Animation workflow tips? (Editing across multiple frames)

[AnxietreeDev]

Hey all I’ve been doing some long 60-200+ frame animation work the last few months and Im losing a lot of time to very repetitive actions - wanted to post to see if anyone has any tips to help mitigate a few gripes ive run into:

3 Q’s:

1) easiest way of duplicating an animated segment at a offset of (x) frames?

2) fastest way of painting edits on an anim layer across (x) frames?

3) anyway to use the move tool on a selection of (x) frames on an anim layer instead of moving the whole layer to fix mistakes/make edits?

Use cases below:

1 - in mechanical style anims i often have to loop a specific animation like the ore spiraling down this corkscrew

I cant just duplicate the layer because (afaik) i have no way to ‘push’ the new layers animation down the timeline for the required delay

so i split the ore onto its own layer and use the anim brush to slowly paint in the 60 ish frames. I cant perform this quickly because if i click within 1 second to paint after changing frames, my input gets ignored/eaten (as of V8.0.3.1, not sure if this is a bug) but the anim brush still cycles to the next frame, so i have to wait 1 second per frame before clicking and carefully check i havent missed any.

Or else i am condemned to click 100+ times to cycle through my anim brush on longer anims to get back to the frame i missed, same if i accidentally twitch my mouse and misplace it by 1 pixel

2. I make a lot of small mistakes/misplacements that I dont see until im over 100 frames in, or even just come up with new ideas and improvements that i want to implement across many frames. (Asset swapping the ore type in this image for example, or changing my mind about the shape of the rock)

I always have to copy and paste with the brush tool on every individual frame slowly (same anim brush input issue as above) on non-static moving parts of the animation as i can’t edit multiple frames at once

3. same as above for mistakes and improvements, but sometimes i just need to change the position of a part of my animations over multiple frames without editing the actual shape of what im moving. Just fishing for any workarounds instead of having to manually delete all frame data for that array of frames for that layer, then slowly repainting it.

Being able to select an area to edit on all frames (applying an erase, brush or movement operation on a specific area or even just THAT layer on (x) frames) would cut my work time by at least 3 quarters, probably more.

Thank you very much for anyone who’s read this far, apologies if I’ve missed any obvious solutions! I searched through the program docs as best i could and came up short

Thanks for the software in general too, i love the brush tool, its a super speedy part of my workflow

[jan.cosmigo]

Hi @AnxietreeDev

I missed that post, sorry!

1) easiest way of duplicating an animated segment at a offset of (x) frames?
With AnimBrush
You can use the Brush grab Tool (B) and hold Alt key when grabbing a brush. This will grab multiple frames from the layer. Make sure that the option “Grab AnimBrush” is active. How many frame is defined by either this input field (red):

You can override the frames by selecting them on the “timeline” using Ctrl + Click or Shift + Click.
Once you picked up this AnimBrush the Paint Dotted Tool activates and you you can stamp all the frame where you want when holding Alt. Make sure that also the the AnimBrush option is enabled:

Advantage: you can place that animation portion into the brush container and use again when needed.
See here for more: Documentation | cosmigo

With Copy/Paste
Just select the layers (layer window) and the frames (“timeline”) you want to copy. If required, use the Rectangular Select Tool (M) to restrict the selection on the canvas. Now use Ctrl + C, go to the frame where you want to place the pixels and use Ctrl + V. This will create a floating selection and you can move it around. Finalize with Enter.
If you have multiple layers selected then the pixels are placed on the same layers again. If you have only a single layer selected then you can paste on any other layer. You can also paste to new layers (see menu Edit).
Advantage: multiple layers possible

2) fastest way of painting edits on an anim layer across (x) frames?
If the contents are static over all frames then maybe create a separate layer of type “Static Image Layer”.
Another way might be to draw everything as a Tile Mapping project, although you won’t use the tile maps actually. The advantage is that you can use the same portions (tiles) on different frames and layers. Any modification of these portions anywhere will reflect everywhere. You can also have duplicates.
See here for more: Documentation | cosmigo

Another way is what is mentioned in 1). You can select all the frames you want to modify and hold Alt + Ctrl with the Pain Dotted Tool. It will stamp a simple brush (not an AnimBrush) through all selected frames, starting with the current one. But this does not allow strokes. It’s just for stamping.

3) anyway to use the move tool on a selection of (x) frames on an anim layer instead of moving the whole layer to fix mistakes/make edits?
Same as 1). Just select on the canvas and move that selection with the move tool. Select multiple layers and/or frames.
See here for more: Documentation | cosmigo

Hope this helps.

-Jan

[Morintari]

Hello Axietreedev. I would like to add that the rectangular selection tool can be very nice for editing position in a frame. Simply put a rectangular selection around an object and move it by pressing shift arrow key. That of course will only work for the frame you are on. If you want to select multiple frames highlight the timeline frames. Now when you go to change press shift and arrow keys it will move the entire time selection.