For the next production step, use the jointed walk-cycle pose study.
When an action jumps or drifts, a single paused drawing rarely explains why. Onion skin animation lets you compare where the object was, where it is and where it will be without constantly switching frames. Use the overlays to make a specific timing or drawing decision, then inspect the clean result again.
What is onion skin animation
Onion skinning shows earlier and later drawings with reduced opacity. Different colors can distinguish past from future frames. The Blender Grease Pencil manual documents onion skinning as ghost keyframes, including range and opacity controls. Its global overlay switch and per-layer visibility both affect what you see.
The name describes a viewing technique, not an AI generation model. It can help diagnose a frame sequence, but it does not automatically repair a changed face, solve a camera or create missing drawings. A clean line of motion still depends on the drawings and their timing.
Inspect the original neighboring frame study
The free lab above shows a teal ball on an authored arc. Blue is the previous saved frame, teal is the current frame and orange is the next. It uses adjacent saved frames rather than an animation application's keyframe-only display. At the endpoints, the unavailable neighbor is omitted rather than wrapping to the other end of the shot.
At source frame 12, compare frames 11 and 13 around the lowest point. The ball's changing position is easier to inspect with the overlays visible. This version uses round drawings so the spacing study stays separate from the deformation exercise. It is an original SVG demonstration, not uploaded footage or model inference.
Use the free onion skin viewer
- Move the saved-frame slider or use its arrow keys to step through frames 0–23.
- Keep the previous and next frame checkbox enabled to inspect the arc.
- Turn it off to see the clean current drawing.
- Download the displayed SVG after choosing whether the overlays should be included.
- Download the timing CSV to inspect positions and sample times.
The export follows the preview. An SVG saved with ghosts enabled contains the colored overlays; disable them before exporting a clean reference. The timing CSV always describes the 24 authored source samples and does not change when you toggle the viewing aid.
Download the 24-frame timing CSV, original renderer, drawing and timing source, reproduction notes and asset manifest. The source needs Bun, Sharp and FFmpeg. These are authored drawings and plans, not generated model results or native editor projects.
Read spacing rather than treating overlap as a score
| What you see | What it may mean | Next inspection |
|---|---|---|
| Close neighboring positions | Smaller displacement over the same frame interval | Whether the action should slow there |
| Wide gaps | Greater displacement over that interval | Whether the motion remains readable |
| A sudden sideways kink | An intentional direction change or a drawing error | The intended action and the surrounding poses |
| Different object outlines | Planned deformation or identity drift | Approved shape and material rules |
At a fixed frame rate, equal position gaps correspond to equal displacement per sample. That does not mean every animation needs even spacing. Anticipation, impacts and pauses often need a changing rhythm. Compare the observed motion with the action you planned instead of optimizing for equally spaced ghosts.
Use onion skinning with AI generated references
Start by exporting or extracting the actual frames through your chosen editor. Keep the original timing and dimensions. In an application that supports overlays, compare a small window around a failed movement: the hand reaching for a handle, a character turning, or a prop contacting a table. Our lab does not upload or analyze your sequence.
If the background drifts while the character moves, separate camera behavior from character continuity. If an eye shifts between frames, compare the head pose and identity reference. A ghost overlay reveals the difference; it does not decide whether the difference is correct. For motion-created intermediate frames, see frame interpolation.
Keep the final export clean
Turn off editing overlays before rendering the final animation. Check the actual exported file rather than trusting the editor preview. Inspect the first frame, the fastest action, the contact moment and the last frame, then play the file at its intended speed.
For a Clout project, approve a visual reference in Image and Video and maintain the same character and location brief across the sequence in AI Cinema. Use your animation editor for frame-specific corrections when the chosen generation operation does not expose those controls. Review smear frames as intentional transition drawings rather than classifying every stretched frame as a failure.
