As an animator, one of the most important tools since the dawn of 2d animation over a hundred years ago was the concept of isolating and repeating a series of frames. This used to be done by reusing the transparent acetate cels as needed, to make things such as walk cycles easier. Unfortunately there’s no current way to achieve repeated frames without basic copy and paste in Krita, and that gets very old and very unusable very quickly when your animations get any more complicated than a doodle.
It would be very helpful to professional animators if there were accessible ways to:
1. Animate an action in one Krita file, and use a ‘file layer’ in another Krita file to import the animation into the main timeline.
This would be achievable by simply adding timeline functionality to already existing file layers.
A keyframe on a file layer, rather than holding image data, will hold keyframe data.
The data each frame will hold will be:
- The source frame number
A number, default the current source frame number, that says which frame from the source Krita file to show on this frame. - Use source timing
A checkbox, default off, that will switch between matching frame to frame, or matching the current frame to the closest frame of the source file based on their respective frame timings. - Loop
A checkbox, default on, which says whether to continue from the first frame after the animation completes. - Hold
A checkbox, default off, which says whether or not to hold on the specified frame number.
This allows the animator to choose which frame of the source file’s animation plays on which main timeline frame, and even loop the animation as needed. Because it is a file layer, this opens up the ability to apply transformation masks as needed as well.
2. Animate an action in one group, and use a ‘clone layer’ to repeat the animation on the same timeline.
The timeline interface for a clone layer would be similar to a file layer. The keyframes will hold source layer keyframe data rather than image data. This allows for looping and repeating (modified) frames from another source, at a different time.
I know these features are absolutely essential to the professional animator’s toolset, and would make character animation work significantly easier, faster, more organized, and more feature-rich. I can extrapolate, mockup, or theorize as needed if there’s any interest.