I am attempting to animate for the first time. I have been watching tutorials and I can’t seem to find the follow answer.
I have created frames in Krita, not within the animation workspace. I’ve imported the initial frame by copy and pasting into the animation workspace. I am not animating in my original file where I created the layers.
I’m trying to import another layer. When I paste it into my animation layers, it shows up throughout the current animated scene. How do I import a single frame or set the frames that I want the newly imported layer to show, so that it does not continuously exists throughout the entire timeline.
I have tried setting set and start times, but that doesn’t seem to work. I figured out how to stop a layer from showing by creating a blank frame, however I can not figure out how to create a beginning frame.
You can’t copy/cut and paste content from a non-animated layer to an animated layer.
They exist in separate ‘worlds’ for that operation.
For animated layers, using right-click on the frame on the Timeline, you can cut/copy - paste and clone and drag-move frames all over the place.
The only way to get content from a non animated layer to an animated layer is to convert the non-animated layer to an animated layer.
You do that by right-click → Duplicate Frame on the Timeline docker. That converts the non-animated layer content to a keyframe on an animated layer. After that, you can do all sorts with it along the timeline in any animated layer.
Use of Duplicate Frame on an animated layer will duplicate the previous keyframe of that layer to make a new keyframe with content that is a copy of the previous keyframe.
Edit:Add: You can tell the difference between a static (non-animated) layer and an animated layer by the icon on it in the Layers docker.
The indicators for keyframe content along the Timeline are also a good hint:
Thank you for your reply. Apologies for my confusion.
I am trying to import a single frame from another Krita file. I merged the layers to create the frame. I then copied said layer and then went to my animation file and would like to insert that layer as one frame in the animation timeline. Do I need to create a different layer or should I put it on a current layer timeline?
Between two open krita files, you can copy/paste entire layers using the right-click context menu in the Layers docker.
The result will be your image content as a static image layer.
Then, on the Timeline of that static image layer, you do right-click → Duplicate Frame at frame-n. That will create a keyframe at frame-n which contains the content of what used to be a static image layer.
It also creates the same keyframe at frame-0. I find that annoying so I only do that on frame-0.
Then, on frame-0 of the newly made animated layer, you do right-click → Copy Keyframe then you can do right-click → Paste Keyframe on any frame of any animated layer.
You can also drag a keyframe from one animated layer to another.
Either way, I then delete that original layer from the Layers docker because it has served its purpose, which was to convert static content into a keyframe of an animated layer.
It’s a bit of a runaround but it has to be done because of the separation of ‘static image’ space and ‘animated image’ space.
Note:
It’s not a ‘frame’. You intend that it will be a frame on an animation one day but at the moment it’s just a static image in another file, until you make it into a keyframe of an animated layer.
When I begin an animation, project I quite often draw something to then realise I’d forgotten to create the blank keyframe first. And of course, once I create the new keyframe, my initial drawing goes away. (it’s still there, just not inside a frame in the animation timeline).
The simplest workaround I’ve found for plonking existing art (from either my initial drawing before I forgot to add the frame, or from copy and pasting from another source) would be to create a blank frame where you need it, go to your drawing and copy, click on the blank frame and paste. the drawing then goes into that frame.
By pasting, it will create it’s own new layer automatically. So you can either paste into an active layer, keep it as a separate layer, or right click on it and merge it with a different layer to keep things neat. I do this when I’ve accidently drawn it first, then need to create the blank frame, copy my original drawing, paste it into the blank frame, I then have 2 layers showing the exact same thing, so I merge them together.
Thank you for patience. I’m still unable to get it to work. However, I do not feel it is your directions that are the problem, I’m new to Krita and new to animating, so the confusion is surely on my end.
As a last attempt and to not waste any more of your time, I’ve attached a visual of my two krita files I’m attempting to work with. Perhaps this will show you what’s going on and what I’m not understanding or doing incorrectly.
@Shannon_Strange Ahhhh, you already have the image as a keyframe in an animated layer in another file.
That has me confused. I thought you meant that you’d made a static image that you wanted to be animated.
(This shows how useful/essential screenshots can be.)
Between open animated files in krita, you can Copy Keyframe and Paste Keyframe with right-click on the Timeline.
Please try that and get back to say what happens.
That doesn’t work for me. I can’t copy content from a static image layer and paste into a frame of an animated layer.
Edit:Add: It does work if you do Paste into Active Layer !
Yeay! It also should work if you paste it, and then merge the newly created pasted layer with the layer with the blank frame attached to it. I just tried it now by copying something from a different Krita file into a different one.
Wierdly, I don’t know if it’s from the recent update, but I did a drawing first, created a blank frame second and the drawing was automatically placed into a newly created keyframe at position 0. It never used to do that!
There have been subtle changes over a long time period and this could be the latest one.
I’ve been using the Create Duplicate Frame method for a long time, before Paste into Active Layer was a thing. I can’t keep up with this modern world
For the situation that @Shannon_Strange has, I do think that the Copy Keyframe and Paste Keyframe method would be the simplest and most direct method.
Oh yes, I see what you mean. I had missed the little ‘play’ symbol on the original drawing layer which meant it was already on a timeline. I thought the query was how to get a regular image into an existing timeline. In which case yes, copy and paste the keyframe definitely seems the simplest answer.
