Animation

An animated Pixl is a sequence of drawings. Each frame holds a drawing for every layer, and each frame has its own duration. One frame is a still image. Add another to begin animating.

Use the bottom dock’s Animation card for the frame strip and playback controls. On a wider screen, the side panel’s Frames tab gives you a larger grid and individual timing controls. Both work on the same animation.

Add and arrange frames#

Choose Add frame, or the plus tile at the end of the frame strip, to insert an empty frame immediately after the current one. It is empty on every layer and starts with a duration of 100 ms.

Duplicate frame inserts a copy after the current frame, including every layer and its timing. This is useful for a small change such as moving a character’s eye by one pixel.

Choose a numbered thumbnail to work on that frame. Previous frame and Next frame in Frames move your selection. The , and . keys do the same while the drawing has focus.

Use Move frame earlier and Move frame later in the dock to change the order. In the Frames tab, right-click a thumbnail for Move earlier and Move later. The frame’s drawings and duration move together.

Remove frame removes the whole frame across all layers. It cannot remove the last frame. Returning to one frame makes the Pixl a still again.

An ordinary Pixl holds up to 24 frames; a cursor holds up to eight. Add and duplicate are disabled at the limit. Layers share these frame positions rather than having independent timelines.

Clear one drawing#

Clear this layer empties only the selected layer on the selected frame. The frame menu calls this Clear this layer’s drawing. Other layers, other frames and the frame’s timing stay in place.

This is different from removing a frame. Clear is useful when you want to redraw a pose without changing the animation’s length or order.

Set the timing#

The dock’s Frame rate list offers 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 24 and 30 FPS. Choosing a rate sets every frame’s duration to that rate’s timing. The Frames per second stepper in Frames changes the same project-wide setting.

For a pause on one pose, use Frame duration (ms) in Frames. Shorter and Longer change the selected frame in 10 ms steps. A frame can last from 20 ms to 10,000 ms. Timing is stored in 10 ms increments, so frame-rate choices use the nearest supported duration.

The frame-rate control shows Custom when the frames have different durations or their duration does not match a listed rate. Choosing a project frame rate replaces those individual timings. Use Undo if you meant to change only one frame.

Onion skin#

Onion skin shows the previous frame of the selected layer faintly behind the current drawing. It is a positioning guide: line up the feet of a walking character, for example, before drawing the next pose.

The first frame has no previous frame to show. A hidden current layer, or one in a hidden group, does not show its onion guide. The guide is not part of the saved picture.

Preview and looping#

Press Play to preview from the selected frame. Press it again to stop. The dock preview and drawing board follow the playback. Stop playback before making a drawing edit.

With Loop on, the animation repeats. With Loop off, playback runs to the end and stops. The loop choice is saved with the artwork. Playback and timing controls are disabled for a still.

The Frames tab’s thumbnail menu also offers Go to frame, Add frame after, Duplicate frame, Clear this layer’s drawing, movement and Delete frame. Open it with right-click, Shift+F10 or the Menu key.

When a saved animation looks still#

Glob Social uses still previews in some lists. On the canvas, animations can also show a still when they are very small, off screen or outside the current animation budget. Reduced-motion settings use still artwork in the display surfaces that respect that preference. This does not remove the frames from your Pixl.

If a save reports that the animation flashes too quickly, slow the affected frames or make the visual change gentler, then save again. If the artwork is too large to save, fewer frames can help. See troubleshooting.