Deadline Hours · An interactive studio

PAINTINGBrushes, mixer, pressure and stencil

Paint your first picture

Choose Painting, select paint, chalk or airbrush, then drag on the picture. Paint lays down a stroke at the selected level; chalk adds texture; airbrush builds colour with time. For airbrush, the density slider controls paint flow. Keep spraying or pass over an area again to build it up.

Brush adjustment

Use the paint / chalk / airbrush / custom buttons beneath the mixer to switch brush type. Level (or airbrush density) and angle run vertically to the right of the square brush preview. Size stays below the preview; round and square brush shapes sit beneath the vertical controls, beside size. Mix, lay and wipe are directly available; restore pots sits beneath the colour pots. Open the mixer with P or options → palette. Choose a preset size line, drag the uniform size control or enter a numeric size. The brush preview shows its footprint, level and soft edge. The reset control above the thinnest preset restores the brush settings.

In the picture, hold Shift and drag: vertical movement changes size, horizontal movement changes level. Hold Option/Alt and drag horizontally for edge softness. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and drag horizontally for width, vertically for height. The adjustment preview stays anchored while you drag, and the gesture does not paint. In the mixer's brush preview, ordinary dragging adjusts size/level; Option/Alt and Cmd/Ctrl have the same edge and squeeze functions. The angle control rotates the brush.

[ and ] change brush size. With the mixer open, click or drag on the picture to pick colours; painting resumes when you hide the mixer. Press I for a one-shot colour pick with the mixer closed.

Spray / spatter

In Painting, spray scatters the current brush as separate impressions. Brush size controls the largest particle, area sets the circle diameter in picture pixels, min size % sets the smallest particle relative to brush size. Hold still to build up more particles. A fine white brush on black makes stars. Paint, Chalk and Custom retain their shapes; Airbrush Density controls particle strength. Pen pressure, Draw, Use (beside Sten) and Undo apply normally. Spray is a freehand Painting option; turn it off to return to continuous strokes.

Custom brushes from cutouts

Painting → custom → new brush also captures a brush directly: click its first corner, inspect the guides, then click the opposite corner. This leaves the picture and Table intact. edit changes a separate brush copy; re-save accepts it and cancel keeps the original. track turns Custom impressions along the stroke. With Spray active, min size % sets the smallest impression.

In Pasteup, cut a picture area or select a cutout from the table, then choose brush beside the cutout controls. This copies the cutout's shape and transparency into an independent brush; the picture and table source stay intact. Transparent margins are trimmed. Return to the palette and choose custom to recall it after using Paint, Chalk or Airbrush.

Click custom to use the original cutout colours. Choose a palette colour to paint with that colour through the custom shape; click custom again to restore the original. Size controls the longest side while preserving the source proportions. Level, pen pressure, angle, width/height squeeze and edge softness affect the stamp. Draw uses its alpha shape; Use (beside Sten) protects the picture as usual. In the mixer, Lay deposits the loaded palette colour through the custom shape and Mix continues blending existing paint. Choosing an image operation such as Blur or Smudge switches to the regular Paint brush.

Use Library → brushes, enter a name and choose save to keep a brush after reloading. Select its thumbnail and choose fetch to load it into Custom. The original pixels, transparency, size, level, softness, squeeze, angle and stamp spacing are saved. Fetch restores original colours; choose a palette colour to tint. Named brushes are stored in this browser, separately from pictures and clips. The current unsaved brush lasts only for this session. It uses the original cutout pixels, not its placed 3D transformation. Source images are limited to 1024 pixels on their longest side. Retitle, remove and restore removed are available in the brush library.

The step % slider below the Custom preview sets the distance between stamps, relative to the brush's longest side. Use 100% for touching stamps, a larger value for separated impressions or a smaller value for an overlapping stroke. The range is 5–300%. It works with freehand strokes and Graphics paths and is saved with a named brush.

Brush types and operations

paint, chalk and airbrush select the brush type. Then choose an operation such as wash, shade, restore, smooth, crisp or blur. Both selections stay highlighted in the menu. Click the selected operation again to return to normal painting.

wash changes colour while preserving brightness detail. shade changes brightness while preserving colour: load a light colour to lighten, or a dark colour to darken. RGB limits can reduce colour saturation at extreme brightness.

