@jacob_swanson We had an entry on our FAQ called “Understanding Pencil2D Save Files” here:
http://www.pencil2d.org/faq/
However I’ll explain it a bit more in depth in here so please read carefully.
First let me state that I don’t think your file has been damaged, unless you saved over what you already did.
Basically what happens is that the PNG files that are stored in the folder are NOT the final frames as you see them in Pencil2D, they are just literally the strokes that you drew on a particular layer auto-saved with transparency.
Pencil2D “white background” is just a visual mockup, everything you export as a final image with a PNG format (which supports transparency) will only show the strokes unless you explicitly paint /import a background.
The images inside the folder that appear in the picture are named like “001.002.png” which means that such particular image was drawn on the second frame of the first layer that was created since the beginning of the file, which is not necessarily the actual “first” layer, as you could have deleted other layers previously, but pencil2D has an absolute index for it’s layers i.e you create 5 layers but delete the first three, your layers will be numbered as 004 and 005 although they are now the first and second active / visible layers.
The .VEC file is a special file that tells pencil what happens with the vector layers. Since vector lines are mathematically created the vector lines are written here as programming code.
You are not to open the .VEC file and unless you know what you’re doing, the pcl.data folder is NOT to be tinkered with. You just really have to open the .PCL or .PCLX file with pencil2D, which is outside the “pcl.data” folder.
However if you want to understand how these files work, you can open them with a text editor, then you’ll realize that is only an XML file, which is basically a fancy address book that points out to the Pencil2D app where and how is supposed to display the stuff you draw.
So in essence what the pencil2D .PCL file does with this information is to “remember” where those strokes are placed on the canvas- invidualized as separate .PNG’s - while referencing a cartesian coordinate system (0,0 is the center of the canvas)
IF after reading this and opening your .PCL file with pencil2D is not helping at all with your problem, please use PeaZip for MAC and compress a ZIP file that contains:
-
.PCL file
-
pcl.data folder
Upload it on mega.nz or dropbox or whichever service you deem fit, so our devs can take a look at it. However I’m 99% positive that the problem lies in the way that you’re trying to open the original file through the folder and not with the pencil file itself.
I’ll be pending your response, so let us know what happens to see if we can continue to provide you with proper support!