I have been working with Pencil2d for a while now, and I must admit, it is the best free hand drawn animation program!! While working with Pencil2d I thought of 2 features that would be cool te have!
Layer opacity: it speaks for itselves, being able to change te opacity of a layer.
More brushes: Now there are just three brushes. But it would be nice to have more!
I also have a question. I heard that there is a dark mode available now. But how can I enable that? I can’t find it in the preferences window… I am using a windows 10.
Thanks for all the hard work and keep it up, you guys are doing a great job!
@animator Hi, welcome to the forum and thank you for your thoughtful suggestions.
You’ll be glad to know that the Pencil2D team has been working towards both areas for future integrations.
I’m not sure if you’re new to Pencil2D but we often have “nightly builds” released for testing purposes, these are automated builds created after new features or bugfixes are merged to the main app.
There’s been a Layer opacity feature merged in the program since a few weeks ago. Certainly this needs testing but so far it’s been working quite nicely.
I believe there are some issues with alpha channels and selections but other than that you should be able to use a Pencil2D development version without worries. Visit our official download website and scroll down to the nightly build section to get the latest dev build Download | Pencil2D Animation
To enable the layer opacity window go to the topbar menu > Layer > Layer / Keyframe opacity. Note that you can effect an entire layer, a selection of frames, or a single frame opacity, so if you keep the window open you will be able to quickly modify the opacity of any layer or frame you select. You can also create fades.
Pencil2D originally began with the concept of tool division that comes from traditional animation. So each tool was meant to be used specifically in each step of a pipeline. A Pencil to draw the roughs, a Pen to ink the clean-up, a Brush to paint the cels.
With that in mind, the tools will become tool categories in the future, and you’ll be happy to know Pencil2D will get a raster engine replacement. If you are a Windows user, you can test a specialized development build that has this new brush engine working. For more info go to this thread:
I also have a question. I heard that there is a dark mode available now. But how can I enable that? I can’t find it in the preferences window… I am using a windows 10.
Unfortunately Pencil2D does not have an actual dark mode, but rather it inherits the desktop theme from your operating system. So if your desktop theme is dark colored, Pencil2D will become dark colored, however this only works normally under macOS & Linux systems. Under Windows this feature is still under development since the only way to get it to change is by using the windows high contrast mode which is terrible for anyone’s eyes. I saw someone using a more subdued dark mode under windows, but AFAIK they had to download a specific windows theme and I’m currently investigating which one was it. So no dark mode for now, sorry
I hope these feature previews will satisfy your requirements for now. Good luck!
okay, thank you. I have downloaded the nightly build version.
And I just thought of a feature that would make pencil2d better(in my opinion). If it is me please say so. But it would be nice to be able to rotate and move your canvas with touchscreen. I suppose that that is called a gesture?
There is no gesture support currently. It is a good idea and I’d like to see zoom/rotate gestures eventually too, but it’s not a top priority so it will likely not be coming any time soon.
