Creating Onion Comments
Cerebro Support avatar
Written by Cerebro Support
Updated over a week ago

Computer graphics specialists use the onion skin term to denote the method of drawing animation frames, when the current frame is displayed along with several neighboring frames. This allows you to create smooth animations based on the previous/next frame.

In Mirada, the Onion Skin mode is used to create an onion comment, which is a series of sketches in several consecutive frames, meaning you can create an animated image inside one comment.

To create a new onion comment, first select a frame of the media file on the timeline, where a series of images will begin. Draw the necessary sketches and enable the onion skin mode on the panel located above the video timeline.

In this mode, you can see not only the sketches linked to the current frame of the media file, but also the sketches from a certain range of neighboring frames. This range is displayed on the timeline, and it is symmetrical with respect to the current frame. You can change the range using the mouse.

For example, if you want to draw a moving object in a series of frames, you should first create the initial image in the start frame. Then draw new versions of the object in subsequent frames. When doing this, you should consider the visible images from previous frames.

Thus, you can lay the desired path for the object by sequentially moving through the frames. The greater the distance from the current frame to the sketch, the paler the sketch becomes in the viewer, and sketches beyond the range are not visible at all.

After posting, you get a comment that spans several frames on the timeline and contains an animated image. When you hover the cursor over the series of frames of an onion comment on the timeline, this comment is activated.

Note

Only after you turn on the Onion Skin mode, the range of frames will be visible on the timeline, and the viewer will show sketches from adjacent frames. This mode is enabled manually using the button above the timeline to the left of the playback controls.

Did this answer your question?