3 ways to keep animation drawings consistent, including Shift and Trace in OpenToonz

[@DarrenTAnims]

*Thanks for watching.* Timecodes for skipping the video and links are in the description Want to learn more about OpenToonz? Check out my Udemy course: A complete guide to OpenToonz for traditional 2D animation: bit.ly/OpenToonzCourse

[@desiredditor]

how u got the xsheet horizontally

[@DarrenTAnims]

Hi. To get the timeline (a horizontal xsheet), just press the button at the top left of the xsheet window that show 2 boxes with an arrow between them. Also, it's setup already in the timeline room (button at the top right).

[@nullval7198]

such a powerful feature! great tutorial :D

[@DarrenTAnims]

It really is a great feature. I love it. Thanks buddy.

[@jbroeland]

Every time I try to do something, you are there to explain it. And it is always very clear your explanations! Thank you very much Darren !

[@DarrenTAnims]

Happy to help :-)

[@quimera963]

Amazing tool, always learning with your great videos, thanks

[@DarrenTAnims]

My pleasure!

[@jaeisasleep8578]

how do u duplicate files without changing the original

[@dhedetry8571]

Do you guys mean drawing? I'm also having that issue

[@kittytheloaf2946]

If your talking about duplicating frames u click it and press d

[@tsarles]

@@kittytheloaf2946 Thank you so much :)

[@DarrenTAnims]

👍

[@CrtoonMike]

Really like your tutorials. Has helped me a lot for understanding OpenToonz. Thanks so much!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks for saying so Mike. Glad you're finding them useful.

[@tomatoegg1147]

1:08 if i do this select copy paste thing the history panel stops updating and i can't undo anything after i pasted the selection. I _think_ this doesn't happen when i use a Toonz raster level (thank god), just Raster level. Maybe it also doesn't help I don't know the point behind having normal levels and also the Toonz levels? Regardless I can't rly work without select copy paste so I'll just be using the Toonz raster level.

[@DarrenTAnims]

If the history panel stops working each time, can you log a big for it? There's a link in the Help menu. The raster level is like a drawing in any at program. You should put colour into the screen and once it's in the screen, you can paint over it, but can't change it from the palette. The Toonz Raster level had each colour linked to one in the colour palette, so you have to create a new palette entry for a new colour am that also means that is you change the colour in the palette, it changes on screen. Also, there's a difference between drawing lines and fills, which means you can erase only lines OR fills, or recolour one or the other, which is really flexible. And finally, as the colours are linked to palette entries, you can also apply effects to specific colours, which is immeasurably useful. It's like having layers in a single drawing.

[@kittytheloaf2946]

Finally a shift and trace vid I understand!! Thank you. I think instead of making a dot I’ll do shortcutkey or insert frame and try it out

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thank you. I'm pleased it helped. Shift and Trace is such a useful and powerful feature. Enjoy 🙂

[@scoobyalves1]

Hey, great video and such a clear explanation of all the features, do you know if there is any way to remove that original copy you mentioned on the blue box at 5:55?

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thank you. No, you can't. Not in OpenToonz, at least. In Tahoma2D (an OpenToonz fork) they've changed which drawings are shown, to try to simplify the view. I've not tried it out yet though, to see the difference.

[@IambigB]

I use onion skin and copy the drawing from old one to next one,but this way looks better.Another good lesson from Darren,thanks !

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks. Using the onion skin is often helpful, but you can't adjust the position of the image, to draw over. There are often many ways to do the same thing in OpenToonz. The more you know, the more options you have.

[@OscarTorresWork]

Great tip I knew #opentoonz had this didn't know where.

[@DarrenTAnims]

It's a really useful feature and once you get used to it it's so quick to use 😀

[@Sk1nwalker25]

1:08 How the hell?!

[@DarrenTAnims]

If you mean the selection and copying of the body from one frame to the next, I just used the selection tool in freehand mode to draw a selection around it, then press Ctrl+C to copy it and then moved to the next frame and pressed Ctrl+V.

[@Khangeric]

Omg thx

[@vikasbishnoi482]

line function is not working in my 1.5 by clicking control button....... solve it please

[@DarrenTAnims]

Which line function?

[@vikasbishnoi482]

@@DarrenTAnims line function in shift and trace, u did in the end of the video by enter control key...

[@DarrenTAnims]

@@vikasbishnoi482 Ill have to take a look later on today.

[@vikasbishnoi482]

@@DarrenTAnims thanks sir

[@JimPAnimation]

Thats a great feature. Thank you for taking the time to explain it so well. I assume it works the same with the vertical xsheet? Too bad the shifted layer is not onionskinned so its lighter and less confusing.

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks Jim. Yes, it works the same using the vertical Xsheet as on the horizontal timeline. It kind of does onion skin the 2 shifted layers a little. You can just about see the difference between the current frame (in black) the shifted drawings (in dark gray) and the original position of the shifted drawings (in a lighter gray). But they are very confusing. It'd be good if you could change the colours, like you can for proper onion skinning, to show the previous in red & the next in green - editable from the preferences. Maybe that'll change one day. I wouldn't be surprised. The software is evolving so quickly.

[@someboxes2972]

You helped a lot thanks!

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks buddy. Glad I could help

[@TTLIFEBD]

Thats great

[@DarrenTAnims]

Thanks 😀

[@soloplayer8664]

when I press F1 it open opentoonz manual

[@DarrenTAnims]

To use the F1, F2 & F3 keys, your pointer needs to be over the viewer (the drawing area). I found that out after I'd made this video. It's really annoying that you have to do that because when you forget you can sometimes have lots of copies of the help manual window open!

[@dretsmaatje669]

Jah but how do you copy and paste

[@DarrenTAnims]

You can use the normal ctrl+c, then ctrl+v to copy and paste things. But sometimes copy and paste isn't quite what you need. It depends what you're trying to copy.

[@dretsmaatje669]

@@DarrenTAnims thx

[@lockcoin5518]

1:28 onion skin on???

[@DarrenTAnims]

Yes. Click one of the the onion skin buttons.

[@Toasty2300]

But how do you copy it!?

[@DarrenTAnims]

How do you copy what?

[@Toasty2300]

@@DarrenTAnims Nvm I got confused and did not know how to copy selected area but I figured it out

[@DarrenTAnims]

Aah, ok. Glad you found it 🙂👍