. The Animation Paper stabilization takes more factors into account and it works automatically all the time. This is why it doesn’t have any settings. It works in a very subtle way, and often people don’t even realize it. But in fact it makes a big difference.

2) Yes, earlier in development we put in the names of features and tools to come into the menu (greyed out) – so people could see what was coming up later. However, as we are getting closed to the finished product and only a couple of things remained greyed out, it was more confusing than informative. The coloring and paint features are coming soon, but in the current version it is not yet done. To color your animation you can easily export your frames and color them elsewhere in any paint program. AP has great export options for taking care of timing and reused frames, etc. Also you can re-import your colored frames if you need to output it all as, say, an mp4 movie file.

3) Yes, when you export, your transparent areas will stay transparent. Just remember to turn on the “Include Alpha (transparency)” option when exporting. The alpha channel is available when exporting a sequence of png or OpenEXR frames and even with movie clips when exporting MOV ProRes.

Let me know if you have further questions!

Best,
Niels