AnimaShooter Pioneer is a user-friendly stop-motion animation software. Works with any webcam. Supported resolution is up to 3840x2400 (WQUXGA). Easy to learn, easy to use.

1. Run the installer. You will see the first Welcome screen. Click Next button.

2. On the License Agreement page check I accept the agreement and press Next button.

3. Change the destination location if you wish and press Next; button. Wait till installation succeeded.

4. On the final installation screen make sure the checkbox Start program after finishing installation is checked.

1. Select Applimage->Right click->Properties->Permissions->Allow executing file as program

2. Or use command line:$ chmod a+x AnimaShooter*.AppImage $ ./AnimaShooter*.AppImage

3. Double click the AppImage file to start the program.

Activation requires an active internet connection.

Click Activate or Evaluate button. Activation dialog appears.

Enter Activation Code and click Activate button.

We recommend using copy and paste (CTRL+c and CTRL+v) to enter your license information.

Click Evaluate Now button to immediately activate the software.

To move a license from one device to another, please perform deactivation. De-Activation requires an active internet connection.

Click activation button. Activation dialog appears.

Switch to De-Activation tab and click De-Activate the License button.

Plug-in web camera to the computer with a USB cable.

Give AnimaShooter a second or two to discover it.

Once your camera name displayed press Connect button.

Create a new or open existing project.

Make a shot by clicking Capture button.

To capture frames or create a video in AnimaShooter, you first create a project.

To create a project click this button. In the window that appears, type a name for the project in the Name field and click Save.

You can change a project's properties at any time. To customize settings for your project, click this button.

You can copy or move your project to another computer to continue editing the project or to make a backup.

AnimaShooter project consists of a project file and a project folder which name corresponds to project file name. For example, if you named your project "MyMovie", the corresponding project folder has MyMovie_files name. AnimaShooter project can contain frames, settings, temporary images, cache, etc.

To copy your project to another computer you must copy both items: project file and a project folder. Copy the project file and a project folder as you normally do.

To move a project to another computer or storage rather than copying it, follow the instructions for copying a project, then delete the project from the original computer.

Click Capture button to make a shot.

You can capture multiple frames at once. Before the capture button locate the drop down panel. Click button with number of frames you want to capture by one press. Switch betwen Add and Replace modes to add or replace frames.

Switch to Prefix tab to set up the prefix to be prepended to each captured frame.

Use Time Lapse feature to automatically capture images at predefined intervals.

You can add to the project any number of vector lines (Paths) that can be used as guides or motion paths.

The Paths panel allows you to control the paths layer, the paths themselves and their points. You can control display of paths, their color as well as the transparency of the whole Paths layer. Also, you can control points visibility, their alignment; perform undo and redo actions with points; delete one point or all of them. The Paths panel is available both from the Capture tab and from the Timing tab.

Click this button to access the Layers panel.

Click this button to hide or show the Paths layer.

Press this button to start draw paths by hand.

Click this button to add line points.

Click this button and draw a rectangle to add a polyline.

You can control the geometry of the line by dragging its points and changing their type. Place the mouse cursor over a point and use Shift + click to change point type from line to curve or vice versa.

You can move, scale, and delete individual paths, points, sets of points, or all project paths. To select a path, click it while holding down the Ctrl key, or double-click any point belonging to that path.

To delete a point or several points, select them and press the Backspace key, or Delete button.

Click this button to completely remove all paths. Confirm the deletion by clicking on this button again. You can right-click on the button or press the Esc key to cancel the deletion.

You can control the exposure of your frames any time you want: during the shooting or later when you test your sequence or preparing for export.

Enable and set Preserve Highlights to preserve highlights when lighten the image (0.0 - no preservation, 1.0 - full preservation).

Enable and set Digital Exposure Compensation to set up the exposure shift. The higher this value the lighter the image.

Turn on Use camera WB to apply the camera's white balance settings during RAW processing.

Enable the Crop Image option to crop the RAW image if it's larger than it should. Many cameras that can shot RAW have a kind of feature: they can capture and save RAW images that are slightly bigger than they should be according to camera settings. Crop the unwanted with the Crop Image feature enabled.

You can use the Onionskin feature to mix the live image with the current captured frame.

Use the layer transparency slider to decide the transparency amount of the current and previous frames. You can mix Onionskin settings, layer transparency, and Blend modes.

Set the blend mode to determine how Captured, Reference, and Live View layers are blended into each other, depending on the light condition and colors in your scene.

AnimaShooter Pioneer can utilize multiple monitors at once, one of which can operate as a lightbox.

Click this button to open a separate window to preview captured and reference images.

Click this button to open a lightbox window.

You can hide any frame using the Hide button. Hidden frames are normal frames except they not played nor exported.

Use Ctrl + Click to select one or more frames.

Using the middle mouse button, you can select single frame or a group of frames.

To move one or a group of frames, use the Alt + drag.