Mix and pick colours

Choose a paint pot, then lay to deposit the loaded colour. Choose mix to carry and blend existing paint without adding the loaded colour. Lay is the initial default. Your selected Mix/Lay mode is remembered when picking colours, switching panels and reopening the page. Light pen pressure or a low level works gently. While the mixer is visible, the pen picks colour from the picture and cannot paint, edit a cutout or draw a stencil there. Close the mixer to resume your selected tool. A quick tap in the mixer picks up its colour; drag there to lay or mix paint. Hold Shift while picking from the picture, a paint pot or a mixer tap to change only the secondary colour: outline, surround border, shadow or emboss highlight. Shift-picking keeps the primary text/stencil fill intact. Ordinary picks change the primary fill (including the solid inside surround) and solid extrusion colour. The pen colour button remains available in Style. wipe clears the mixing area. Hold a pot to store the current colour. restore pots beneath the pots restores their default colours. from pic temporarily hides the panel and shows a rectangle matching the mixer. Move it over the picture and click (or drag and release with touch) to copy that area into the mixer. The picture stays intact; Esc cancels and Cmd/Ctrl Z restores the previous mixer contents while the palette is open.

Pen pressure

A pressure-sensitive pen can control brush size and paint intensity independently. Open options → pen pressure to choose either or both. Select fixed width · pressure intensity for a constant-width brush with pressure-controlled strength. Your selected size and level remain the maximum values. Mouse and touch use a constant setting. Your tablet driver and browser must pass through pen pressure.

Cursor

The yellow crosshair has a dark offset shadow and turns red when Draw is active. A fine outline inverts the underlying picture colours to show the selected brush shape and size; it follows image zoom and pen pressure. Open options → cursor options to choose its colour or hide it while drawing. Cursor settings are independent of brush size, pressure and paint colour.

Painting colour and Wipe

The painting colour starts white. Tap the swatch beside wipe to store the current palette colour without changing the picture. wipe fills the picture with that stored colour, respecting stencil protection; Undo restores it. The wipe colour starts with the dark New Picture background and stays independent of later palette selections.

Painting filters

Painting's filter keeps its controls visible while Smooth, Crisp, Blur or Field is active. Switch filter off to stop that operation and paint normally with the same brush and colour. Selecting an active filter again also switches it off.

Stencils and shapes

draw edits a soft mask rather than the picture. Use + to protect and − to erase protection. Turn drawing off and enable use (next to sten) to protect those areas while painting, applying picture effects or sticking cutouts. Grey mask values provide partial protection. sten shows or hides the stencil independently of drawing and protection; a hidden stencil still protects the picture when Use is on.

Stencil editing

draw switches the right-hand menu to stencil controls. + and − appear below the common controls; they keep the current drawing behaviour. wipe fills or clears the stencil according to that selection. load → sten → one/two restores only the saved stencil. Switch draw off to return to painting the picture.

hicon inspects the mask in black and white, retaining grey levels for soft edges. key previews the current picture through the stencil against black; protected regions are hidden. Enable sten to show the selected view. Click the active view again to return to the pink overlay. These views do not alter your picture, stencil, saved work or undo history.

Field brush

Painting → filter → field selectively reconstructs alternating scanlines under the brush. It retains the chosen scanlines and interpolates the missing ones, using the selected Paint, Chalk or Airbrush footprint, pressure/intensity and stencil protection. It does not paint alternate rows with the loaded colour. Click Field again or select another painting operation to return to ordinary painting. Draw continues to edit the mask normally. Effects → field mode lets you choose Field 1 or 2 for reconstruction over a selected area or whole picture.

Picture → stencil

options → pic → sten converts the working picture directly to a soft stencil: black is clear, white is fully protected, and grey is partially protected. It replaces the current stencil with one undo step and leaves the picture intact. For adjustable luminance limits, use Effects → overlay. This is separate from the HICON/KEY inspection buttons. With draw on, the green readout shows the stencil protection under your pointer, from 0% to 100%. The pink display is deliberately translucent even at full protection.

The stencil has three uses: protective mask through Use (beside Sten), shape cutter through Paste Up's Picture + Stencil cut, and action mask when Use (beside Sten) clips an applied cutout against foreground protection. The worktable stores cutouts; it is not an action mask. For white lettering on black, use pic → sten and rev, then a stencil-only cut with white loaded for a clean white shape. Picture + Stencil also keeps the original RGB pixels, including any black already mixed into antialiased edges.

