I have no idea why we shouldn't have these. It's been requested before, but the layer would be a great help for art, animation, and even games!
Good for animators: More fluid, accurate animation.
For gamers: If you like more interactivity, this will promote it. Plus, sprite movements will be more professional.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_skinning
Last edited by littletonkslover (2010-05-15 15:58:36)

Offline
coolstuff wrote:
Sorry, but what are they?
They're kind of transparent layers - a bit like tracing paper, but... well, computerised. I'm kind of borderline whether I want them in Scratch or not... sure, they'd be nice... but you could always use an external program (I don't own any external program that can handle them, so I don't know how practical it is to do so).
Offline
coolstuff wrote:
Sorry, but what are they?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_skinning
They're simi-transparent overlays of the previous or next frames so that you have a reference while you draw, so it's easier to stay accurate.
Just see the list of costumes as frames in an animation
The image editor could have next costume / previous costume buttons for quickly changing frames.
And next and previous onion skin buttons. and perhaps number input for number of frames.
This would be very nice and perhaps not too hard to add. But I also understand arguments against adding it, to keep scratch simple.
Last edited by AddZero (2010-05-15 15:52:25)
Offline
Wolfie1996 wrote:
coolstuff wrote:
Sorry, but what are they?
They're kind of transparent layers - a bit like tracing paper, but... well, computerised. I'm kind of borderline whether I want them in Scratch or not... sure, they'd be nice... but you could always use an external program (I don't own any external program that can handle them, so I don't know how practical it is to do so).
Technically you can have onion skins in all paint programs with layers.
Offline
Why shouldn't scratch have this? Well scratch has no frames and pretty poor support for animations in general.
First make the art editor not garbage, then make frames, then make onion skins.
But really, scratch doesn't need frames and stuff since its mainly a programming tool.
Last edited by archmage (2010-05-15 16:11:04)
Offline
archmage wrote:
Why shouldn't scratch have this? Well scratch has no frame and pretty poor support for animations in general.
First make the art editor not garbage, then make frames, then make onion skins.
But really, scratch doesn't need frames and stuff since its mainly a programming tool.
I still think we should have them. But you know, the Scratch team kind of ignores 99% of us.

Offline
I dunno, it seems like it would make it too similar to flash and would take their time away from putting in programming features. Not to mention that to have onion skins you would have to also compliment it with a whole slew of animation features which would probably take too much work and it takes away the programming focus of the program.
Last edited by archmage (2010-05-15 16:14:46)
Offline
archmage wrote:
I dunno, it seems like it would make it too similar to flash and would take their time away from putting in programming features. Not to mention that to have onion skins you would have to also compliment it with a whole slew of animation features which would probably take too much work and it takes away the programming focus of the program.
Scratch is for more than making rip-offs of Nintendo games.
I think we've been through this before. All I'm asking is for onion skins, and nothing more.

Offline
Thanks 'veryone!

Offline
I support!
Offline
My question: why can't you just open up a different graphics extensive program and use onion skinning there? The art editor needs to be improved before this can be done.
Nonetheless, once the main features are implemented in the art editor, frames and layers are a must if you don't have such a program.
I'm neutral in this situation.
Offline
Is there a free animating program I could use? *puzzled*

Offline
littletonkslover wrote:
Is there a free animating program I could use? *puzzled*
Well, GIMP offers some limited animating capabilities.
Or, if you're interested in animating stickfigures, Pivot should do just that.
Offline
coolstuff wrote:
littletonkslover wrote:
Is there a free animating program I could use? *puzzled*
Well, GIMP offers some limited animating capabilities.
Or, if you're interested in animating stickfigures, Pivot should do just that.
Hm....how limiting?

Offline
littletonkslover wrote:
coolstuff wrote:
littletonkslover wrote:
Is there a free animating program I could use? *puzzled*
Well, GIMP offers some limited animating capabilities.
Or, if you're interested in animating stickfigures, Pivot should do just that.Hm....how limiting?
Well, it's not nearly as good as, say, Flash, but it's better than Scratch once you get the hang of it... (You're referring to GIMP, correct?) It's basically image after image after image...
As for Pivot - VERY LIMITED. Stickfigures only, although not limited to stickmen.
Last edited by coolstuff (2010-05-17 18:13:44)
Offline
pencil is a good tool with everything you need
http://www.pencil-animation.org/
Pencil is worse than flash for animations but still way better than scratch.
Offline
archmage wrote:
pencil is a good tool with everything you need
http://www.pencil-animation.org/
Pencil is worse than flash for animations but still way better than scratch.
Pencil really annoys me
I thought I saw one like Flash before.......

Offline
GIMP is good... me, I use Photoshop Elements...
Offline
Vista4563 wrote:
GIMP is good... me, I use Photoshop Elements...
But how do I make an animation with PE?

Offline