Newbie with Newbie Questions

Installing Pencil2D / How to
2

@Sasheena Hi Sasheena. Welcome to the Pencil2D forums. First of all, thank you for taking the time to properly explain your issues and your expectations. It helps a lot when trying to provide support for the software :slight_smile:

Before answering I must say that doing art for art’s sake along it’s therapeutic value has merit and we’re humbled that you’ve chosen Pencil2D as an alternate tool to do that along other well established packages like The GIMP.

Most of your issues seem related to the camera layer so firstly I’ll share this reply (which has GIF’s :wink:) to show how the camera work can be used.

https://discuss.pencil2d.org/t/how-to-zoom-while-drawing/3880/3

Then to reply in order:

  1. Along the previous guide I’ll briefly describe the camera layer. For lack of a better example, this layer works like a real camera in the sense that you have to manipulate it separately form your drawing.
    The following is my interpretation of the software, which will probably become part of the official documentation at some point:
    Pencil2D manages two “modes” that work seamlessly:
    • A. The CANVAS VIEW mode where you can manipulate the drawing surface (e. imagine moving the paper on your table), which only affects how you, the artist, see it (e.g zoom, tilt, pan) This mode is active whenever you have a drawing layer (bitmap [blue] or vector [green]) selected (the layer will appear slightly highlighted)
    • B. The CAMERA VIEW mode where you can manipulate the camera frame / viewfinder, which affects how the final result will be seen by everyone. This mode is active whenever the camera layer is selected.
  • It’s possible that you zoomed in the camera at some point and left it like that without noticing. To this we recommend always being aware of the ZOOM indicator on the bottom left corner of the program, and if you’re unsure, to press the key combination CTRL + H or go to View > Reset Zoom / Rotate to restore the ZOOM to it’s default state in both CAMERA and CANVAS views.
  1. Regarding the “upside-down” part, Pencil2D has a vertical mirror mode. We’ve had cases in the apst where our users inadvertently enable this and then go on to work in the animation only to find when they render that they have all their work upside-down.
  • To make sure this is NOT enabled review the “display” widget and look the for vertical double arrow. If the button is depressed, toggle it back. Or go to View > Vertical Flip this should also indicate if it’s active or not. The default state is for the feature to be toggled OFF

  1. Pencil2D has no problem by importing large files, however you do need a moderately powerful computer if you intend your animation to have both, a large resolution size and a time length beyond 10 seconds
    For longer & bigger animations, we recommend working separate shots in different files and to save constant backup copies due to a few issues our dev team is working to fix where files get corrupted and work is lost.
    You can PAN your camera by:

    • A. Selecting the CAMERA layer
    • B. Select HAND tool
    • C. Position the time indicator (red vertical bar) on the first frame you want your camera PAN to initiate
    • D. Left Click with the hand tool over the canvas to position it
    • E. move the time indicator to the final frame you want the PAN to end (you should still have the camera layer selected)
    • F. Use the HAND tool to move the canvas and PAN the shot. Pencil2D will automatically interpolate the camera motion thus providing a simulated illusion of motion

  2. I’m not sure I understand your intent here. You can have different “elements” in different layers. Each one will have to be moved separately. Moving the camera will move them all at the same time, we currently don’t have support for parallax scrolling effects (but this will be added at some point, i’ll make sure of to pester the devs for it :wink:)

To answer another question you mentioned on your comment, separate cameras don’t do anything specific yet, only one camera can be the active camera (the one that is selected) however during movie export you can choose which camera is selected to be rendered as the final movie, which helps from a cinematographic point of view to create a “master shot” will all the action from a specific vantage point, and then use “close-up” cameras on a character that’s talking, for example, to allow the artist to edit all the shots in a continuous flow; this is a principle in film-making as shots / footage are simply considered the raw material for the film itself to become a whole piece envisioned by the director or author.

I hope this answers your questions and help you progress. If you have any other question let us know. Cheers.

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