Load, Save, Tray, One and Two

load and save open a content choice. Select pic, sten, both together, or cutout. Cutout is separate from the picture/stencil pair.

Choose save, choose the content, then one or two for a temporary session snapshot. Saving a cutout keeps editable text, pose, style and keys.
Continue working. You can save another stage in the other store.
Choose load, choose the content, then one or two to restore it. Picture-only loading leaves the stencil intact, and stencil-only loading leaves the picture intact. Without a Load/Save mode, One/Two recalls the current drawing target.
Choose restore, then select its source with tray, one or two beside it. Paint to reveal that source through the current picture; combine Restore with Paint, Chalk or Airbrush. Tray opens the existing picker without loading the picture. The source choice is remembered when changing brushes or leaving Restore. The normal One/Two buttons still recall the active picture independently.

Save your edits before recalling the other picture; One/Two keep explicit snapshots. One/Two last for this session. save → tray keeps a separate, persistent copy in this browser, including paired picture/stencil pixels or editable cutout metadata. load → tray opens its own catalogue; click a source to load it. Tray keeps up to 48 sources / 64 MiB and survives removing working material from Table. Table remains the independent working view; opening Tray does not open Table. Undo reverses a load.

Difference between One and Two → stencil

Choose save → pic → one before changing the picture.
Paint or edit, then choose save → pic → two.
Click diff → sten in options.

This replaces the stencil with the strength of the pixel differences between the saved pictures, including changes in transparency. Small differences produce light protection; large differences produce stronger protection. Unchanged pixels remain unmasked. Grey edge pixels stay soft instead of becoming a hard fringe. The working picture, saved stores and their stencils are untouched; Undo restores the previous stencil. Pink marks the changed, protected areas. Use reverse sten to keep those changed pixels when making a Picture + Stencil cutout. Save Two again to include later edits. For a stencil based on picture brightness instead, use Effects → overlay. One and Two are manual snapshots, so save both explicitly. Keep the same background colour and transparency if only the painted marks should differ. For example, white text on opaque black compared with the same opaque black produces a text-shaped stencil; opaque black compared with transparent black also detects the background.

Zoom

zoom opens the position map and arrow controls at the right of the picture controls. ↓ increases magnification and ↑ decreases it; hold an arrow for continuous adjustment. Reaching 100% with ↑ switches Zoom off. Drag the grey rectangle in the position map to pan. Paint directly on the picture while the Zoom menu stays open. Scrolling also pans.

Click zoom again to show the whole picture. Turning it back on restores the previous magnification and position. Zoom enlarges the brush together with the picture.

Menu and palette gestures

Tab shows or hides the active panel. Without drawing, swipe out through the left or right edge to recall the menu or hide the visible menu. A vertical swipe at the opposite, empty edge moves the visible panel to that edge. At the occupied edge, menu becomes mixer and mixer is hidden. With no panel visible, a vertical swipe recalls the mixer; a side swipe recalls the menu. Move back inside the picture before the next gesture. P also switches panels. options opens undo, redo, help and display options within the menu.

GRAPHICSShapes, editable curves and SVG

Shapes and grids

Graphics draws lines, rectangles, circles and ellipses. Tap the origin and opposite point, or drag between them. With the menu visible, the shape remains an editable preview: move its handles or use values, then press stick or Enter to apply it. Each Stick is one undo step. With the menu hidden, a completed shape commits directly. edit switches between adjusting an existing shape and constructing another. Esc discards the current preview. Clicking an active shape, curves or fill again to return to freehand with the selected brush. paint & exposes the existing brush/operation controls without changing the retained shape. Custom is available after creating or fetching a brush. grad lets you drag a gradient direction, and halftone creates an adjustable dot stencil. Clicking either again closes its controls; End or Escape also closes them. Enable Draw to work into the stencil.

Lines support connected, h v only, radial and parallel construction. Rectangles offer solid, soft-edged filled, vertical/horizontal graduation, square and centred. The small colour box beside def grid stores the current pen colour as the gradient end colour. Circles and ellipses offer solid and tangential; ellipse values include angle. The numeric fields use the same two-tone sliders and long-press entry as Painting and the mixer. fill remains the separate flood-fill tool.

def grid and grid toggle grid controls. Press grid again or End to return to lines, circles and ellipses. H/V subdivisions use the same green drag sliders as brush size and level. Set H/V subdivisions, choose define and draw two corners, or drag the edges or centre to adjust the grid. Hold Shift while defining or resizing to keep it square. Grid cells stay at least 8 picture pixels apart, with a minimum 24-pixel rectangle; dense grids expand to retain this spacing. repeat extends the grid. The lower use, beside grid, snaps to guide points and tabs. draw grid paints the grid with your chosen brush; enable draw first to draw it into the stencil.

