Linux Applications Tips, Hints, And Tricks

Learn from these smart Linux application tips and hints. These tips are not guaranteed to work for you, but hopefully you'll learn a thing or two.

Title: MtPaint Animation

If you've tried creating animated gifs or mpegs with MtPaint, you might have been baffled by the Set Key Frame menu item under Layers. I figured out that I had to set up my image layers as I wished for a frame and then select Set Key Frame. And I figured out that if changing from one layer configuration to the next was supposed to take, say, 10 frames, that the Set Key Frame parameter should indicate the frame number for the next layer configuration. For example:

Set up layers for frame 15, enter 15 as the Set Key Frame parameter.

This would tell MtPaint to generate frames 2 thru 10 in even steps, then frames 11 thru 15 as even steps, generating motion and/or smooth changes in opaqueness. But, when I re-positioned objects in my layers for each desired change in animation position, I didn't get the right result at all. It finally dawned on me that for re-positioning layers to each new desired position for the animations, I had to use the layer tool position selection -- not cut and paste my objects within layers. Set each new layer positioning for the animation with the layer tool position command box, then the animation will work as anticipated.