User Guide
Animation and Video424 
use the Natural-Media tools in Corel 
Painter to create your own animations 
with a traditional look. Onion 
skinning allows you to see multiple 
frames at the same time. In Corel 
Painter, you can view up to five frames 
at a time: the current frame and four 
other frames adjacent to it. This will 
help you determine where the next 
frame of motion should be drawn. You 
can play back your animation over 
and over as you create it, to be sure 
you have the correct flow of 
movement.
Working with Video
Corel Painter offers certain ways of 
working with video that QuickTime 
or Audio Video Interleaved (AVI) 
applications don’t. You can use any of 
the Corel Painter brushes, textures, 
and effects to modify a QuickTime or 
AVI movie. You can paint directly into 
video frames, you can clone video 
using the Natural-Media tools, and 
you can combine or composite portions 
of one video clip with another.
When you open a QuickTime or AVI 
movie, Corel Painter automatically 
converts it to a frame stack. A frame 
stack is a series of images, each equal 
in size and resolution.
Corel Painter does not provide 
features for working with audio.
When you’re finished with the movie 
in Corel Painter, you can save it as a 
QuickTime, AVI, or animated GIF 
file. You can then open the 
QuickTime or AVI movie in a video-
editing application, like Adobe® 
Premiere®, where you can add sound 
effects and other finishing touches.
The Frame Stacks Palette
In Corel Painter, digital video and 
animation files are known as movies 
or frame stacks. Whether you’re 
working with imported video or 
building a new animation, the tools 
you’ll use are the same. They’re found 
on the Frame Stacks palette and in the 
Movie menu.
The number of frames displayed on the Frame 
Stacks palette is determined by the number of 
onion skin layers. A red triangle displays above 
the current frame.
Icon Keyboard 
shortcut
Comment
Rewind Home Returns to the first 
frame in a stack
Step 
Reverse
Page Down Moves back one 
frame
Stop Command 
+. (Mac 
OS) or 
Ctrl+. 
(Windows)
Halts a frame 
stack that’s play-
ing
Play Command 
+Shift+P 
(Mac OS) 
or 
Ctrl+Shift
+P (Win-
dows)
Plays the frame 
stack










