[asmaa tabaza]

Hello,

so  when i import images to the animation i can’t seem to resize, crop, draw,  or even move them around, there is always a not-allowed cursor hovering over the layer ,i even tried to add blank drawings to the same layer but they have the same problem as the image.

can i convert the layer to make it editable? or is it just not available right now?

thank you.

[Niels]

Hi Asmaa – thanks for your question!

Yes, imported images are meant to mainly be used for reference purposes. They go into a “reference layer” – which basically means that they are not editable – they are for drawing on top of, like rough animation from other software, or video, or rendered 3D for moving backgrounds or for rotoscoping, etc, etc.

We are working on an interface and features, to make you able to move, scale and rotate complete layers, so this will be possible for reference layers in one of the following releases.

But drawing in imported images will not be possible. You see, Animation Paper has a special line engine that gives you many great advantages, such as being able to scale and rotate your drawings without any degradation or blurring. If you haven’t noticed, try to lasso a little doodle and scale it way up. It is almost magical 😉 But this means that standard bitmap images imported from other software does not have the ability to do all these clever things. Best practice is to do both your rough work and your clean-up/inking  within Animation Paper.

What you CAN do with reference layers are edit them timing wise – i.e. set their exposure by dragging out clones, move them around, cut, copy and paste them – on a whole drawing/frame basis. So, you can do your timing and sync to your drawn animation and audio track if you have that.

I hope this makes sense. Please let me know if you had anything else in mind.

Thanks,
Niels

[asmaa tabaza]

oh, i see thank you for explaining i will be waiting eagerly for the next updates, as i wanted to import colored frames and backgrounds, and have the ability to edit them (scale and move), anyway thanks again for your clear response.

[Niels]

OK, I see. Cool. It is great to import colored backgrounds etc. – but for now (before we implement the new features), you must crop them to fit your animation aspect ratio before you do the importing.

Thanks again,
Niels