I have seen a couple of similar issues in the forum, but those threads had no responses! So, hopefully this thread doesn’t share a similar fate…
Pencil v0.5.4, running on XP
I have an animation with two bmp layers, one background, one moving images (simple, cars moving in a straight line).
Background has only a couple small changes (traffic light color), one background key every 5-10 car keys.
The problem is this: I duplicate a background image frame. Then I make a small change to the newly duplicated frame (bucket tool to change the color of a “light”). So far so good… then I make a 2nd small change (same as before, but in a different “light” circle) - and instead of the expected behavior (filling in an enclosed region), the entire image in completely erased.
Once that happens, ANY editing I try to do (drawing, selecting and moving, erasing) erases the entire image.
The only way I can continue working on the image is to go back one step, save, close the program, and reopen it.
When it finally reopens, I can again make ONE change successfully, then the 2nd change will erase everything. Since it takes so long to save and to open each time, it takes several minutes to do any one thing.
In addition SOMEtimes when I try to duplicate a frame, it just creates a new blank frame (less than 1/2 the time, but more often than 1/4). I can not find any pattern to when “duplicate frame” works and when it doesn’t.
I also had the jumpy twitchy “move selected object” mentioned in another thread, but I found a workaround by using the arrow keys to move the selected part of an image instead of the mouse.
Please tell me there is some simple fix that I’m unaware of!
If this continues, not only will I never finish the animation in time, I may very well start crying.