User Guide

Corel Painter 425
The frame stack format in Corel
Painter is a series of images, each
equal in size and resolution. The
Frame Stacks palette appears
whenever you open or create a movie
file. The Frame Stacks palette must
stay open while you work with a
movie.
You’ll work in one frame at a time—
the one appearing in the image
window. The Frame Stacks palette
helps you navigate the frames in the
stack and choose which frame to
modify.
Each frame in a frame stack can have
one layer. For example, if you drag an
item from the image portfolio onto a
frame, Corel Painter places the image
on a layer. You can move the image
around using the Layer Adjuster tool.
However, when you move between
frames or close the file, Corel Painter
drops all layers—the layer is deleted
and the layer’s content is flattened
onto the background Canvas. Refer to
“Using Layers and Layer Masks” on
page 229 for more information about
working with layers.
The Frame Stacks palette displays
thumbnails of several frames. The
frame numbers appear under the
thumbnails. The current frame is
shown with a red triangle over it.
The number of thumbnails is
determined by the layers of onion skin
you’ve chosen. By default, QuickTime
and AVI files are opened with two
layers of onion skin. For more
information on onion skinning, refer
to “Understanding Onion Skinning”
on page 427.
Navigating through a Movie
To select a frame:
• You can select a particular frame by
clicking its thumbnail.
To jump to a particular frame:
• Choose Movie menu > Go To
Frame and enter the number of the
frame you want.
Creating a Movie
The first step in creating a new
animation is to create a movie file.
Corel Painter automatically saves
movie files as you proceed from frame
to frame.
To create a new movie:
1 Choose File menu > New.
2 In the New Picture dialog box,
select the frame size and paper
color you want.
The standard digital video frame is
640 by 480 pixels, which is a 4:3
aspect ratio. Many people work at
Step
Forward
Page Up Advances to the
next frame. When
a frame is the last
in the stack, Corel
Painter adds a
new frame to the
end and advances
Fast For-
ward
End Advances to the
last frame in the
stack
Icon Keyboard
shortcut
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