Onion Skin
See previous and next frames as ghost overlays — essential for frame-by-frame animation.
Onion skinning shows faint “ghost” images of adjacent keyframes on top of the current frame. It’s indispensable for frame-by-frame animation — you can see where your character was and where they’re going.
Enabling Onion Skin
Toggle onion skin from:
- The Layers button in the timeline controls bar, or
- The Onion Skin section in the Properties Panel
When enabled, the button is highlighted black with white text.
Onion Skin Settings
Configure onion skin in the Properties Panel (right sidebar):
| Setting | Range | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Previous Frames | 0–5 | 2 | How many keyframes before the current one to show |
| Next Frames | 0–5 | 1 | How many keyframes after the current one to show |
| Opacity | 5%–80% | 30% | Transparency of the onion skin overlay |
How It Works
Chuzy shows onion skin per keyframe boundary, not per raw frame:
- Previous keyframe: Rendered in red (
#E30613) at the configured opacity. This shows where your drawing was in the previous keyframe. - Next keyframe: Rendered in blue (
#0064B4) at the configured opacity. This shows where your drawing will be in the next keyframe.
Only the immediately adjacent keyframes are shown (one before, one after), regardless of the “Previous Frames” / “Next Frames” count. The count controls how many keyframe steps back/forward to look.
Visual Guide
- Red ghost = previous keyframe’s strokes
- Blue ghost = next keyframe’s strokes
- Eraser strokes within onion skin are tinted to remain visible
Tip
Lower the onion skin opacity (15–20%) for subtle reference, or raise it (40–50%) when you need a stronger guide for precise registration.