How do I paint multiple frames at a time?

Paint tools that can be used on multiple frames

The following paint tools can be used to affect artwork on multiple frames:

• The Paint tool.
• The Paint Unpainted tool.
• The Unpaint tool.
• The Repaint tool.

Option 1: Use the Apply to All Frames button

This option will allow you to apply paint to all frames in the active layer:

1. In the Tools toolbar, click on the Paint tool.
2. In the Tool Properties view, select the Apply to All Frames button. This will select all frames on the active drawing layer.
3. Go to Step 1 to start painting the artwork.

Option 2: Use the Apply to Onion Skin Range button

If you want to affect only a selection of frames, use this option:

1. In the Tools toolbar, click on the Onion Skin tool.
2. Use the range of the onion skin to select the frames by doing one of the following:

   • If you’re using the By Frames onion skin mode, use the handlebars In the Timeline view to ‘select’ a section of frames. 

     

   • If you’re using the By Drawings onion skin mode, use the Add and Remove Previous/Next Drawings to select the range.

     

   • If you would like to change your onion skin mode, please see How do I change my Onion Skin mode?
3. In the Tools toolbar, click on the Paint tool.
4. In the Tool Properties view, select the Apply to Onion Skin Range button. This will select all frames in the onion skin range.
5. Go to Step 1 to start painting the artwork.

Step 1: Paint the artwork

The next few steps are the same regardless of whether you choose Option 1 or 2:

1. In the Timeline, Node or Xsheet view, select the layer you want to paint on.
2. In the Art Layer toolbar, select the art layer you want to paint on.
3. In the Tools toolbar, activate the Onion Skin tool if it is not already activated.
4. In the Tools toolbar, click on the desired paint tool and choose a colour swatch.
5. In the Camera view, look for common, overlapping areas in the onion skin:

6. Click in the overlapping areas to fill more than one frame: 

Q&A 

Question: 

Why did my artwork only fill on one frame?

Answer: 

Double check the following:

• That the artwork has no gaps, or that the paint tool you are using has Close Gaps set in the Tool Properties view.
• That you are definitely filling in an area that is shared between 2 or more drawings and that you aren’t trying to fill an empty space.
• That Apply to All Frames or Apply to Onion Skin Range is definitely activated.

Question: 

Why did it fill the wrong areas when I used the Paint tool?

Answer: 

With the multiple frame options selected, the Paint tool will fill any shared areas between 2 or more frames, regardless of whether they are the correct areas for the chosen colour. For instance, if you fill in a hat on one frame, but it overlaps with a jacket on the next, the jacket will be filled with the hat colour. Make sure to fill only areas that share the same colour.

Question:  

How do I stop it from filling in my line art?

Answer: 

You can do one of the following to prevent line art from being filled:

• Make sure you do not do a lasso selection when filling art on multiple frames.
• Separate your colour art and line art and only fill the strokes on the colour art layer. See How do I apply ‘Create Colour Art to Line Art’ to multiple frames? for more.
• If you want to keep your colour and line art on the same layer, you can use protected colours to prevent certain areas from being filled. See Protecting Colours for more information.

Question: 

How do I reduce the amount of frames I am filling at a time?

Answer:

The only way to do this is to use the Apply to Onion Skin Range option and reduce the onion skin range so that it affects fewer drawings.