Draw the key poses

Draw the key poses — guided practice

Create separate bitmap drawings at named times.

Open dot-loop-01.pclx. Frame 1: center (160, 70). Frame 5: (160, 85). Frame 9: (160, 130). Frame 13: (160, 178), a wide squash. Frame 17: (160, 130). Frame 21: (160, 85). Coordinates are approximate pixels from the camera top-left; ordinary poses are roughly 24 pixels across. The ground is y=190. At 12 frames per second, frames 1–24 last two seconds.

1. 1. Name the moving layer

   Double-click the existing Bitmap layer name and rename it Ball. Select frame 1 on this layer. Choose Pencil with width about 4 pixels and a dark color. Sketch a closed circle near (160, 70).

   You should see: Frame 1 contains a small, readable ball outline.

   Simple shapes make position and timing easier to compare.

2. 2. Add independent keys

   Click frame 5, then the Add keyframe button above the timeline. Draw the ball near (160, 85). Repeat Add at frames 9, 13, 17, 21 using the pose list. Draw frame 13 as a roughly 36×24 oval centered at (160, 178).

   You should see: Six keyframe marks exist; the contact oval touches the ground guide at y=190.

   Explicitly adding a key prevents accidental edits to the previous held image.

3. 3. Inspect one frame at a time

   Turn onion skin off for now. Click each of the six keys. If an old and new ball coexist in one drawing, use Undo and create a blank key before redrawing.

   You should see: Each key contains one ball, not a trail of six balls.

   The trail belongs across time, not inside a single frame.

4. 4. Save a milestone

   Save As dot-loop-02.pclx. Scrub the timeline from frame 1 to 24 and note the contact at 13.

   You should see: The six poses follow the planned rise-and-fall sequence.

   A milestone preserves the simple pose version for comparison.