# Frame operations

### What are frames?

{% hint style="info" %}
For those who are familiar with frame-by-frame animation, this section might be skipped. 
{% endhint %}

An animation is a collection of static images being shown one by one rapidly to create the illusion of movement. Each of those static images is a frame.

### Selection

There are 2 selection modes: individual and multi-selection.

The default mode is individual in which when we tap on a frame number, it will select only that frame.

Multi-selection mode, as the name suggests, will allow us to select multiple frames at once. 

<figure><img src="/files/AYRMfwDV3zBHVaSBItsp" alt="" width="264"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

To enable multi-selection mode, tap on the "Select" button on the top row, this button is hidden if we have only 1 frame. In this mode, when we tap on a frame, it will toggle the selection status of only that frame, it won't un-select the other ones. There is also a check box on the left (2) to toggle all frames at once.&#x20;

<figure><img src="/files/07VODVa6D79fLoLCciAc" alt="" width="299"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

To exit multi-selection mode, tap the "Done" (1) button.

### Navigation/animation

<figure><img src="/files/RRvACKILozp7BjPRW4Bb" alt="" width="313"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

1. Go to the first frame
2. Go to the previous frame
3. Play animation loop
4. Drag this button to scrub through the frames
5. Go to the next frame
6. Go to the last frame

### Add new / remove

<figure><img src="/files/iFakt43PDGA7aEOnGsla" alt="" width="353"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

1. Remove selected frame(s)
2. Add a new empty frame after each selected frame
3. Duplicate the selected frame(s), the new frames will be added after each selected one

### Onion skin

<figure><img src="/files/d3vMaaYmIDkEF9qhgzf5" alt="" width="270"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

Onion skin is the option to show the previous and next frames on the canvas to allow us to use them as the reference to draw the current frame.&#x20;

Tap the button to toggle onion skin on/off.

Onion skin has a lot of [customization](/settings/animation.md) that we can mess around in the settings.

### Contextual menu

To bring out the [contextual menu](https://docs.pixquare.art/timeline-and-layers/pages/GEh0IaKc8PQMO1ETEVBS#id-10.-contextual-menu) for frames, you can:

* Tap on the selected frame number one more time
* The contextual menu will auto-show if 2 or more frames are selected

### Duration

<figure><img src="/files/A3AvILB3yolpmqeaJFO1" alt="" width="344"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

A frame will stay visible as long as its duration allows before switching to the next one. If we want a frame to show shorter or longer, we can edit its duration by [activating the frame contextual menu](#contextual-menu) and then selecting Duration. We can now adjust the duration of the selected frames.

We can also set the duration by setting the FPS as well, and Pixquare will calculate the duration to achieve that FPS.

{% hint style="info" %}
You can change the value by dragging the text < Duration >
{% endhint %}

### Tagging

<figure><img src="/files/pLJpouV7y8DzAJXOmxQE" alt="" width="563"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>

A tag is a collection of consecutive frames. It's the same concept as [layer group](/timeline-and-layers/layer-types.md#group), but only for frames.

Once a tag is created, the animation will only loop inside the selected tag when you hit play.

Tagging is very useful if we want to save multiple animation clips in a single file.

To tag a range of frames, select the start frame and the end frame (we can select any frame in between as well, but that won't matter). The Tag button will show up in the contextual menu. Tap it, give it a name, and select a color if needed.

{% hint style="info" %}
To modify an existing tag, we can tap on the selected tag again to bring up the property board of that tag.
{% endhint %}

### Copy/paste

<figure><img src="/files/fTDWNBv4Q6SojpsNhg31" alt="" width="375"><figcaption><p>Artwork by <a href="https://x.com/FicoPx">FICO</a></p></figcaption></figure>

We can copy/cut and paste one or more frames in Pixquare.

To copy/cut frames, long press and drag the frame number, 2 boxes will appear: one for copying and one for cutting.

Drop the dragged frames into the corresponding box to perform the operation.

{% hint style="info" %}
If we drag a selected frame, it will perform the operation for all selected frames, whereas if an unselected frame is dragged, it will operate on that frame only.
{% endhint %}


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