Operation Manual

VIDEOGRAPHICS LAB USER GUIDE
30
Onionskin mode
Onionskin mode is extremely useful when you are creating animations
and want to be able to see how your edits are progressing from frame to
frame. It works by placing transparent layers of each successive frame
you edit over its predecessors, allowing you to easily see your changes
from the previous frame as you work in the current frame.
To work in Onionskin mode:
1. Select the first frame of the video you want to paint over. The frame
appears as an image in the edit window.
2. Select a paint tool and define its attributes in the Brush Panel (see page
42).
3. Click the Onionskin mode button on the Standard toolbar or View:
Display Mode - Onionskin.
4. Click View: Onionskin Options to open the Onionskin Options dialog
box.
5. Select on which frames to apply the onionskin in the Overlay combo
box. Use Succeeding frames if you are editing frames to the right of the
active frame (toward the last frame), or Preceding frames if you are
editing frames to the left (toward the first frame).
6. Specify a value in the Number of frames spin box. The value you
enter here determines how many frames the onionskin layers appear
over. In most cases a value of 3-4 is sufficient to allow you to see the
path of your animation. If you lose your reference, you may want to
increase this or increase the Skin transparency to make your edits more
clear.
7. Define a transparency for each skin layer in the Skin transparency
spin box. This value indicates the transparency of the skin layer, and
not the edits you are performing. For example, a skin transparency of
30% produces a light result as it only allows 30% of the edit to show
through. The higher the value the more of the edit you can see. (Click
the Preview button to test how your changes affect any existing
onionskin layers.)