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What is a Reference Frame?

In order for Cadmium to color your frames, it needs an example of how they should be colored. Reference frames are denoted on the timeline with a purple dot. You can import one or multiple reference frames by dragging them onto the color layer. These reference frames must be numbered in order to appear in the correct position on the timeline (e.g. reference_04.png will appear at frame 4). You can also color your own reference frames directly in Cadmium.

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Preprocessing Color Frames

Once you’ve selected or dragged your image to the color layer, Cadmium will “preprocess” the color frame. If there is a corresponding line image, the line image defines the color boundaries of your reference image, and the most prominent color in each segment will be filled in. Your color palette will also populate with all of the colors.

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Creating Color References

There are two ways to create color references:
  1. Import a frame — Any color frame you import to the color layer becomes a reference frame.
  2. Color manually — Paint a frame directly in Cadmium to create a reference.
Right-click on any color frame to change whether or not it is a reference.

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Reference Panel

Reference Panel
If you have a style frame of how you want your character to look, but the frame is not part of your animation sequence, you can import it into the Reference Panel. The button to open it is in the top-right corner next to the help button. To add images, press the + icon in the Library dropdown and navigate to your file. You can import multiple style frames at once, selecting the filename you want to view. Zoom in with the zoom tool or middle-mouse scroll. The eyedropper lets you select colors from your reference image to apply to the canvas.