Editable curves

Choose Graphics → curves. With insert selected, click to add points; drag while placing a point to form a tangent. edit selects and moves individual points. Turn on tangent to adjust handles; lock couples the handles, round smooths a selected point and straight makes a corner. move drags the whole curve without changing its shape; size scales the selected curve about its centre. new curve starts another path.

open keeps the ends separate; turn it off to close the curve. filled fills the contour. delete or Delete/Backspace removes the selected point; all applies the last Straight, Round, Lock or Delete action to the current curve. paint & retains the extra delete curve, clear and inv actions. The selected brush size controls the drawn line width. stick or Enter rasterises the curves into the picture or stencil. Esc leaves curve editing.

The curve bank's load imports SVG paths; save exports the curve geometry for later editing. SVG is a curve exchange format here, rather than a complete SVG illustration renderer. Save curves before leaving the session if you want to retain editable geometry. auto can trace picture luminance into contours; adjust its threshold and smoothing before committing.

EFFECTSCorrections, colour curves and preview

Effects

EFFECTS contains overlay, field mode, colour map, mosaic and colour fettle, with controls inside the menu. Changing a slider previews from the original picture; adjustments do not accumulate. try it compares preview/original. area lets you drag a rectangle, do it applies that preview and do all processes the full picture. end, Escape or changing menus discards the preview. A committed effect makes one undo step.

overlay creates a soft stencil from picture luminance between the Low/High levels; it leaves the picture intact. field mode retains Field 1 or 2 and interpolates the missing rows. colour map assigns colours from the mixer centre line to dark-through-light picture values, left to right. Paint/mix a strip across its centre, then return to Effects; an empty mixer uses a grey ramp. mosaic uses H/V picture divisions. colour fettle adjusts brightness, contrast, centre, gamma, saturation and colour casts; Orig resets settings. Picture effects respect Use (beside Sten); Overlay replaces the stencil only in the chosen area. These are browser interpretations. Choose curves for LUM, blue/yellow (BY) and red/cyan (RC) graphs. Select one channel or All, then draw on the graph. Left/right chooses an input level; up/down changes output (Shift uses larger steps). Orig resets the selected graph; Invert reverses it. The graph displays the combined correction: drawing bakes the current slider correction into the graphs, returning the tone and directional saturation sliders to neutral while preserving their result. Choose sat for independent red, blue, cyan and yellow saturation. These corrections cannot be saved as named colour presets.

PASTE UPCutouts, table, styles and 3D motion

Control layout

Paste Up keeps one fixed object rail: cut / 3D, only / global, style, stick / copy, cancel / time and keyfrm / paste. The adjacent controls select pos, spin, size, pin, pivot or text; their values appear to the right. Only/Global selects individual or group scope. The green object number identifies the active source; hover over it for the source name and current frame. The short status is available through that tooltip. Table remains independently available on the general right-hand panel.

Transform values and resets

In Only, Pos, Spin and Size show the object's combined values, including earlier pen and Global transforms. Drag the green slider or hold its number to type a value. Enter applies, Escape discards and leaving the field applies a valid number. Normal mode uses degrees for Spin and percent for Size; 3D uses complete turns and size factors (1 is original size). Spin Z includes pen and Global turns; X/Y tilt and pinning remain active, so a pinned or tilted edge can have a different visible slope. The compact −90, 90, −15, 15 buttons add Z rotation in normal mode.

orig resets the selected channel, including its screen transforms. Spin and Size resets keep the current visible pivot; Pos centres the object and resets depth. The adjacent all resets all geometric transforms and centres the object. Source pixels, style, opacity and stored animation poses are retained. These are pose edits: use set pose to update an animation key.

In Global, Pos sets the group's centre. rotate by ° and scale by % apply relative group transforms around one fixed centre per contact, preserving the arrangement. Their numbers return to 0 and 100 after release. Original resets the chosen channel separately on each member, keeping its visible pivot; Pos then centres the group. All resets each member's geometry at its current pivot, retaining the objects' placement rather than stacking them at the picture centre. brush is available beside the parameter controls, or in the operation bank in normal mode.

