OpenToonz

Drawing in OpenToonz:

(visit the Tutorials & Resources page for more OpenToonz tutorials.)

(Also see the user manual)

ALT/ OPT + 0: Hotkey to reset the view

Open OpenToonz via the Applications folder; it looks like this image >>

Drag it into your dock for easier access.

First time you open OpenToonz, it will take a while. You'll be prompted to allow access to certain items; answer "yes."

Create a new project, and name it (Project Name) (image left). Then create a new scene within the project (image below). OT projects can contain multiple scenes.

General information: Projects are assigned to a folder, and scenes go inside the project. Access storage information with File > Project Management. For now, use the Sandbox; OT needs all the associated files in Project Settings to stay together - this is important!

Also, OT crashes; save often.

We need to change a couple preferences by going to By default the measurement is in MM. Change it to pixels by going to OpenToonz menu > preferences.

Interface > units - pixels.
Touch/ Tablet Settings - enable

Now you have to save all and restart the program.

Inside your scene, columns in the timeline act as layers do in other programs. In order to draw, you have to create a new level. Do this by R+clicking on a frame in the timeline and selecting "New Level." You can also select one of the icons in the upper-left corner of the timeline.

Name the level according to what will be on it (you can edit this later). Set "Type" to "Toonz Raster Level," and set the dimensions to be larger than the frame size (2000 x 2000)- this allows you to draw outside the frame. You can also double-click the column name in the timeline to rename it.

Once you add the Raster Level, you'll see the style palette on the right - it has changed from "No Style" (left) to "Style Palette" (right), which allows you to add a color.

Now you can select the brush tool (B) and start drawing! However, OT has lots of brushes to select from. In the Style Editor, switch to the "Raster" tab, and scroll down to select Pencils: Sketch 1. (I don't think you can search; scroll down pretty far).

Note the pressure sensitivity settings at the top - set the minimum (light pressure) to 1 and maximum (hard pressure) to 10. Set the hardness (how feathered or transparent the line is) to 80, and the smoothness (line auto-correct) to 15. Your personal preferences may evolve, feel free to adjust.

Note: If you don't see these settings, try selecting "No Brush" at the top of the Raster window. Adjust brush preferences, then switch back to the brush. You can also pin brushes you use frequently to the top.

To save these brush settings, hit the plus sign next to "preset" (image below), and give it a name (image right).

You can use the normal Undo (Command + Z) in order to undo marks. You'll often need the Eraser Tool (E) too, though. U & I hotkeys make the eraser bigger/ smaller. This tool also has size and hardness settings at the top, and you can also select from different types of erasing. Try these out to see what they do.

Note that Freehand mode eraser doesn't show active erasing. Normal mode shows what you are erasing as you erase.

Next to that is Mode, where you can choose to erase lines, areas, or lines and areas. Areas are similar to fills in vector drawing programs, and refers to color that fills shapes that are defined by lines.

Turn on "pencil mode" in the top menu to see what you're doing!

While we're at it, the The Select tool (the arrow at the top of the tool bar) has similar settings in the Type dropdown menu.

By default, the hotkey for the Select tool is S; I change it to V, however, to make it conform to Adobe hotkeys. You can always configure your hotkeys by going File > Configure Shortcuts (image right), and searching for the relevant tool or command (image below). (You can assign "S" to the Skeleton Tool).

Now, draw something that has both closed and open shapes( image right), and let's add color. In the Style Palette, use the + button to add at least two colors aside from black. Note that color also has an alpha component - use for shadows, for example. Hotkeys for colors are their numbers (on the numpad! Which we don't have anymore. Jessye: switch keyboards out?)

Note you can also save palettes - very useful!

There are two ways to add color to the drawing. The first is the Fill Tool (F), which fills in closed shapes (below). Note that this tool, too, has "Type" and "Mode" settings, which make it much more useful. This can be used to fill in shapes made with either the Brush or Paintbrush tool.

