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Krita is best for frame-by-frame 2D raster animation: you draw separate images on an animated paint layer, arrange them in the Animation Timeline, preview the result, and render it as PNG frames, a GIF, or—when supported by your build—a video. It is not a 3D animation package or a full video editor.
This guide follows the current Krita 5.x-style workflow. Krita’s workspace and menu labels can vary between releases, so if a command has a slightly different name in your version, use the equivalent option in the timeline’s right-click menu. The official site currently lists Krita 5.3.3 and 6.0.3 releases; check the official Krita site for your platform and version.
What you can make in Krita
Krita works particularly well for:
- Hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation
- Short loops and animated illustrations
- Rough animation and animatics
- Simple GIFs and social-media clips
- Painted 2D sequences exported to another editor
It is less suitable for 3D animation, complex character rigs, long-form video editing, advanced audio mixing, automated lip-sync, and large multi-scene production management. Krita’s animation system is primarily drawing-based, although some feature descriptions mention opacity and position changes. Do not expect it to automatically create sophisticated character motion from a few poses.
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For a detailed overview of the animation system, see Krita’s official animation manual.
What you need
- A desktop installation of Krita for Windows, macOS, or Linux
- A short animation idea, such as a bouncing ball or blinking eye
- Enough memory and disk space for your canvas and rendered frames
- Optional: a drawing tablet
Krita is free and open source according to its official site. Paid store editions are optional; the installation manual says they are functionally equivalent to the free version and may provide automatic updates.
A drawing tablet is helpful but not required. For a simple animation, a mouse, trackpad, or tablet you already own can be enough. If you buy hardware, consider pressure sensitivity, operating-system support, active drawing area, screen versus screenless design, shortcut buttons, warranty, and return policy rather than assuming an expensive display tablet is necessary.
Choose a sensible canvas and frame rate
There is no single correct animation preset. Start small while learning, because every additional pixel and frame increases memory use, rendering time, and drawing work.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Practice loop | 800 × 600 px | 12 fps | 1–3 seconds |
| Square social illustration | 1080 × 1080 px | 12 or 24 fps | 2–8 seconds |
| HD video | 1920 × 1080 px | 24 fps | As needed |
| Pixel art | Integer-scaled canvas | 12 or 24 fps | Short loop |
These are starting points, not Krita requirements. At 12 fps, 24 frames last two seconds. At 24 fps, the same 24 frames last one second. Higher frame rates can produce smoother motion, but they also require more drawings unless you hold each drawing for multiple frames.
A practical compromise is to work at 24 fps while animating on twos: each drawing remains visible for two frames. Timing, spacing, and the quality of the drawings matter more than frame rate alone.
Open the Animation workspace
- Open Krita and create a new document.
- Open the workspace selector, commonly through Window → Workspace → Animation.
- Confirm that the Animation Timeline, playback controls or Animation Preview, and Onion Skins docker are visible.
The exact workspace arrangement depends on your version. If a panel is missing, use Settings → Dockers to enable the Animation Timeline and Onion Skins. Switching to another workspace and back, or resetting the workspace, can repair a damaged layout.
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The timeline shows time horizontally and layers vertically. The selected layer matters: if you draw on a different layer from the one shown in the timeline, your frames may appear not to work.
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The most common beginner mistake is drawing on an ordinary paint layer and expecting the timeline to create animation automatically. Krita’s documentation notes that a layer remains static until you create an animation keyframe.
- Create or select a paint layer. Krita’s core frame-by-frame workflow uses animated raster paint layers, not vector layers.
- Make the Animation Timeline visible.
- Right-click the cell at the frame where you want to begin.
- Choose the command for a blank or inserted keyframe. Depending on the release and context, it may be called Create Blank Frame, Insert Keyframe, or something similar.
- Draw your first image on the canvas.
- Move to another timeline cell and create another blank keyframe, or duplicate the previous frame if you want to edit the existing drawing.
Do not confuse a blank frame with a duplicate frame:
- Blank frame: creates an empty drawing area.
- Duplicate frame: preserves the previous drawing so you can modify it.
- Hold: keeps a drawing visible for more than one frame.
- Delete: removes a drawing or exposure, depending on the command and version.
- Move: changes timing without necessarily requiring a redraw.
If you create a blank frame when you meant to duplicate one, the earlier drawing will appear to disappear. Use the timeline’s right-click menu when the button name or shortcut differs in your release.
Make a simple bouncing-ball animation
A bouncing ball is useful because it demonstrates key poses, timing, spacing, squash, stretch, holds, and looping without requiring a complex character.
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- Add a descending pose: create a later frame and draw the ball moving toward the ground.
- Draw the contact pose: when the ball reaches the ground, squash it slightly.