Cutouts and the table

cut uses two points without erasing the source: tap the first corner, lift the pen and move freely to preview the opposite corner, then tap again to capture. Full-picture guide lines mark both corners. A first drag only sets the first point; it does not capture. Either corner order works. A tiny or empty selection lets you try the second point again. Palette picking and Table browsing keep the first point; Cancel or Escape returns to the previous object. all takes the whole picture. Choose picture, stencil or both channels. A stencil-only cut is filled with the loaded colour; picture plus stencil retains the unmasked picture with soft edges. Before completing a cut, cancel or Esc returns to the previous object and editing page. An unsuccessful selection keeps this return path available.

table retains multiple cutouts and editable text. Click a thumbnail to select it, then use to place it; double-click opens it directly. Both return to the picture with the Paste Up menu visible. Drag thumbnails to arrange the table independently of their picture positions. duplicate makes an independent copy. back/front changes layer order; selecting an item does not reorder it. Hide/show controls visibility. Remove deletes that source and can be undone.

With the menu hidden, the picture status names the selected cutout and shows floating · not stuck; Global lists the selected cutouts together. With the menu visible, use the green object number’s tooltip for its identity. These elements remain separate from the picture until stick. The status disappears after sticking and returns if you undo it.

In the picture, click a cutout to select it. Drag to move, use the corners to scale and the round handle to rotate. Arrow keys nudge one pixel; Shift + arrows nudge ten. stick or Enter commits the visible composition in one undo step while retaining its sources on the table. cancel or Esc cancels the active placement.

Text

Pasteup → cut → text edits the active text or opens an empty composer without adding a Table item. Typing creates the text source. The new text source button explicitly starts a separate text object; Cancel or Escape discards that draft and returns to the previous object. Type up to eight lines (600 characters); Return inserts a line break. Choose all lines or an individual line before changing Text Size, L/C/R alignment or Solid/Outline/Shadow. Choose a Typeface and press set to apply that font to the selected line or page, without sticking it. Line Spacing adjusts the whole block. Browser system fonts substitute for historical typefaces. Text remains editable while floating: drag to position, use handles or 3D for scale and rotation, then turn 3D off to return to the same text and resume composition. Colour comes from the mixer. Stick rasterises the block into the picture (or stencil while Draw is active); Undo restores the previous raster. Cancel leaves it untouched. Editable text is retained with its worktable source. Per-character typography is not supported.

Text spacing

In Text, choose spacing. kern adds or removes space between letters; space changes word spacing; y inc shifts a line vertically in picture pixels (positive moves down). Choose a line from the Text line menu, or All lines to apply the change to the whole block. Compose returns to text entry, size and base line spacing. Reset spacing clears the selected lines' three adjustments. Settings remain editable with text cutouts and survive worktable storage. Individual-character font/size styling and the historical typeface library are not implemented.

Kern a particular gap

While composing text, place the text cursor between the letters to adjust. In the text entry field, use the normal Left/Right arrows or click to position it. Over the picture or on the Spacing page, Left/Right moves the yellow text cursor. Hold Shift + Left to tighten that gap or Shift + Right to open it by one picture pixel. Other gaps keep their own values. The pair kern slider on the Spacing page adjusts the same gap. Line Kern remains a separate adjustment for all letters on the selected lines. Character gaps are saved with editable text cutouts and follow unchanged text when characters are inserted or deleted. In 3D/transform mode, arrows retain their cutout-nudge behaviour.

Styles, pivot, pin and Global

opacity % makes the whole selected text or cutout, including its style, transparent: 100% is opaque and 0% is invisible. It is available in text composition, cutout transforms and Style, and in 3D → size where it can be keyed with set pose. effect % controls only the style effect. Sources and soft edges stay intact; older cutouts default to 100% opacity.

style offers outline (contour only), surround (border plus source), solid (offset extrusion), shadow and emboss. Adjust width/depth, direction, amount and colour. Emboss has separate light and shadow colours: ordinary picking changes shadow, Shift-picking changes light. Its relief px control spans the actual 1–8 pixel range; outline width applies only to Outline/Surround. These styles remain editable until Stick; they preserve the original source. To animate width, depth and effect amount, open the shared style panel and enable keyfrm. Select a frame, adjust the sliders and choose set pose; repeat at another frame. Scrub or use Try it to preview. Numeric style values interpolate with the timeline's overall easing, independently of the position/rotation timing controls. Style type, colour and direction stay constant. Older animations keep their current style until you set new style values.

