THE PENCIL ANIMATORS GUIDE

This site is intended as a guide for users of Pencil Animation Software

www.pencil-animation.org/ has an amazing piece of animation freeware named "Pencil". It is intended for 2d animations only. (like the Simpsons and the Family guy). It has no 3d capability.

Pencil Software provides lots of nice tools and is easy to use compared to most animation software.

This site will help you learn basic animation and provides you with lots of tutorials.

We have come up with many other tricks and tips that you can use with pencil software and have posted them here. They go far beyond the basic manual.

A download link for the software and the basic manual from the Developers site is at the bottom of this post.

FEATURES OF PENCIL SOFTWARE
(Tutorial links are included)

1. A timeline that can be adjusted and modified. The timeline tutorial is here.

2. Drawing tools that give you shading and full coloring or black and white capability. The drawing tools tutorial is coming soon.

4. Bmp layers. The bitmap layer tutorial is here.

5. Vector layers. The vector tutorial is here.

6. Camera layer. The camera tutorial is coming soon.

7. Sound layer. The sound tutorial is here.

8. You can create animations with fixed or moving backgrounds. A backgrounds tutorial is here.

9. Add Sound including music or sound effects. Here's a Sound tutorial.

10. Copy and Paste your drawings from frame to frame (which is nice). A frame tutorial is here.

11. Enlarge or reduce your copies to create movement towards or away from the screen. This tutorial is coming soon.

12. Import bmp images into your animations. This tutorial is coming soon.

13. Crash Prevention Tips. You may have problems with bigger more complex animations. It seems to want to crash sometimes. I have a few recommendations to help this problem at this link.

14. Using Color in Pencil Software. The link is here


Overall this is an amazing piece of 2d animation software that could be used for storyboards, short animatics and small finished 2d animations.http://pencil-animation.org/ is the developers site.

Look for more features as newer versions are introduced. If you would like to participate in the development of Pencil Software

There are probably more things that can be done than I have listed here. Be sure and post any new tips you come up with or additional help or advice.Thanks.


Below are some good outside resources

Download the Free Pencil Software. Several languages and platforms are available from the developer website here
Download it here... http://www.pencil-animation.org/index.php?id=Download

Pencil software site does have an instruction manual that covers the basic use of the software.
View or download the manual... http://pencil-animation.org/wiki/doku.php?id=en:users:manual:0.4.3b:index

Make a voice track and synch the voices to your characters (This takes skill and effort to pre synch. It might be easier to post synch).
Here's a nice Pencil lipsynch tutorial on You Tube... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ruhFPQ2O90&feature=related

Here is a good voice tutorial on You Tube.
Check it out... http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=how+to+use+pencil+software+voice&aq=f

You tube has a few nice vids from experienced users and a lot of first time users have posted things like bouncing balls and pendulums. Here is the link to some of these vids.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9S5BdQXD9Y

Find out all about vector images and bitmap image files.
Complete bmp versus vector images info is here... http://www.prepressure.com/library/file-formats/bitmap-versus-vector
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Free fun at Oddwally.com

TOOL FUNCTIONS, LOCATIONS AND USES

Above is a screenshot view of the pencil control panel.

We have labeled the tools and their uses. It is good to try each button and adjustments. You will quickly get a feel for the capabilities of pencil.

Try the bitmap layer and draw away.

Try the vector layer and use the ink pen. If you don't like the way the vector ink pen works check out our vector tutorial.

A few simple adjustments makes the vector tool work fine.

Draw some shapes with closed outlines and fill them with the color bucket.

Add 10 or 20 frames and do some simple animations. It's fun. Check out our timeline tutorial to find out how to move frames around.

Refer back to this screenshot if you get stuck.

Be sure and check out our other tutorials to add to your skills and knowledge.

HOW TO USE DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS IN PENCIL SOFTWARE

Any active layer with only one frame will be shown in all frames. This allows the same background to be used for every frame, without having to insert a new background pic in each frame.

If you need to show a different background in part of your animation you can add the proper frames and paste, import or draw in a different background. If you put in a new background the following frames in the background layer can be blank. The first frame will show in each frame as the animation runs.

HOW TO COPY AND PASTE AN IMAGE WITH PENCIL SOFTWARE

You can copy an image and paste it where you need it.

Copy and paste within your pencil program
To copy all or part of an image that you already have on a layer, surround it with the dotted line box.

After you surround it go to the top menu bar and select edit, copy. Then place a new dotted line box near where you want the copy. You can even copy from one frame to another.

Press paste on the top menu bar and your image will appear.

You can click the selector arrow and move the image where you need it. I like to hit save each time I copy and paste an image.

On windows 7 I find that if I don't hit save after each move the images wind up where I originally pasted them, (not where I had moved them).

If you need to adjust the location, surround the image with the dotted box and click on the little solid black arrow on your tools menu. you can use the arrow to move the image in the box wherever you need it. just click inside the box and hold it and move it where you need it. Click outside the box and the box will disappear.

Caution- if your dotted box is smaller or narrower than the image you want to copy then it will shrink the image to fit the new smaller box. For an accurate copy make sure the box is big enough and it will come out close to the original.

You can use this box to reduce a copy of an image if you need to. The image will scale to the size of the smaller box. You can do the reverse to enlarge images.