FlipaClip’s recent update includes some things that may be beneficial to you. Here are the new features within the recent update.
Menu
When you first open up the app, you will see a difference right away. There is a new menu area with your projects within the home page. The projects and movies areas have been changed similarly. It will look a little something like this, differing slightly, mainly in size based upon the specific device you use and the animation projects you have. This is what mine looks like.
Options
There is a tab in the upper left corner to click or tap to see some options such as a new area to purchase the premium features, a new way to access the FlipaClip audio library, a way to get to the settings, a connected accounts area, and an about area that gives information about the version of the app. In the menu there are also spots you can use to get to the FlipaClip official Discord server (the community button, the one with a blue lightbulb), and one labeled ‘bugs’ which will send you to the website where you can submit a request ticket to the FlipaClip team if the app is giving you trouble. With settings there were some new features added, such as dark mode, in the appearance menu. You can also change the accent color to your liking. I personally like dark mode, with purple accents. Dark mode can be easier on your eyes in comparison to light mode, so I definitely suggest dark mode for those with sensitive eyes. There is also a search option (the magnifying glass in the top right corner) that you can use to search through your projects and movies to find a specific one.
This is what the options tab menu looks like.
This is what the dark mode settings menu looks like, with my settings.
There is also a new “Discover” area, which is most likely similar to a community tab of sorts, and is used for sharing videos.
Animation
In-between the home and discover tabs, there is an icon with a plus sign. Click the plus sign to make a new animation project. The method of making an animation project has not changed, but the layout of the GUI has been changed a little. With picking a background, there are a few different options now below the preview of the background. The tab with a bookmark on it allows you to pick a background from the default ones. The one with a bucket allows you to make a solid color background, the photo one allows you to make a background out of a photo in your camera roll, and the camera one allows you to take a photo with your device’s camera to use as a background. The project naming, canvas size, and frames per second selecting areas are still the same with how they work.
In the animation menu, the play button has a new placement in the bottom right corner. Now when playing an animation, you can click/tap anywhere to stop it. In the audio menu in the animation, you can have more layers, specifically 8 now as part of the update. When in the audio menu, the buttons used to add different types of audio are still the same, just placed differently based upon the updated audio menu. The buttons are in the top right corner of the audio menu. It’s easier and less painful per se to drag audio clips in the audio menu since this update occurred. The audio in FlipaClip is a bit better now.
With the bucket fill tool, something else was added. An editable threshold. This allows you to not have annoying white dots where the bucket fill stops and other lines start. You can edit the threshold in a similar manner to brush size, by tapping the icon for threshold and dragging your finger up or down. The higher your threshold the less white dots appear in between the bucket fill, and any other lines. Brushes are less pixelated now as well. So nice! There are also shortcuts to skip to the beginning and end of the animation within the project. The one to the beginning is on the left side of the play button, and the one to the end is on the right side of the play button. The frames viewer looks different now, though all other aspects of it are the same as before. The eraser tool generally erases better than before.
With onion skin, you can edit aspects of it now. Such as if the onion layer previews are colored, how many are visible, how many preview frames are shown, and how many upcoming frames are shown, and there is even a loop option. The loop option shows a preview of the first frame when you are at the last frame, so it’s easier for you to loop an animation, if you wanted to do so. This is what the onion skin menu looks like at the default settings that I have it set to.
Have fun with the FlipaClip update, I will ‘see’ you all in our virtual art world soon.
Peace and Love,
Mikayla