In 3D → pivot moves the rotation centre without moving the current image. pin adjusts the four corners independently. Select a corner and drag it or use its X/Y controls; reset one corner or all pins to restore the rectangle.

Shift, Ctrl or Cmd + click adds/removes a cutout from the selection. On the table, enable global for additive thumbnail selection, then Use to place the group. Global moves, uniformly scales and rotates selected cutouts together. In 3D, pos, spin and size edit the group while Frame, prev key / next key and set pose remain available. Set Pose records every selected cutout at the current frame in one undoable action. For example, set a group pose at frame 1, choose frame 51, move/scale/rotate the group and set another pose. Turn Global off to edit the active cutout separately; its own track remains editable.

Stick commits the visible composition to the picture; Paste places the retained source again, with its text, style, opacity and animation intact. The source remains on the Table.

Paste Up 3D and motion

Opening 3D, Keyfrm or another parameter page creates no keyframe. Choose set pose at the initial frame and at each later frame you want to record. time opens timing when Keyfrm is open. Text, Style and Timing controls fit within the menu; the object number carries the source identity as a tooltip.

Open 3D for position, depth, XYZ rotation and scale. The controls select pos, spin, size, flat, lfx, pin, pivot, edge, with style and time on the object rail. The 3D toggle stays beside Cut. The object type appears in the status instead of replacing a button. Click 3D again to return to the same text composer or normal object controls, keeping the source, pose, style and keyframes. keyfrm shows or hides the frame and pose controls alongside the current geometry page. With those controls visible, choose a frame, change the cutout and press set pose, or enable auto to store completed pen/parameter edits automatically. Auto updates existing keys and inserts keys at new frames; it starts off. Scrubbing, page changes and cancelled drags never write keys. In-between poses are generated automatically. Set Pose updates an existing key at the current frame; it does not add a second key there. frame scrubs the shared timeline without storing a pose. total sets its maximum; Frame stays where it is unless a shorter duration requires clamping. All cutouts share the current frame, duration, FPS and Loop setting. Switching table items keeps that frame; each cutout retains its own poses, timing and path curvature. Scrubbing, Try it and Render to Result evaluate all placed cutouts together. The frame and playback settings are stored with the working table. Shortening the duration hides later keys without deleting them; increase it to use them again.

3D → spin displays complete turns: 0.25 is 90°, 0.5 is 180° and 1 is 360°. Hold a green readout for numeric entry; dragging continues to adjust the slider. Inc/Dec and Qtr/Half/Whole use the selected axis. Size X/Y display factors, with 1 as original size. Normal mode keeps degree controls, including the compact −90, 90, −15 and 15 buttons.

flat offers Bend, Wrap, Turn and Ripple. edge offers four crop values, Bord width/colour and Soft edges. lfx offers Lo, two coloured highlights, their widths and Set direction. These preserve the source and their numeric values can be keyed. The deformation and lighting are browser approximations.

prev key / next key jumps between keyed poses. On the timing page, choose the pos or spin timing channel to edit each independently. lin into gives linear timing into that key, lin from gives linear timing out, and stopped slows to a stop at the key. Incoming and outgoing linear settings can be combined. Spatial path curvature is separate from timing. With Global on, key navigation visits the combined keyframes of the selected cutouts. Timing edits apply to selected cutouts that already have a key at that frame; they do not create missing keys. Delete Pose removes those keys while retaining at least one pose on each track. Yellow and cyan paths distinguish the active cutout and its selected peers.

Turn Global off to copy or paste an individual track. copy anim copies the selected cutout's keyed motion and timing. Select another cutout and paste anim to replace its animation at the same absolute path, including keyed style width, depth and amount. Its picture/text, style type and colour, pivot and pin geometry remain its own. Paste is undoable; the animation clipboard lasts for the session. Paste keeps the shared current frame and FPS, and extends the duration if the copied animation needs more frames.

try it previews motion. do it generates a Ramcorder Result clip with the Background clip composited beneath it, using its In/Out range and playback settings. Cutout poses and motion are a browser interpretation of the documented workflow.

