Drawing Layer

The Drawing layer is at the core of a scene's structure. A drawing layer is linked to an element, which contains a series of drawing, and its Xsheet column, which indicates when and for how long each drawing is exposed. The layer is what connects the element and its exposure to the rendered image. It indicates the position of the drawings relative to other elements and to the stage, as well as the drawing's connections with pegs, groups and effects, if any.

Although drawing layers can be transformed and animated on their own, it is typical to connect them under a parent peg. This allows you to keep the position and animation information of the element in the peg, making it easier to manipulate the exposure and the transformations separately. This is especially useful in digital cut-out animation where manipulating and transforming layers is often the main method of simulating movement, and changing drawings is the secondary method.

You can also connect a drawing layer as a child of another drawing layer. Just like with pegs, any transformation done to the parent layer, whether on itself or through one of its parents, will also be applied to the child layer.

Optionally, you can connect a matte drawing to a drawing layer. When a drawing layer has a matte drawing, only the parts of the drawings that intersect with the opaque areas of the matte drawing will be rendered. This allows you to accomplish the same effect as connecting the drawing layer to a cutter effect.

Layer Properties

The drawing layer's properties are organized in the following tabs:

Transformation Tab
Drawing Tab

Transformation Tab

The Transformation tab contains parameters for adjusting the position, scale, rotation, skew and pivots of an element.

Parameter	Description
Position	3D Path: Use a 3D path to position the element. A 3D path uses a single function to define the position on the X, Y and Z axes. This function is made of control points linked by a curvilinear path, making the movement follow a natural curve. The pace and ease of the movement is determined by a single velocity function. Separate: Positions the element using separate functions for the X, Y and Z axes. This allows to control the direction and pace of the movement across all three axes separately. Unless ease is applied to the axes, the trajectory of the element will follow straight lines going between each keyframe.
Position	Path: If the 3D Path option is selected, this field allows you to create or select the 3D Path function used to position the element. Path (x) Axis: The position of the element on the East-West axis, in fields. Path (y) Axis: The position of the element on the South-North axis, in fields. Path (z) Axis: The position of the element in the Back-Front axis, in fields. Velocity: If the 3D Path option is selected, this function is used to control the pace at which the element moves towards each control point in the 3D Path function, on all three axes simultaneously.
Scale	Locked: Uses a single scale parameter to scale the element, preserving its proportions. Separate: Uses a separate parameter to scale the element on the X and Y axis, allowing to stretch or squash the element.
	(x) Axis: The horizontal scale factor. The default value is 1. (y) Axis: The vertical scale factor. The default value is 1.
Rotation	Angle z: The angle at which the element is rotated, based on the 360 degrees scale. Values below 0 or above 360 degrees will cause the rotation to cycle.
Skew	Skew: The angle at which the element is skewed. This value can range from -90 to 90 degrees.
Pivot	(x) Axis: The horizontal position of the pivot point of the element relative to the pivot point of the drawing, in fields. (y) Axis: The vertical position of the pivot point of the element relative to the pivot point of the drawing, in fields. NOTE These parameters can be changed visually by clicking and dragging the pivot point when using on of the tools in the Advanced Animation toolbar.

Drawing Tab

Parameter

Description

Matte

Invert Matte: If a drawing, group or effect is added to the drawing's Matte attribute, the part of the drawing that intersect with the matte's opaque areas will be cut out by default. If this parameter is enabled, the part of the drawing that intersect with the matte's transparent areas will be cut out instead.

Colour Space

Colour Space: The colour space in which the element’s colours should be interpreted. If the element’s colour space is different from the project colour space, then the element’s colours will be converted from the element’s colour space to the project’s colour space as they are processed, before being composited together with the scene’s special effects.

Undefined Colour Space: No colour space is defined for the drawing. The drawing’s colours will be interpreted as if they were the same colour space the one selected in the Colour Space tab of the Scene Settings dialog.
Linear: The same primaries and white point as sRGB and Rec. 709, but with no gamma transfer curve applied to the colour values. This colour space is useful for compositing intermediary images that are meant to be rendered in sRGB or Rec. 709.
Display P3: A colour space commonly used for digital projection. It has the same primaries as DCI-P3, the same white point as sRGB and the same gamma transfer curve as sRGB.
Display P3 Linear: The same as Display P3, except with no gamma transfer curve. This colour space is useful for compositing intermediary images that are meant to be rendered in Display P3.
Rec. 709: The colour space used for HDTV. It has the same primaries and white point as sRGB, but has a different gamma transfer curve.
Rec. 709 2.4: The same colour space as Rec. 709 or sRGB, except with a gamma transfer curve of 2.4 (per ITU-R BT.1886). This colour space exists because some editing systems use a gamma transfer curve of 2.4 instead of the standard gamma curve for Rec. 709.
Rec. 2020: A colour space used for Ultra High Definition TV (UHDTV). It has a complex gamma transfer curve and primaries that cover more of the human-perceivable colour space than other colour spaces, especially in the area of human-perceivable greens.
Rec. 2020 2.4: The same colour space as Rec. 2020, except with a simple gamma transfer curve of 2.4 (per ITU-R BT.1886). This colour space exists because some editing systems use a gamma transfer curve of 2.4 instead of the standard gamma curve for Rec. 2020.
Rec. 2020 Linear: The same colour space as Rec. 2020, except with no gamma transfer curve. This colour space is useful for compositing intermediary images that are meant to be rendered in Rec. 2020.
sRGB: A colour space typically used for standard computer monitors. It has the same primaries and white point as Rec. 709, but has a different gamma transfer curve.

NOTE

In the OpenGL View mode of the Camera view, the colour space of drawing layers is ignored and only the colour space of original bitmap files is taken in account. To test the colours of your drawing in their selected colour space, you must activate Render View mode.