To copy one or a group of frames, use the Ctrl + Alt + drag.

You can also use the regular Ctrl + C and Ctrl + V to copy and paste frames.

You can import PNG, JPG, JPEG, WEBP, CRW, CR2, JFIF, AVIF images with a few simple clicks.

Click Add->Frames to add one or multiple images. Click Add->Sequence to add a sequence of numbered images. AnimaShooter will create a new frame for each image to be imported. The first new frame will be added right after the current frame.

Click Replace->Frames to replace one or multiple images. Click Replace->Sequence to replace images on your timeline with a sequence of numbered images specified by a file name mask. AnimaShooter will replace the specified amount of images starting with the current frame.

You can import CRW or CR2 raw image files into your project exactly the same way you import any other images.

RAM-preview functionality is for rapid preview of animation in motion without creating a video file. Press Play button or Spacebar to see Ram-preview in action.

Yellow line on the bottom of Timeline marks the range of frames to be played via the RAM-preview.

To play back a project switch to Timing tab.

Play a whole project from the beginning: Locate the RAM-Preview control panel. Click Range -> All. Press the Space bar or click the Play button.

Play a section of a project: Drag left and right markers to the desired positions. When you select a portion of the project, the selected area is marked with a yellow line. Press the Space bar or click the Play button.

Stop playback: Press the Space bar or click the Stop button.

Chromakey Preview is an effect useful with RAM-preview to promptly test your set if you use the color background for further keying.

Chromakey or chroma keying (also known as green screen) is a visual effect and post-production technique for compositing (layering) two images together based on separating the background from the subject of a topmost image.

Within AnimaShooter chroma key is implemented as an effect to be applied to frames. It takes a selected color range and eliminates it from the frame, revealing a background image. Go to the Filters tab to set it up.

1. Pick a color with Eyedropper and click Apply button.
2. Set up the Similarity value for the key color. The higher this value the more similar colors will be eliminated.
3. Set Blend to make pixels transparent depending on their similarity to the key color.

You can add a custom background to appear behind the chroma key image. The background is a regular image of any format AnimaShooter can handle.

Click this button to choose a background image.

Click this button to remove a background image.

AnimaShooter Pioneer can export captured frames in form of sequence of JPG, PNG, TIFF, WEBP, BMP images. You can export all of the frames or specified range of frames.

Range Tool is the yellow line on the bottom of Timeline, which marks the range of frames to be exported.

AnimaShooter Pioneer can create video from a sequence of captured frames. Note that frame dimensions (width and height) must be a multiple of 8. Press Encode Video button to start encoding.

The yellow line on the bottom of the Timeline marks the range of frames to be exported.

You can always check the total length of your video in hours and seconds with the time counter, located on the Timing tab. Plus, you can move the cursor over the Timeline to see the frames-to-time conversion for every part of your sequence.

You can apply various effects when exporting video. Each effect is applied to the entire exported sequence of frames. Currently, you can apply only one effect at once. Video effects allow you to sharpen, smooth out the grain in your images, average your frames with lightness, adjust color, colorize frames, etc.

Use the Antiflicker effect to reduce flicker.

Use the Spatial Smoothing effect to remove grain while preserving edges.

Use the Sharpen effect to compensate unfocus or blurring artifacts.

You can import video into your project by means of turning its frames into a sequence of still images. The audio track will not be imported.

Determine where and how you want to add frames. You can add frames right after the current one, or replace frames starting from the current one. You can add frames to the Captured row as well as to the Reference row.

Click this button to open the Import dialog box. You can import any video playable by the AnimaShooter built-in video player.

Instead of extracting all frames, you can select a range within a video. You can adjust the range selection start and end points by clicking on Start Point and End Point buttons.

If there are selected frames on the timeline, the video import will replace them, starting from the first selected frame. In this case the End button will not be available. Only as many frames as are highlighted on the timeline will be imported.

To set the start point: Make sure video is playing or paused. Drag the playhead to the desired position and click Start Point button to set a range start point.

To set the end point: Make sure video is playing or paused. Drag the playhead to the desired position and click End Point button to set a range end point.

To adjust where the range starts or ends: Drag the playhead to desired position and click Start Point button to set a range start point or End Point button to set a range end point.

Note, extraction should take a while.

To simplify setting up a frame size, AnimaShooter provides a mechanism retaining the aspect ratio. Any change of the frame width will change its height automatically.

An Exposure Sheet (also known as X-sheet or Dope Sheet) is a traditional animation tool that allows an animator to organize and control the timing of the animation. The timing tab contains the Exposure Sheet table which shows the sequence of captured frames and their phase numbers. Table cells may have rectangular markers inside. The blue marker indicates a first static frame within a sequence of static frames. The black marker indicates one of the normal (nonstatic) frames. You can specify a phase number directly inside the Exposure sheet table cell. To add a phase number, click on one of the nonstatic or first static frames and type a number where the zero appears.