ANIMATIONCells, sequence recording and clips

Cell animation

In Pasteup → cut, select a small object. Choose Animation → cell → replicate to create a sheet of copies (up to 64). The current picture and stencil are retained as the playback background. Before replicating, choose save → pic + sten → one/two to retain a background. After building a stack, choose load → pic → one/two, then cycle stack to play over it. The edited sheet and stack remain intact. Library and amber-directory loads also become the playback background. Choose load → sten → one/two separately if you want the saved protection mask; use beside Sten controls background protection. Use the normal Painting, Graphics and Paste Up tools to edit each copy. move cell copies one cell into another with exact alignment: click the source, then the destination.

Choose make stack, set exposure (how many playback frames a cell lasts), then click cells in the required order. Cells may be repeated. Hold cell or a cell on the sheet for about 0.6 seconds to inspect the information strip; release to hide it: frames is the current exposure, cell number identifies its source on the sheet, and run time is cumulative stack time through that entry at the current frame rate. Normal clicks and Make Stack leave the strip hidden. A long press inspects without adding a stack entry or moving a cell. While Cell is held, the strip updates with playback. Keyboard users can hold Space or Enter on Cell. Choose finish stack or press Enter. remove last corrects the last selection. A stack holds up to 256 entries. Making a new stack replaces the previous stack only when finished.

cycle stack previews the stack over the retained background. Drag it to move, including beyond the picture edges. Stencil-protected background areas remain visible. Choose single shot for one pass, reverse for forward-and-back playback, or loop for continuous repeats. frames / sec sets browser playback speed from 1–60; exposure controls each cell’s duration. Both use the shared green sliders; hold a number for exact entry. Stack messages appear in the snackbar above the menu. Space plays/stops. Previous/Next inspect individual entries. stick frame commits the current frame to the background with undo.

show cells returns to the retained editable sheet; cycling again uses the restored background. Changes made to the background remain visible on subsequent cycles. Restoring a background and returning to the sheet are undoable, with the stack retained. Esc or Cancel ends the active selection or preview and closes the information strip. A cancelled preview reveals the working picture, which may be the background or the sheet. Animation sheets, stack order and timing last for this session; export important sheets as PNG. Named saved pictures remain unchanged. Sequence recording is available in the adjacent Sequence menu. External-equipment control is not included.

3D keyframes returns from Animation to the same Paste Up 3D workspace, with the last control tab, selected cutouts, current frame and unfinished pose edits retained. Cell, Sequence and Ramcorder tools remain available in Animation.

Sequence recording

Animation → sequence → record starts a timed visual recording. Switch to Painting, Graphics or the palette and work normally: only changes to the full picture are recorded. Menus, palette, cursor, guides, stencil tint and editing handles are excluded; zoom and pan do not change the recorded framing. stop or 2 finishes the recording and returns to Sequence. 0 also starts recording. on cue arms recording; press Space or Continue to start. A small REC indicator shows that recording is active.

replay (1) watches the sequence without changing your working picture, undo history or named saves. The Sequence transport controls remain live during replay. Click the picture, press 2 or Esc to return. Replay speed is 25–400%; Loop repeats from the start.

rewind (3) returns to the start. shuttle (4) lets you drag left/right across the screen to scrub; left/right arrows step 40 ms, Shift steps one second. cue dot (7, or Space while recording) inserts a cue. Replay pauses there until Space or Continue. Cues may also be added at a stopped or shuttled position. Cue Dot again at the same position removes that cue.

save sequence downloads a local sequence file; load sequence reopens one without replacing the working picture. A new recording replaces the previous sequence in this session. Recording is limited to two minutes or 96 MB of raster changes, whichever comes first; it stops cleanly at the limit. It samples the full picture up to 25 times per second and retains exact sampled pixels. This is visual replay, not an executable command macro: it does not re-run file operations, external equipment or browser actions, and does not turn a recording into a new animation on a different picture. Hide the page to stop recording or pause replay.

Sequence Loop does not automate Ramcorder Buy → Effects → Sell in this browser. To process a clip here, buy a frame, apply an effect with do all, then sell it; repeat for the following frames.

Ramcorder

Choose Animation → ramcorder. bgnd and result select independent clips for viewing. Their In/Out fields define inclusive playback ranges. Drag the two-row frame strip to scrub, or use its left/right keys. The transport steps, plays and pauses; Loop, Reverse and Bounce change playback. Esc or Return Picture leaves preview without changing the working image.

