animating on 2's basic set up question

[SYoung]

Hi

I am new to TV paint so apologies for not knowing this basic question!

I am animating straight ahead on 2's, and thought setting this up was as easy as clicking 'none', drawing a frame, advancing using the right arrow and that gives me animation at 12fps.
That works fine, but when I go back to add more detail to the drawings, the same action only works on 1 frame and the next frame is blank, i.e. it wants me to animate every frame. Do I have to set up my preference at the start of my project, and what do I need to do? I want to by default animate on 2's but have the option to switch to 1 image per 24fps frame, as I am working on top of live action material shot at 12 and 24fps.

Thanks in advance

Susan

TV Paint Standard 11.3
Mac OSX 1.11.5 El Cap

[slowtiger]

You'll need to read up upon instances and exposures in the manual.

What I do:
- create a project with 24 fps
- animate some stuff, replay it with 12 fps
- when I think I need 1's, I select all my animation so far, go to the animator panel (on the right), and click +1. This adds an exposure of 1 frame to each drawing, so each drawing will be shown on 2 framnes in 24 fps.

[SYoung]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
Because I'm working closely with live action, maybe it is easier to work in layers, so ,I can set up the layers at the start?
S

[slowtiger]

If you work over live action footage, wou'll not change FPS anyway, you'll work wirh 24 fps constantly. Just draw one frame, then hit right arrow twice, draw next frame, hit arrow twice, and so on. Your animation is on 2's now.

[D.T. Nethery]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

Because I'm working closely with live action, maybe it is easier to work in layers, so ,I can set up the layers at the start?

If you work over live action footage, you'll not change FPS anyway, you'll work with 24 fps constantly. Just draw one frame, then hit right arrow twice, draw next frame, hit arrow twice, and so on. Your animation is on 2's now.

As a general rule , if you're animating over live-action footage (which is always "ON 1's" at 24 FPS) then your animation should also be ON 1's , especially if the animation must intersect/register to any elements in the live-action footage (for example: the animated character in a live-action street scene following along with a live-action character who passes behind a lamp post and a parked car on the curb as the camera pulls back and dollies to the left following the characters , as the characters walk down the street... if the animation is ON 2's it will be out of register with the live-action every other frame and will noticeably 'strobe' .)

The exception might be a locked-down shot with no camera movement , where the animated character doesn't have to be precisely registered to a prop or an actor in the live-action footage , in which case the animation could be ON 2's ... although even in that case the animation can appear to 'strobe' slightly if it is ON 2's compared the live-action which is naturally ON 1's (you wouldn't necessarily notice the animation being ON 2's in a completely animated scene , but when placed alongside live-action footage the use of "2's" becomes more noticeable, even with a locked-down camera ) .

[SYoung]

Thanks guys.
Last time , I animated on 24 fps as the animation had to register with live action, but this project is pixilated live action and the animation does not have to register accurately, it's very abstract, and some of the pixilation is at 12 fps, but it varies.
However, if you all think the strobe looks bad, I'll animate at 24 fps, I've never tried it at 12 fps so didn't know about the strobe. We wanted the effect of drawn animation and I prefer that at 12 fps but not if it strobes and looks clumsy!

Susan