[Megan Lim]

How do you insert a drawing that you drew using another software (like Adobe Illustrator) into Animation Paper to be animated?

• This topic was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Megan Lim.

[Niels]

Hi Megan 🙂 You export it from AI as a PNG – then import it into Animation Paper (Go to the menu File -> Import).

Animation Paper will automatically create a reference layer with your imported image. You can also import multiple frames by shift selecting a sequence of png’s.

[Megan Lim]

Ok thanks 🙂

[Megan Lim]

How do I draw on the layer (or an overlay) after I’ve imported the image?

[Niels]

You can not draw directly on a reference layer, but you just add a new layer on top and draw on that. Hit N for New Layer.

[Lou Dellarosa]

Hi Niels – is there a reason why imported images are not able to be directly edited rather than just used as reference layers? It would be handy to able to work directly onto exported PNGs from a software like TV Paint without having to recreate every frame of usable portions of a drawing (BTW, TV Paint is a great program, but I find it much too bloated for just animating).

Thanks for all your hard work!

[Anonymous]

You can’t modify a PNG image outside an image editor.
You can use Affinity Photo or PSD. You will still need to modify each image seperatly.
Why do you want to modify the image?

[Lou Dellarosa]

Well, as an example, thus far I have 67 frames of a character animated in TV Paint. The character has long hair and is dancing around, swinging a hat. I have some rough placement of the hair, the hat and other loose parts of clothing, but I will need to go back and animate those straight ahead. With the exception of the hair, the hat and clothing, everything else looks fine, and I would hate to have to go back and trace back the rest of the character in Animation Paper. Currently, one is able to edit imported PNG frames in Rough Animator, but of course that app is much more restricted in other ways. Anyway, my situation could just be a one-off, so I’m just inquiring. Thanks again!

-Lou

• This reply was modified 4 years, 7 months ago by Lou Dellarosa.

[Niels]

Hi Lou, thanks for your point. I understand.

In your specific situation I think I would just finish it in TVP.

Next time, if you have animation partially done from elsewhere, I suggest you import at a rough state, so you can use Animation Paper to do additional timing and clean up.

Making new animation from scratch using Animation Paper is of course best, if you like the simplicity and focus it offers. As you seem to agree with. Uncluttered and unbloated.

The technical reason you can’t just alter your imported png’s or jpg’s is because they are bitmap/raster images. Animation Paper internally holds more sophisticated data for each drawing – which gives you various advantages. Like better color fills (coming soon), scalable drawings without degradation and more advanced features coming in future releases.

I hope I made sense. 😉

[Pierre Johnson]

I can’t find where to animate

[Niels]

Hi Pierre, I am not sure what the problem is you’re experiencing. To help me understand, let me first of all ask you this: Have you successfully downloaded, installed and input your activation key, so you can now run Animation Paper on your computer?