Under more, choose choose video… and select a local video, such as an MP4. Selection only opens a source preview; it does not replace a clip. Adjust start s, length s and FPS using the green whole-field sliders, in the same style as brush size and level. Seconds step in hundredths; FPS and frame ranges step in whole numbers. The readout shows frame count and end time. preview clip plays the selected range without sound. Press load → bgnd to extract frames into Background and return to the main transport. cancel drops the source preview and keeps existing clips. After loading, more → adjust selected video reopens its settings for another take. Video is fitted into the picture with dark borders when needed. record bgnd/result records the current picture while you work; press 2 to stop. Only picture pixels are captured.

record cells, record sequence and render cutout create Result from the corresponding animation. Background is composited beneath each frame, using its range and Loop/Reverse/Bounce settings; Offset shifts that background timing in frames. Sequence uses the changes from its recorded pictures as foreground when Background is present; otherwise it uses the recorded pictures. copy to result copies the selected Background range. Rendering replaces Result after successful completion; Stop during rendering or an import failure retains the existing clips. Partial recordings at the frame or memory limit are identified.

buy loads the next Background frame into Painting with undo. Edit it, then sell writes the working picture to the selected Result frame; Buy and Sell counters advance. next sells the working frame then buys the next Background frame. swap exchanges Background and Result. Each clip is independent: editing Result never changes Background.

For a playable video, open more → export result video, wait for the export, then choose download MP4 or download WebM, depending on browser support. The export uses Result’s In/Out range, FPS, Reverse/Bounce and one playback cycle. It is silent at 960 × 720. Stop cancels an export while keeping both clips. save clips is a separate editable clip-data backup, rather than a playable video.

Clips share a maximum of 323 frames and a 96 MB lossless raster-change budget. Background recording reserves half the byte budget for Result. The budget may fill earlier with complex footage; this is browser storage, not hardware emulation. Background plus Result, not each channel separately, share the frame allowance. save clips downloads both clips and their ranges; load clips restores them. The working clips last for this session. Use more → save to library or Library → clips to keep a named copy in this browser, choosing bgnd or result as the bank. Select a saved clip and fetch to replace that bank without changing the other bank or working picture. Cutout sources and their poses are retained with the worktable in this browser. Named picture saves remain unchanged. VTR control is not included.

LIBRARYSave, fetch, export and operator guides

Save and load a custom brush

In Pasteup, select a cutout and choose brush to load it as Custom.
Open Library → brushes.
Enter a brush name and choose save. Its thumbnail appears when saving succeeds.
After a reload, open brushes, select the thumbnail and choose fetch.

Fetch returns to Painting with Custom selected. Original colours and transparency are retained along with size, level, softness, squeeze, angle and Step %. Choose a palette colour to tint the brush; click Custom to restore the original colours. Fetch leaves the working picture and stencil intact. Retitle changes a saved name; Remove can be undone with Restore removed while the Library remains open.

Named brushes are stored in this browser at this exact site address. They survive reloads, but switching browser, hostname or port opens a different local library. Save does not download a brush file. Clearing browser storage removes saved brushes. A brush made from a cutout must be saved here to survive a reload.

Save and fetch a clip

Open Library → clips, choose the bgnd or result bank, enter a name and choose save. Select a thumbnail and fetch to load it into the chosen Ramcorder bank. Named clips survive reloads at this site address; the other bank and working picture stay intact. Use Ramcorder’s save clips for a file backup of both banks, or export result video for a playable Result movie.

Save and restore

Library → save picture / browse stores pictures and their stencils in this browser. Select a thumbnail and choose fetch to load it. save PNG or Cmd/Ctrl S exports an image file. help pictures opens the six illustrated operator guides; select a thumbnail and Fetch. Loading a guide can be undone. Press N for New Picture. Your last working picture is saved locally when browser storage is available. Clearing browser data removes local work. RESET restores the original demo and bottom menu while leaving saved library pictures, brushes and palette colours intact.

For a saved picture, to table adds an unplaced picture source at its original dimensions, including transparency. It preserves the working picture and stencil and leaves the Library record intact. On Table, use explicitly places that source in Paste Up. Fetch instead replaces the working picture and restores its saved stencil; To Table does not apply that stencil to the imported picture.