- Draw the rebound: create a frame in which the ball stretches as it moves upward.
- Return to the top: draw the ball back near its starting position.
- Add in-betweens: insert drawings between the major poses where the movement feels abrupt.
- Loop it: duplicate the first pose at the end if you want the animation to return seamlessly to its beginning.
Keyframes are important poses or positions. In-betweens connect those poses. Timing is how long a pose remains visible, while spacing is the distance between positions. A hold deliberately displays one drawing for several frames.
For example, widely spaced drawings make the ball appear fast; closely spaced drawings make it appear slow. A ball that pauses briefly at the top of its arc can feel more natural than one that moves at a constant speed.
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Use onion skinning
Onion skinning displays earlier and later drawings as translucent overlays. It helps you keep proportions consistent and judge movement without repeatedly switching between frames.
- Select the animated paint layer.
- Enable the layer’s onion-skin control, commonly shown as a light-bulb icon in the timeline.
- Open the Onion Skins docker if you need detailed controls.
- Adjust how many previous and following frames are shown.
- Adjust opacity, color, or display intensity if the overlays are distracting.
- Draw the current frame while comparing it with neighboring frames.
Use onion skinning to prevent character proportions from drifting, smooth a bouncing object, check whether a walk cycle moves sideways, or keep a mouth, hand, or prop aligned.
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If nothing appears, confirm that the selected layer is animated, that neighboring frames exist, and that the layer’s onion-skin control is enabled. Onion skinning also has nothing useful to show when the current animation has no previous or next drawing.
Set the playback range and frame rate
Use Krita’s animation controls to set the frames per second, start frame, end frame, current frame, and playback speed. The exact controls vary by version, but they are normally available in the Animation Timeline or Animation docker.
- Set the first frame of the section you want to preview.
- Set the last frame.
- Move the playhead to the start.
- Press the play button.
- Watch for missing drawings, unwanted holds, proportion drift, and motion that feels too fast or slow.
If 24 frames play too quickly, lower the FPS or add holds and in-betweens. If the motion feels jerky, first check spacing and missing frames rather than automatically increasing the frame rate.
Save the editable project safely
Save the .kra file early and treat it as the source project. A rendered GIF or video is not an editable backup of your drawings, layers, timing, or onion-skin setup.
- Use File → Save As and save as a Krita
.kradocument. - Save before rendering.
- Use File → Save Incremental Version or File → Incremental Backup where available.
- Keep the project file and rendered output in separate folders.
- Make an incremental version before major timing or layer changes.
Animation projects can contain substantial frame data and may be difficult to reconstruct from a final export, so incremental backups are especially valuable.
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Preview performance problems
Playback is a preview, not always a guarantee of final render speed. If playback stutters:
- Reduce the preview resolution if your version provides that option.
- Close unnecessary applications and dockers.
- Reduce the canvas size while testing.
- Show fewer onion-skin frames.
- Preview a shorter frame range.
- Check available memory and disk space.
A large canvas, long timeline, many high-resolution raster frames, and excessive onion-skin previews can slow Krita or cause it to run out of memory. Save an incremental version before making performance changes.
Export a PNG image sequence
PNG sequence export is the safest and most flexible output method. It lets you inspect individual frames, preserve transparency where supported, and recover from an encoding problem without redrawing the animation.
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- Save the
.kraproject. - Choose File → Render Animation.
- Set the first and last frames.
- Choose Export as Image Sequence.
- Select PNG as the image format.
- Choose an output folder with enough free space.
- Set the base filename and numbering options.
- Render the sequence.
- Inspect several frames, including the first, middle, and last, before encoding them elsewhere.
The Only Unique Frames option can reduce output size by exporting only keyframes. Do not use it when a video editor or compositor needs a complete frame-for-frame sequence, because held exposures and timing information may no longer be represented as a normal sequence.
Export a GIF
- Open File → Render Animation.
- Set the first and last frames.
- Choose GIF image as the render format.
- Choose the output filename.
- Render the file and inspect it in a browser or image viewer.
GIF is useful for short web loops and simple previews, but it is inefficient for large or long animations, has limited color handling, and does not support audio. For higher-quality or longer work, use video or a PNG sequence.
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- Choose File → Render Animation.
- Set the first and last frames.
- Confirm the output width and height.
- Set the FPS.
- Choose one of the video or container formats actually shown in your dialog.
- Choose an output location.
- Check audio settings if audio has been added.
- Render a short test range before exporting the complete animation.
Krita’s current render documentation says that, since Krita 5.2, bundled FFmpeg functionality means a separate FFmpeg installation is not always required. Available formats and codecs vary by build and platform. Depending on the installation, the dialog may show options such as WebM, Matroska, or OGG containers and codecs such as AV1, VP9, VP8, H.264 through OpenH264, or Theora. Rely on the options visible in your own Render Animation dialog rather than assuming that every build supports MP4 or a particular codec.
