The Frame Stacks Palette

In Corel Painter, digital video and animation files are known as movies or frame stacks. Whether you're working with imported video or building a new animation, the tools you'll use are the same. They're found on the Frame Stacks palette and in the Movie menu.

Icon	Keyboard shortcut	Comment
Rewind	Home	Returns to the first frame in a stack
Step Reverse	Page Down	Moves back one frame
Stop	Command +. (Mac OS) or Ctrl+. (Windows)	Halts a frame stack that's playing
Play	Command +Shift+P (Mac OS) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows)	Plays the frame stack
Step Forward	Page Up	Advances to the next frame. When a frame is the last in the stack, Corel Painter adds a new frame to the end and advances
Fast Forward	End	Advances to the last frame in the stack

The frame stack format in Corel Painter is a series of images, each equal in size and resolution. The Frame Stacks palette appears whenever you open or create a movie file. The Frame Stacks palette must stay open while you work with a movie.

You'll work in one frame at a time-the one appearing in the image window. The Frame Stacks palette helps you navigate the frames in the stack and choose which frame to modify.

Each frame in a frame stack can have one layer. For example, if you drag an item from the image portfolio onto a frame, Corel Painter places the image on a layer. You can move the image around using the Layer Adjuster tool. However, when you move between frames or close the file, Corel Painter drops all layers-the layer is deleted and the layer's content is flattened onto the background Canvas. Refer to "Using Layers and Layer Masks" for more information about working with layers.

The Frame Stacks palette displays thumbnails of several frames. The frame numbers appear under the thumbnails. The current frame is shown with a red triangle over it.

The number of thumbnails is determined by the layers of onion skin you've chosen. By default, QuickTime and AVI files are opened with two layers of onion skin. For more information on onion skinning, refer to "Understanding Onion Skinning".

Navigating through a Movie

To select a frame

• You can select a particular frame by clicking its thumbnail.

To jump to a particular frame

• Choose Movie menu > Go To Frame and enter the number of the frame you want.