If you are using AnimaShooter as an AppImage, simply delete the .AppImage file.

On the Start menu, select Settings .

Select System -> Apps & features. Select the program, and then select Uninstall.

Follow the directions on the screen.

To capture frames or create a video in AnimaShooter, you first create a project. To create a project click this button In the window that appears, type a name for the project in the Name field and click Save. You can change a project's properties at any time. To customize settings for your project, click this button You can copy or move your project to another computer to continue editing the project or to make a backup.

Plug-in your camera to computer with USB cable. If you're using AnimaShooter Сapture: switch your camera to Manual (M) mode. Set camera quality setting to L, RAW, RAW+L. Turn camera ON and give AnimaShooter a second or two to discover it. Once your camera name displayed, press Connect button.

Click Capture button to make a shot. Wait until the shooting process completes. You can capture multiple frames at once. Before the capture button locate the drop down panel. Click button with number of frames you want to capture by one press.

Switch to Timing tab to check your animation with RAM-preview feature. Look at the Timeline. Yellow line at the bottom of Timeline marks the range of frames to be played. Set a range of frames to play and press Play button or spacebar to see RAM-preview in action.

When your project is finished, you can encode a video of various formats. You can export your video files for publishing, sharing, broadcast delivery, further audio mixing, or post-production. To further polish your project, you can apply some filters to your sequence or video: adjust contrast and/or saturation, remove noise.

The most common method of exchanging video across editing and compositing programs is a sequence of numbered images. AnimaShooter can export captured frames in the form of a sequence of JPG, PNG, TIFF, WEBP, BMP images. You can import your image sequence into an editing program of your choice (AfterEffects, Premiere Pro, etc.).

Click this button to evoke Live View Scopes window.

The The Waveform shows the intensity of both the luminance (brightness) and chrominance (color) levels of an image, depending on the waveform you choose. Unlike the histogram, the waveform displays the levels of each pixel in its location on the image.

You can easily choose which type of waveform you’d like to see: the RGB waveform (shows the RGB signals separated); the luma waveform (displays the brightness of shots) and the chrominance (shows you all three red, green, and blue channel levels as a composite). The display brightness level in the oscilloscope can be adjusted.

The vectorscope displays the hue and the amount of color in an image.

Every frame has two cells: Captured image cell (1) and Reference image cell (2). Use Add and Replace buttons to control the contents of cells.

Use Add option to add new captured or reference frames. Use Replace option to fill an empty cell with an image (captured or reference). Use Add->Sequence or Replace->Sequence option to import sequence of numbered images.

Click Create a new project or Recent projects to load an existing project.

AnimaShooter will add new frames right after the current frame.

Click Add button. To find it, look at the lower left corner of AnimaShooter window.

Click Frames button to open file selection dialog.

You can select any amount of image files in arbitrary order. Click Open to start import.

Click Add button. To find it, look at the lower left corner of AnimaShooter window.

Click Sequence button to open file selection dialog.

Select one file and click Open. AnimaShooter will import a sequence of numbered images, using selected file name as a mask. For example, if you choose Scene_002 (6).png file, the following files will be imported:

• Scene_002 (1).png
• Scene_002 (2).png
• Scene_002 (3).png
• ...
• Scene_002 (2930).png

The resulting sequence.

Click Open project file or Recent projects and load an existing project.

Switch to Timing tab and look at the bottom of the Timeline. The yellow line on the bottom of the Timeline marks the range of frames to be exported.

Click Video tab to set up video format, quality, frame size, export options.

Specify video format (AVI, OGV, or WebM) and set video quality.

Specify video size. You can set frame size up to 8k (7640 x 4320 pixels). Note that frame dimensions (width and height) must be a multiple of 8.

Click Encode Video to start encoding.

Wait until the process completes.

Click View Video to see the results.

Open an existing project.

Use Ctrl + Click or middle mouse button to select a range of frames to be copied.

Hold Ctrl + Alt, press the left mouse button, and drag the orange arrow from the first frame to the last one.

Click Open project file or Recent projects and load an existing project.

Switch to Timing tab and look at the bottom of the Timeline. The yellow line on the bottom of the Timeline marks the range of frames to be exported.

Click this button if you wish to export all of the frames. You can always adjust the range manually.

Click Sequence tab to set up image format and export options. Choose an export format (PNG, JPG, TIFF, WebP, BMP).

If the current frame size doesn't match the actual size of the captured image, you need to set up the export policy. AnimaShooter can stretch the image to fit the frame size or crop image.

Click this icon to select the output folder. Then click Start Export button to begin export. Wait until the export process completes.

Click View Exported Frames button.

The most common method of exchanging video across editing and compositing programs is a sequence of numbered images. You can import your image sequence to an editing program of your choice (AfterEffects, Premiere Pro, etc.).

Open the Lightbox window and drag it to the desired position.

Open Settings dialog and go to the Lightbox settings.

Use color scroll to set the Lightbox color.