Adding new frames

With our first frame finished, it’s time to add the next. To do this, we will use the Exposure Table, located to the right of our workspace.
With the mouse, let’s select the 2nd frame of Layer 1, as shown in the image.

Fig # 48. Adding a new frame

Each time we need a new frame to work with, perform the same procedure. It’s time to add to our butterfly in a new position, but first it’s time to turn on onion skinning

Fig # 49. Activating Onion Skin

With this resource, we can use the previous frame as a guide to where we place objects or how characters are animated. Notice that before activating the onion skin, Frame 2 was completely white? Well, now looks it looks like tracing paper.

Fig # 50. A feint image of the first frame is visible in the second, thanks to the Onion.

Based on information from the first frame, redraw the butterfly, this time a little later.

Fig # 51. Drawing the butterfly in the second frame

OK, now add a third frame, but to give us a better idea of ​​how to go about drawing your character as the animation progresses, we will also enable more visibility of earlier frames (10 for this example) by increasing the number in the box for previous onion skin layers.

Fig # 52. Making 10 previous onion layers visible

Tip: Remember that you can activate the visibility of both earlier and later frames. Feel free to use as many as you like. It is important to take advantage of this functionality to make your animations look as smooth as possible.

Now we continue with our third frame, exactly the same steps we took earlier.

Fig # 53. Drawing the butterfly in frame # 3

At this point, chances are you’re wondering “How many frames will my animation need?” Well, it’s a very good question, but one you will have to learn how to answer yourself, with time and lots and lots of practice. Only with experience will you learn to estimate how may frames will be needed for your projects. For now, we will draw as many as are needed to complete our script.

Fig # 54. Drawing the butterfly in frame # 6

Fig # 55. Drawing the butterfly in frame # 9

Fig # 56. Frame screenshots # 21, # 31, # 45 and # 56

Tip: For this small project it was necessary to draw 73 frames.

One important thing to note is that you should not expect to draw the last frame in order to visualise how your animation is running. In fact, it is good practice to review the results every few frames, to ensure that the illustrations you are shaping every second really correspond to what you have in mind. Let’s take a look!