Paint's public secret

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Paint's public secret

Published by on August 29th 2011.

It's animation! The next version of RealWorld Paint will allow you to create and edit simple animated images. Nothing too fancy, just the very basic animation-related features will be there. Animated GIFs will be supported out of the box, other formats may come later.

When an animation is opened, the window will look like this:

rsrc/editing-animated-gif.png image

The list of frames with previews and frame durations is located in the bottom left corner of the window. Frames can be reordered or duplicated by dragging and dropping them with mouse (holding CTRL = duplication, just like in the cursor editor) or via clipboard.

The first selected frame is displayed on the main canvas, where it can be modified using drawing tools and filters, just like in the normal image editor.

The top panel in the right pane displays preview of the running animation - it can be of course collapsed if it becomes distracting or slows down the computer.

How does the animation fit in?

The animation editor and the image editor do not influence each other. They have separate configurations, including window layouts or filter and tool settings.

When a file is being opened, Paint determines whether to open in as animation or as normal image. User can override this choice by using the Open as... command from the Open button. By default, normal (non-animated) images are opened in the image editor, but users can force the application to always open images as animations in the Application options window.

rsrc/application-options-image.png image

When creating new images or capturing the desktop, the Create button will have the same sub-menu as the Open button and you will be able to use the Create as ... command to create new animations.

Saving animations

Animations can be saved in the .gif format and also in the native .rli format. Since .gif does not support smooth transparency, it is recommended to always save a backup copy of your animation in the .rli format. If there is enough interest in the future, further file formats will be added.

Recent comments

user icon sixλxis forum moderator on August 30th 2011

<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3

So animated .png's will be supported eventually?

There should be an option to always save a backup .rli when making an animated gif.

Also, DOOM!!!

user icon JDDellGuy contributing user on August 31st 2011

Alright! Sweet!
icon-image/4575-16x16x32.png image

user icon Anonymous on August 31st 2011

Yeah, maybe even adopt .apng as a native format?

user icon Vlasta site administrator on August 31st 2011

Animated .pngs are in the queue, though there is a bit of a uncertainty about the .png vs. .apng extension.

user icon Anonymous on August 31st 2011

That's great!
.png is probably better as it's supported by image hosting services, also google image search will find them.

user icon jojois74 registered user on September 2nd 2011

When is this coming out?

user icon Vlasta site administrator on September 2nd 2011

In X weeks, where X is a single digit number.

user icon Backtop registered user on October 9th 2011

Can you tell me how I can change the design RW Paint, so i can see the Animation tab? :-( I can't figure it out by myself.

user icon Vlasta site administrator on October 9th 2011

If you open a gif with multiple frames, it should open automatically. If you open a normal image or creating a new one, choose Open as "Animated image" or Create as "Animated image". Eventually change your preference on the Image tab in app options. BTW the release is very near now, so maybe wait a few hours and get the final version :-).

user icon Anonymous
What about ICL files?
I wish there were...
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