Page 1 of 8 Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source. Go to the Pencil website and click the “Download” link www.pencil-animation.org Download the software Pencil is available to run on a variety of platforms. Choose the one that is appropriate for you.
Transcript
Page 1 of 8
Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Pencil is an animation/drawing software for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.
It lets you create traditional hand-drawn animation (cartoon) using both
bitmap and vector graphics. Pencil is free and open source.
Go to the Pencil website and click the “Download” link www.pencil-animation.org
Download the software Pencil is available to run on a variety of platforms. Choose the one that is appropriate for you.
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Notice that there are other useful links such as: Gallery See what is possible with Pencil
User Manual Good resource for learning how to use the Pencil software
Forum Communicate with other Pencil users.
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Become familiar with the Pencil interface Key Frames Each key frame will contain a drawing, in a slightly different position from the last. Your final number of key frames will depend on the length of the animation and the frames per second.
Frames per second Increasing frames per second will create a smoother animation. Web animation is usually 12-15 frames per second. Cinematic animation is closer to 30 frames per second.
Layers Layers can contain different parts of the drawing, such as a background, or two portions, which move independent of one another.
Add/Rem
ove Key
frames.
Each box is a
key frame. The ruler
counts key
frames.
Frames Per
Second can
be changed
Layers are
identified
Add/remove
layers
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Onion Skins Use the Onion Skin to view the previous or subsequent key frames. They will be opaque.
Colors You can select an ink or fill color. You can customize a color using the slide bars or by clicking the color box.
Drawing Tools Draw with the Sketch or Draw tools, erase portions with the Erase tool, or clear the entire frame with the Clear tool.
Previous
Onion Skin
Subsequent
Onion Skin
Standard
Color Choices
Slide bars and
color box.
Drawing
tools
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Importing a Graphic From the Edit menu, choose Import Image.
Choose a Picture File to import. Pictures MUST be in the .bmp format.
The graphic will be inserted into the center of the selected Key Frame.
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Animating a drawing Draw or insert a picture in any Key Frame
Copy and Paste or re-draw the picture in a subsequent frame, in a slightly different place. Using Onion Skin will help you to see wherethe item is in the previous/subsequent key frame.
Repeat this process until you are satisfied with the movement of your object.
Adjust the FPS until you get the speed and smoothness you want. Preview with the play or cycle buttons.
Key
Frame 2
Onion Skin is selected so the
previous key frame is visible but
opaque.
Key
Frame 1
Adjust
FPS
Play and
Cycle
Buttons
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Inserting a sound Add a sound layer and select the key frame where you would like the sound to begin.
From the Edit menu, choose Import Sound and choose the sound file you want to enter. It MUST be in .wav format
The name of the file will appear in the sound layer.
Click “+” to
add a new
layer
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Produced by the Pencil Pushers: Jenn Astwood Naz Ciberay Wanda Lakota
Additional Information
User Manual: http://pencil-animation.org/wiki/doku.php?id=en:users:manual:0.4.3b:index#sound User Forum: http://lesstooges.free.fr/pencil/forum/ http://fossfor.us/software/name/Pencil http://freshbrain.org/activity/pencil-animation-challenges
Video Tutorials http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n18lavQK60g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1KEJi2Hdu4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn-Pj2FwJPw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mpr6WaTsfU
F.A.Q.’s Q. Where can I find Pencil? A. Download Pencil from http://www.pencil-animation.org/ Q. What is the current version of Pencil? A. The current version is 4.43 and will be updated to 5.0 at the end of March. The new version will
include video export for all platforms. Q. What programming language is Pencil written in? A. Pencil was written in C++ Q. What type of picture can I import? A. All pictures need to be in .bmp format Q. What format does my audio need to be? A. Audio format depends on your platform.
Only WAV format is supported on Windows; the Mac version can import any format that can be read by QuickTime.
Q. This was such a cool tool! Where can I learn how to draw? A. www.toadhollowstudio is Carol Rosinski's new and most popular drawing lessons and tool guides
and online class information including Pencil Drawing Lessons, Tool Guides, and Online Classes.
