Hi! I’ve been trying to animate in Krita for a little while, and I keep bumping into this small issue:
Is there a way to force Krita to select the appropriate layer automatically when choosing in frame in the animation timeline?
I consciously know I must select the layer independently, but every time I get into some sort of creative flow, I forget and end up drawing in the wrong layer.
Being able to have it selected automatically would make animating much more enjoyable for me, is there a way to do that?
Since I don’t create animations, this answer may be completely wrong, I apologize for that.
So far I have not heard of such an automatic, but as long as the content of the frame is only on a single layer, I can imagine that such an automatic is possible.
I suspect, however, that at the latest when the contents of the frame come from multiple layers, Krita might have the problem of not knowing on which of the layers you want to add something, because how would Krita know in which of the layers the content you want to add to a frame should belong?
But this is just speculation.
I’ve just looked at version 5.0.6, the 5.1.0-RC1 and the latest 5.2.0-prealpha.
If you right-click any frame of any layer, that layer is then selected.
If you click-drag any frame of any layer or select a range of frames of any layer, then drag the selected range, they are moved even if that layer is not selected but the layer selection isn’t changed.
You can select multiple frames of multiple layers, simultaneously, over different ranges, for moving and for copy/pasting - regardless of the selected state of the layers themselves.
If Autoframe is enabled, clicking on a frame then drawing on the canvas does not select that layer for drawing. The drawing is performed on the currently selected layer.
Given all that, it does seem to be an oversight that simply clicking on a frame of a layer does not select that layer to enable editing operation on that frame.
There may be a logical reason for it so I suggest that you wait for someone who knows why this is.
If no information comes back, you can change the topic category to Develop - Feature Requests which would give it more visibility on the forum.
I’ve mentioned this behavior before in my own thread about Krita’s animation quirks, unfortunately no word for or against it just yet vs the Blender right click method. I believe the animation devs are away on some vacation time right now.
I’ll consider opening a thread in feature requests, but I think Ralek’s one already covers it, guess we’ll have to wait for the devs to answer.
In the meanwhile, I’ll use the right click method, it does solve my problem, even if it’s in a slightly messy way.
Thank you all for answering, this is an awesome community!
The reason this is how it is is because apparently professional animators do need selecting a frame and selecting a layer to be two different actions. Possibly it needs an option, but it can’t be just changed to the behaviour that you ask for. (I’m only repeating what I’ve heard, btw).
I can definitely see the merit in having a ‘select frame without moving to it’ button, but the UX is inconsistent. If left clicking a frame block ‘should only select it, not move to the layer’ then shouldn’t it also ‘only select it, not move to that time’? Yet it does.
My suggestion is have one mouse button only select, no layer or time change, and one mouse button move to, with layer and time change. Which mouse button does what doesn’t matter, I think people would get used to whichever is chosen, but the feedback should be consistent.
Almost all programs that allow you to select frames individually without ‘moving to them’ also have a separate, drag-able time scrubber, and selecting the frames doesn’t move said scrubber like Krita does.
Edit: Right clicking also brings up the context menu, which gets in the way if all you’re trying to do is ‘go to this frame and layer so I can edit it’
Hello