Difference between animation layer and image layer

Questions & Problems
#1

Hello everyone! I’m beginner in Pro Motion software and have a little confused. What difference between “animation layer” and “Image layer”. If i draw on image layer and add couple of frames - isn’t it animation?
What does special things i have when use “animation layer” for animation and doesn’t have when use “image layer” for that?
Sorry for “newby” question, but i really don’t understand) Reading the documentation doesn’t help me much, cuz English isn’t my language.

#2

Hi @iKungFury,

the image layer uses the same image for all animation frames. It’s a still image, e.g. a fixed background or foreground to be used for all of the animation frames.
The animation layer uses a separate image for every animation frame.

-Jan

#3

When I tried the first time I did not succeed, but now everything is clear! I guess I created the wrong layer, because of this confused. Thank you, very much! And sorry for my English)

#4

In addition to what Jan said, here are a few tips for working between the layers.

  1. If you have an animation that only changes slightly over a few frames, draw it as an image layer, set up your frames so that the image is automatically included in all frames, and then convert it to an animation layer. This can be done by right-clicking the layer in the layers panel and going to “turn into animation”.
  2. You can use the scissor icon in the tool bar (or press B to select it) to select layers or parts of layers. These parts can be saved as a brush, just select the part with your tool, then go to the brush container window and right-click on the + symbol. This adds that as a brush that can be placed, mirrored, rotated, etc. This is very useful as you can build a sprite in pieces and save each piece as a brush for reuse. Additionally if you right-click and drag with the scissor tool you will select and erase the image.

Hope these tips can be helpful to you! It’s a great program once you learn it, and Jan is always quick to reply to questions.

1 Like