I didn’t know exactly where to post this question, if there is a better category for it, please let me know!
Does anyone have advice on how long an animation project should be in Krita? I have a larger project in mind that I think will turn out to be thirty seconds or so, and was wondering if it would be better to break down the “Scene” into smaller animations that I can edit together later or just go straight through with it in one Krita animation.
I have no idea if that many frames (720 for thirty seconds) would be a bit much or if it seems fine, but just wanted to get some input, especially because I want to be able to make longer animations in the future!
I dont have a lot of experience with the animator yet but it seems quite good for what I’m going to need. So far I am working out ideas for game intros/cut scenes about the same length 20-30.
Generally speaking, though, it seems that it’s not so much the end result as it is the process while you’re working. At least, as far as I can tell. I haven’t had any issues yet, but folks say machine specs will be something you keep an eye on. Krita appears to keep the entire animation in memory while you work so it may get to a limit eventually. I suppose filesize maybe also but the default for Krita is 10,000 frames, which is 6 minutes.
Processors/cores, GPU/Graphics board and RAM memory will help it play smoother the better you got. Keep background programs minimum if possible, that sort of thing.
Other tricks that can help depending on what your project is calling for. Resolution/canvas size and color depth, flattening layers when done, greyscale when you can, (memory consumption items) things like that.
As you mentioned, working the project in steps is also something that I have seen folks do. For example, they split the project into bits, like 10 sec maybe. Then they use an alt program to stitch the clips together for the finished project.
I had to break for a bit on my own project, but my idea was to storyboard the whole thing or animatic and as I get tweens done I see what it does to my process. So far it seems ok and I am a Mac with an older AMD 5500
For Krita the limit is basically only determined by the free memory (RAM) of your computer that is available to Krita. Every animated frame is basically a copy of all layers in a file. So as a rule of thumb the memory usage will be layer memory usage * layer count * frame count. At the bottom of the new file dialogue Krita shows you the amount of memory a single layer needs for the file that is about to be created. (This is only an estimate, most of the time it’s less)
I find it best to split animations into parts and later assemble them in a cutting program (like kdenlive) where you then also can apply effects like transitions between scenes and stuff. Not only because of memory consumption but to keep things organized. Real movies are normally also not done in one take.
I’ve done a 54 second animation in Krita - with music and colour and didn’t have any issues. I guess as others have said, it depends on your device more so than Krita as to how much data it can handle.
Thanks @Hawklin, @Takiro, and @Sketchy for the input! I was mainly worried about potential crashes or something from Krita if the animation was too large, but I think the consensus was that is mainly has to do with the computer itself, so I think I should be good.
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
I think it’s pretty standard to organize the animation by cuts (when the camera changes the position abruptly). Maybe one kra file per cut would be good.
Also, in case of a mistake or an unexpected bug the damage will be limited.