Important: video transparency can become black
Krita’s current render documentation warns that transparent elements are not handled correctly in video rendering; transparent areas may appear black. If your video needs a solid background, add a fully opaque colored layer beneath the animation before rendering. If you need transparency, export PNG frames and composite them in an application that supports transparent image sequences.
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When and how to configure FFmpeg
Do not install FFmpeg automatically just because you want to export a Krita animation. Try the built-in rendering options first. A separate FFmpeg build may help when the format you need is unavailable, Krita cannot locate its bundled functionality, or you need a particular codec or encoder option.
If you do need a separate build, use a build appropriate for Krita rather than an Android app that happens to use the FFmpeg name.
Windows
The Krita manual recommends the FFmpeg release essentials package rather than the shared package. Extract it and point Krita to the executable inside its bin folder, for example:
C:ffmpegbinffmpeg.exemacOS
Extract FFmpeg and select the extracted FFmpeg location from the Render Animation dialog. The exact location depends on where you extracted the files.
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When installed through a distribution package manager, FFmpeg is commonly located at:
/usr/bin/ffmpegThat path is not universal. Use your distribution’s package tools or shell commands to locate the executable, then select the correct path in Krita.
For the supported setup details, consult Krita’s Render Animation documentation and, if necessary, the official FFmpeg download page.
Troubleshoot common Krita animation problems
| Problem | Likely cause | Recovery |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing changes when you move along the timeline | No keyframes, wrong layer, hidden layer, or a non-animated paint layer | Select the intended paint layer, show it in the timeline, create a blank or inserted keyframe, and draw again. |
| A new frame is empty | You created a blank frame instead of duplicating the previous one | Undo and use the duplicate-frame command, or redraw the new frame. |
| Drawings appear to skip | A frame is blank, a previous drawing is held, or the range starts too late | Inspect each timeline cell, check visibility, and verify the start and end frames. |
| Onion skin is invisible | Wrong layer, no neighboring frames, disabled layer icon, or hidden docker | Select the animated layer, create neighboring frames, enable onion skin, and open the Onion Skins docker. |
| Playback is slow or Krita crashes | Large canvas, long timeline, high-resolution frames, low memory, or insufficient disk space | Save an incremental version, reduce preview size, show fewer onion-skin frames, close other applications, and render shorter ranges. |
| Video option is missing | Unavailable encoder, unsupported format, or build-specific limitation | Export a PNG sequence or configure a compatible FFmpeg installation. |
| Video transparency appears black | Current video rendering does not preserve transparent elements correctly | Add an opaque background layer, or export transparent PNG frames and composite them elsewhere. |
| Render fails immediately | Invalid FFmpeg path or incompatible build | Recheck the executable path and use a build supported by Krita. |
| GIF or video is empty | Incorrect frame range or no actual animated keyframes | Check the timeline range and confirm that drawings exist on an animated layer. |
| Render stops partway through | Memory, disk-space, or encoder failure | Render a short range, check free space, and export PNG frames first. |
| Playback works but export fails | Render path or codec problem | Export a PNG sequence to separate the drawing problem from the encoding problem. |
Android is not the same as desktop Krita
Do not assume that desktop animation instructions apply identically to Android. The Krita 5.3.3 release notes state that animation import and export functionality has been removed on Android for the time being. If you are using Krita on Android, check the capabilities of your installed release. For video export, the dependable route is to move the .kra project or an exported frame sequence to a desktop installation, where the desktop Render Animation workflow is available.
See the official Krita 5.3.3 release notes for the platform-specific qualification.
Which export should you choose?
| Output | Best for | Main drawback |
|---|---|---|
| GIF | Short web loops and simple previews | Large files, limited color, no audio |
| Video | Social media, presentations, and video hosting | Codec, build, and transparency complications |
| PNG sequence | Editing, compositing, archival, and recovery | Many individual files and high disk use |
When in doubt, render a PNG sequence first. It is the most useful diagnostic and gives you a clean source for later video encoding.
Quick Recap
Final checklist
- Choose a small canvas and a realistic frame rate.
- Open the Animation workspace.
- Use an animated raster paint layer.
- Create keyframes before drawing.
- Know whether you need a blank or duplicate frame.
- Use holds and in-betweens to control timing.
- Enable onion skinning for alignment and spacing.
- Set and preview the correct frame range.
- Save the editable
.kraproject and incremental backups. - Export a PNG sequence before troubleshooting video.
- Add an opaque background if video transparency would become black.
- Check your installed Krita version and platform before following exact menu labels.
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