I can load a sound file then when I animate it does multiple copies on all the timeline

#1 · July 30, 2026, 10:28 pm

I only want to draw "Key Poses".

I follow my dialogue of the sound track, yet when I begin drawing it populates all over the same drawing.

There is definitely something amiss with the program.

Or express to me how to do 'Pose to Pose or Key to Key drawings without this 'cloning or copying all over.' as it locks up the Animation Paper program and hangs.

Thanks,

P.S. As I drew on another project I could draw my poses then I placed in a music background and that seems to have had no problem,

however still there it seems the newest version has bugs.

#2 · July 30, 2026, 11:15 pm

I’m not sure I understand. Would it be possible for you to do a screen recording showing the problem?

Thanks,
Niels

#3 · August 3, 2026, 5:36 pm

thanks for at least reading my question about use of animation paper Niels.

When I begin drawing on a frame and then proceed to pick some key pose further along the timeline, the frames left empty by myself are automatically filled with the previous drawing.

If I choose 30 frames or more down the timeline for another key then it also fills in with copies of the previous drawing until my current working pose or key.

When it does all this it takes up memory and slows down the process of animating.

Such also if I load a sound file onto the timeline with the few key poses I sought to and tried to place in appropriate places according to the dialogue, I am getting the program crashing or hanging up in 'not responding' message.

So each succeeding time I go back to try to work on the project however small or large it is, the program does not respond.

P.S. I also bring to your attention Niels, that I have gone about it differently previous to the newest release, and that is on one other project I have drawn my character and after doing it 'straight ahead' animating, that I placed a sound file (music) for background to the character and it worked fine, yet I am in fear that if I go in and add more drawings 'inbetweens' or more 'breakdowns', I may run into the same difficulty as the other project admittedly has been noted above.

thanks for any help Niels.

right now I have not a video visual recorded to show an example of the problem I am having.

if necessary I will proceed to try to record one using obs for you.

Thomas

#4 · August 3, 2026, 11:02 pm

Quote from Niels on August 3, 2026, 11:02 pm
Hi Thomas - Thanks a lot for explaining!

Having key drawings followed by "copies" is not going to neither take up any memory nor processing power. It is simply your key drawing held by a number of frames (we call them "clones", always colored light brown) until your next key. This is all by design and is useful for a number of reasons. You can establish your timing very early in your process, by having your original key drawings (white) been laid out according to, for example, your soundtrack. Use Add Clones mode when adding or removing clones, but use Slide mode, when you want to move an original drawing up or down the timeline without changing the position in time for your other drawings further down the timeline.

When you want to do a breakdown, you maneuver to the frame you want your breakdown at - and hit * (Clear Drawing) to make it white (original). Then draw your breakdown on that blank frame. Alternatively you can hit O (Turn Clone into Original) to keep the lines of the clone, but make it original, so you can alter your drawing if it is just a smaller change. Now all the clones following your new breakdown is automatically clones of that new breakdown. I hope I'm not making it more complicated than it is 😉

That the app is crashing or not responding is of course not good. I would love to understand what exactly happens for it to behave like that. We need to get that fixed asap. A recording would be very helpful for that. Are you able to get it to hang repeatedly? We might also be able to find the problem simply by examining the .ap file you are producing. If you don't mind, please email it to me (my email address is the one you got your activation key from).

You mention that you fear adding more in-betweens or breakdowns to your other animation projects might lead to the same problems. This got me thinking, maybe you are using the lasso for inbetweens? That is not the best way to do it using Animation Paper. If you are using the lasso a lot, this could very easily be the indirect cause of the problem. Read more about this here: https://animationpaper.com/help/lineengine/

I hope this will straighten out some issues. Maybe it is just our lack of documentation at the moment (we are working on it) that makes it difficult for you to know how to best utilize Animation Paper - or maybe you actually found a really bad bug. Either way, let's keep the chat going and learn from each other. 😉

Thanks a lot for your help!
Niels

Hi Thomas - Thanks a lot for explaining!

Having key drawings followed by "copies" is not going to neither take up any memory nor processing power. It is simply your key drawing held by a number of frames (we call them "clones", always colored light brown) until your next key. This is all by design and is useful for a number of reasons. You can establish your timing very early in your process, by having your original key drawings (white) been laid out according to, for example, your soundtrack. Use Add Clones mode when adding or removing clones, but use Slide mode, when you want to move an original drawing up or down the timeline without changing the position in time for your other drawings further down the timeline.

When you want to do a breakdown, you maneuver to the frame you want your breakdown at - and hit * (Clear Drawing) to make it white (original). Then draw your breakdown on that blank frame. Alternatively you can hit O (Turn Clone into Original) to keep the lines of the clone, but make it original, so you can alter your drawing if it is just a smaller change. Now all the clones following your new breakdown is automatically clones of that new breakdown. I hope I'm not making it more complicated than it is 😉

That the app is crashing or not responding is of course not good. I would love to understand what exactly happens for it to behave like that. We need to get that fixed asap. A recording would be very helpful for that. Are you able to get it to hang repeatedly? We might also be able to find the problem simply by examining the .ap file you are producing. If you don't mind, please email it to me (my email address is the one you got your activation key from).

You mention that you fear adding more in-betweens or breakdowns to your other animation projects might lead to the same problems. This got me thinking, maybe you are using the lasso for inbetweens? That is not the best way to do it using Animation Paper. If you are using the lasso a lot, this could very easily be the indirect cause of the problem. Read more about this here: https://animationpaper.com/help/lineengine/

I hope this will straighten out some issues. Maybe it is just our lack of documentation at the moment (we are working on it) that makes it difficult for you to know how to best utilize Animation Paper - or maybe you actually found a really bad bug. Either way, let's keep the chat going and learn from each other. 😉

Thanks a lot for your help!
Niels

Questions & Answers

I can load a sound file then when I animate it does multiple copies on all the timeline