For other shapes, you'll need to use the Paintbrush tool (I configure this to P, there's no default hotkey). The default Mode is Areas, but you can also set it to Lines and Lines and Areas. Experiment with each to see what it does. Note that the "Areas" mode is essentially coloring under the line, which is a good default.

Animation in OpenToonz: The Timeline

To add a new drawing, click on a frame and hit ALT + D. For example, if you want one drawing to last 4 frames, click on frame 5. It’ll switch to another drawing on 5.

You can also use ALT + D to add a new drawing between two drawings.

If you want to extend a drawing over multiple frames, click on the frame, and drag the little white tab that appears. Doing this in the middle of an animation pushes all the frames down.

You can also create a new frame by just clicking on an empty frame and drawing. ("Enable auto-creation" in Preferences.)

Don't get confused between the frame number and the drawing number, though. The frame numbers will always be at the top, while the drawing numbers are in the timeline, and denote how many frames a drawing lasts.

Turn on Onion Skinning by R+Clicking on the timeline > Activate Onion Skin. (You can also just click above the frame to add a red or green dot; see next step.)

Select how many frames before/ after the current frame with the row of dots in the timeline. Red is previous frames, green is "after" frames. Don't let this confuse you! Whatever color you're actually drawing with is the current frame.

Use the right and left arrow keys to move to next/ previous frame.

Use CMD + x to delete a frame.

You can also click in the area above those dots to set a reference image, which doesn't change according to the frame you're on. OT calls this "Fixed Onion Skin." It's useful for creating a reference frame.

You can easily change timing with the reframe command. Select the frames you want to affect, R+click > Reframe >Reframe on 1's, 2's, 3's, etc. This way you can animate on 1's to easily click between frames, then reframe to 2's afterwards. (Note: you can also use step in the same menu to space frames out.)

Use the mirror buttons to flip the image (check symmetry.)

Use the Preview button (eyeball at top-right) to see what the animation will look like rendered.

X-sheet menu > Scene settings - set the background color and turn up the Alpha so it shows up!

Rendering your animations:

Rendering from OpenToonz is a two-step process. First you have to export an image sequence, then convert the sequence to a .gif or video in Adobe Media Encoder.

Navigate to the Render menu > Output Settings (above).

>> Click the file tab on the left, and edit the file settings. Use the ellipses next to "Save in" to create a new folder wherever you are saving your class projects (image below), and select .png or .jpg from the drop-down menu next to "Name." Also give the file a name.

Note: the .png format will save a transparent background if you haven't created a colored background. This will affect your ultimate video or gif.

Create a folder for your image sequence, in a location on your computer or hard drive. You'll need to be able to find this folder for the next step.

Hit "render" to export.

In Adobe Media Encoder, click the + sign at the top-right and navigate to your image sequence folder. You only need to select the first image; click "show options" to double-check that its set to png image sequence.

R+click on the file name, and select "interpret footage."

Change the frame rate from the default to 24 fps, then click "OK."

Cick the drop-down menu under "format" to select the format you want to convert the image sequence to. I will always ask for either a .gif or a video (H.264).

Click the blue text under "output file" to select the location of your new animation file (image above and below), then click the green "play" button to render.

See this video tutorial on converting an image sequence to a movie format for a further demonstration.

If you use your own computer, you can Install FFMPEG so you can export gif, mov files (PC or Mac). Otherwise you need to render using the 2-step method outlined above.

We'll usually be submitting animation in either video or .gif format. You can do a quick render by navigating to Render >Fast Render to MP4.

Other settings can be configured in Render > Render Settings.

Scratch notes:

Configure "play" to Shift + Space Bar

Future Reference: W and Q are configured to “Drawing Substitution Forward” and “Backward” - if this gets confusing, change to Shift + W & Q (Configure Shortcuts)

Adding another level (layer) - select one of the green spaces on the timeline and create new raster level (icon) - if you’re not on a filled frame, it’ll add the layer in the same column.

Use for shadows, for example - turn down the alpha

You can drag layers above and below in the stack, and they’ll appear in front of or behind just like PS.

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