Onion skin is newly-added function to DragonBones 4.1. When developers turn on this function, the images of the N frames before and after (the default frame number is 3) will be displayed at the same time, which is convenient for the animator to better position the character movements and make the continuous animation more smoother.
Enter the animation mode, click the onion skin button on the timeline toolbar to open the onion skin function, it’s shown as below：
After we turn on onion skin function, the main interface will display blue (preamble frame) and red (subsequent frame) image of the animation. It’s shown as below:
At the same time, the green play pointer of the timeline will appear in the onion display area which has three frame before and after by default. The left side adjustment handle is red, and the right side adjustment handle is blue, it’s shown as below:
Drag the blue or red handle to adjust the displayed frame number of blue or red onion skin. The more frames that are covered, the more images are displayed in the main interface. The onion skin display area moves as the green paly pointer moves.
During the animation playback, the onion skin display area on the green play pointer is hidden. On the main interface, the red and blue shadow graph will be played along with the original animation. The blue shadow graph animation move is fast than the original animation, and the red shadow graph animation move is slow than original animation.
onion skin features
the maximum length of the blue or red onion skin display area cannot exceed the animation clip length itself.
Although the animation clip is loop play mode by default, however when the green play pointer is at the 0th frame, there is no red onion skin shadow graph display in the main interface. And when the green play pointer is at the last frame, there is no blue onion skin shadow graph display in the main interface.