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Framevia Studio support

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I'm a small team (currently one person) — every email gets a real reply, not a ticket number.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I find the brush tools?

The left column has all drawing tools: eraser, pen, four brushes, fountain pen, fill tool. Press 07 for direct keyboard shortcuts. Brush size and opacity sliders are in the right sidebar.

How do I customize a color? The palette only shows 10.

Every swatch in the color palette is fully customizable. Double-click or right-click any swatch to open the HSB color picker — pick any color you want and the swatch will keep that color until you change it again. A small tooltip appears when you hover.

How do I use onion skin?

The toolbar above the canvas has three onion-skin buttons (previous frames, next frames, both). Toggle any of them to see neighboring frames as semi-transparent ghosts behind the current frame — invaluable for tracking motion between drawings. Onion skin shows the keyframes around the current frame, not interpolated frames.

How do I draw a rectangle / circle / line / arrow?

Open the Tools menu in the menu bar and pick a shape, or use the Shapes button at the bottom of the brush bar. Keyboard shortcuts: ⌘⇧R rectangle, ⌘⇧E ellipse, ⌘⇧L line, ⌘⇧A arrow.

Drag on the canvas to draw the shape. While drawing, hold Shift to lock to a square / circle / 45° line. After you release, the shape stays editable as a floating object — drag the body to move it, drag any corner handle to resize, press Delete to cancel, or click outside (or switch to another tool) to commit it as pixels into the layer.

Once a shape is committed, it becomes part of the bitmap and can no longer be moved as an object — it's strokes on the layer at that point.

How do I navigate frames?

The frame strip at the bottom of the canvas shows every frame in the project. Click any frame thumbnail to jump to it. Keyboard: previous frame, next frame, ⌥← first frame, ⌥→ last frame, Space play, ⇧Space play in reverse. Type a frame number into the "Go to" field to jump directly.

How do I add or duplicate a frame?

Press N for a new blank frame, or D to duplicate the current frame. The toolbar above the canvas has buttons for the same actions. Use the trash button or backspace to delete the current frame (a confirmation dialog appears first).

How many layers can I have per frame?

Each frame has up to two drawing layers (Middle and Foreground) plus an optional Background image that's shared across all frames. Use the L button or right sidebar to switch between layers. The eye icon next to each layer toggles its visibility.

What's Focus Mode?

Press Tab (or pick View → Focus Mode) to collapse every panel and surface only the canvas, the active brush, and the frame strip. Press Tab again to restore the full editor. Useful when you're deep in a drawing pass and want to remove visual chrome.

How do I export the animation?

Press ⇧⌘E or open File → Export. Supported formats: MOV, MP4, GIF, AVI. The export sheet lets you choose resolution and frame rate. The animation plays back at the FPS you set in the playback toolbar.

Where are my projects saved?

Every project is saved wherever you tell the system Save dialog to put it (the file extension is .ad2). The app also maintains a working library inside its sandbox container so you can browse and reopen recent projects from the Project Manager (left sidebar). Pin a project by right-clicking it in the list.

The sample animation didn't appear on first launch.

The starter "Bouncing Ball" sample is staged once on first launch into your sandbox container. If something interrupted that step, open File → Open and pick sample.ad2 from the app's bundle directly — or email us and we'll guide you through.

Does Framevia Studio upload my animations anywhere?

No. The app does not connect to any Joy Truepath server. Your animation files stay on your local disk. See the privacy policy for the full breakdown.

How do I get a refund?

Refunds on Mac App Store purchases are handled by Apple, not by us. Go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in with the Apple ID that purchased the app, and request a refund. If Apple denies it and you believe you have a strong case, email us and we will reach out to Apple on your behalf.

Reporting a bug

If you found a reproducible bug, email [email protected] with:

If the app crashed, please also include the crash log from ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/Framevia Studio-*.ips (or "Console.app → Crash Reports").