Scenario/background as master page

General Discussions
1

Hi! Most animations have scenarios/backgrounds. I noticed that in each frame that I add a copy of my scenario (a .JPG file, 800x600px) my Pencil2d file (.pclx) grows 900kb. So, the question is: is there a way to inform the scenario/background (repeat it as a master layer) without my .pclx file growing?

Thanks in advance!!

2

@rogerfsp Hi Roger, welcome to the forum and thank you for your feedback.

Hmm, let me suggest a few things I believe might help, though please correct me later if i’m misunderstanding your requirements:

  1. You can use the new “Preset” functionality to create a “master” file that will always contain custom layers, frames, palette swatches & camera size you setup. To learn more about this functionality please refer to this Pencil2D mini video featurette:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZU8QtMCrI0

  1. Pencil2D has an automatic exposure feature, so it is not needed to load the same image on every frame to repeat your background. Simply load the image on the first frame of a separate bitmap layer strictly used for your background and it will be repeated indefinitely on that layer until a new blank frame is added or a different image is imported.

  2. Lastly you can save your work as a PCL Project file (as opposed as the default PCLX file which is a zipped version). This means you will get a different way of handling Pencil2D project files with the following elements

  • A PCL file (which is a text file that acts like a sort of address book for resources)
  • A .data folder that includes all your resources for you.
    • Image Files [.PNG] (representing bitmap drawings per frame)
    • Vector files [.VEC] (representing vector drawings per frame)
    • Sound Files[.WAV]
    • Palette Files[.XML] Both PCL file and .data folder are needed and work as an unbreakable pair, but hopefully this already shows you that by default Pencil2D already references the external resources that you add into your project, so what you’re shouldering is not the weight of a single file, but the entire project folder.

Let us know if these considerations help you in any way or on the contrary, if your problem is strictly different and can’t be solved through this advice.