Greetings, fellow animators!

An introduction: I wrote about this new, minor but game-changing menu item and that it really excited me. I thought it was important enough to make a post just for how to set up Auto-Actions and shortcuts to really make use of it well!

What is this new feature?

In Clip Studio Paint 1.9.1, they added [Insert frame] and [Delete frame] to the timeline menus.

You can access this by right-clicking on a frame in the timeline. You will find [Insert frame] and [Delete frame] in the popup panel.

Right-click on an existing frame to bring up this menu.

(Alternatively, you can find it in the top menu under [Animation]>[Timeline]>[Insert frame] or [Delete frame])

When you click on [Insert frame] or [Delete frame], it opens a dialog box to let you choose how you want to insert or delete frames, and how many.

That’s all very neat. But this also forms the building blocks for a very important feature in animation: easily adjusting the number of frames/exposures of each cel. This used to be really inconvenient. Now it’s not!

Create Auto-Actions and shortcuts to make it really useful!

THE GOAL: We want to be able to just press a key to freely add or remove frames. No extra dialog boxes. As few clicks as possible.

There are two steps to do this: Step 1. Record auto-actions for [Insert frame] and [Delete frame] where it won’t prompt you for details anymore. Then Step 2. Add keyboard shortcuts to those actions.

If you’re not sure how to do those, you can read on for the details below.

Alright.

Step 1. Record Auto-Actions

Open your Auto-Actions panel. If it’s not already open, you can find it under [Window]>[Auto Action]

[Window]>[Auto Action]

If you’ve never touched this panel before, it looks like this:

Auto Action panel

Optional: Create a new set by right-clicking inside the Auto Action panel and choosing [Create new set]. For demo purposes, I’ve named it “Animation”.

Creating a new set will immediately create a new action and ask you to name it.

We actually want two actions: Create actions and name them “Insert frame” and “Delete frame“.

Use the [Add auto action] button at the bottom of the panel.

Record the Insert frame action.

Select the empty “Insert frame” action

Click the red record button at the bottom of the panel. Now it’s recording.

Add a new frame. (Right-click on a frame in the timeline, then choose [Insert frame].)

Set it to add 1 frame on “Selected layers only”. Then click [OK].

Stop recording by pressing the red stop button at the bottom of the panel.

Then record the Delete Frame action.

Select the empty “Delete frame” action.

Click the red record button at the bottom of the panel. Now it’s recording.

Delete a frame. (Right-click on a frame in the timeline, then choose [Delete frame].)

Set it to add delete 1 frame on “Selected layers only”. Then click [OK].

Stop recording by pressing the red stop button at the bottom of the panel.

Now we have two actions! Insert frame and Delete frame! Next, let’s add keyboard shortcuts for them.

Step 2. Add keyboard shortcuts

Clip Studio Paint’s shortcuts can be customized in its [Shortcut settings…] menu.

[File]>[Shortcut Settings…] in Windows.

With the shortcut settings window open, choose “Auto Action” under the Setting area dropdown. That will list your Auto Actions.

Your “Animation” action set should be there. If you expand it, it should list your two actions: Insert frame and Delete frame.

Add your shortcuts by double-clicking on the right side of the names of the actions, then pressing the key you want. For demo purposes, I used the [numpad +] and [numpad -] keys. You can set it to whatever you want.

Double-click on the action, then press the key you want as a shortcut.

Now your shortcuts are set! Confirm your settings by pressing [OK] to close the shortcuts window. And let’s try our shortcuts!

Step 3. Enjoy timing your animations freely!

Now you can just select a frame, then your shortcuts (for example, [+] or [-]) to extend or shorten the exposures of cels, to get your animations moving just the way you want!

Woohoo!!

(Be careful with “Delete frame”. It can remove a lone cel. You can always undo though)