Frame by Frame Animation Maker: Draw a Cartoon Online

An online tool for frame-by-frame animation: you draw the frames on a sheet and the tool turns them into a cartoon. Onion skin shows the neighboring frames under the current one, a selected part of the drawing can be moved and rotated instead of being redrawn, and the background is drawn once for all frames. The finished hand-drawn animation can be saved as a GIF, an MP4 video, a set of PNGs or a sprite sheet.

How to draw an animation frame by frame

Draw the first frame

The brush draws the line, the bucket fills the outline. Whatever does not move goes on the “Background” layer — it is shared by all frames.

Duplicate and move

“Duplicate” copies the frame. Select a part of the drawing and move it — onion skin shows where it was.

Check the motion

Space plays the animation right on the sheet. Frames per second set the pace, frame duration sets the pauses.

Download the file

“Download” builds a GIF, a video, PNG frames or a sprite sheet right in the browser.

Draw your animation frame by frame and save it as a GIF or a video

Size 10

Opacity

Line smoothing

What the tool does

Onion skin

Up to three frames before and after show through under the current one: earlier frames in pink, later ones in blue, with adjustable strength. They show where the line moved and how far.

Move part of a drawing

Outline an arm or a ball with a box or a lasso — then move, rotate, scale or flip it. A selection can be copied and pasted on another frame in the same place.

A paint bucket that does not leak

The bucket closes gaps in an outline up to 4 pixels wide and runs under the edge of the line, so no pale rim is left between the color and the stroke.

One background for all frames

The “Background” layer is drawn once and stays under every frame. You can also put a photo or a sketch there and trace over it.

Duration of every frame

Any frame can be held for 1 to 12 ticks: a pause before a jump is one drawing, not ten copies. Playback loops, goes back and forth, or runs once.

Four output formats

GIF for messengers, MP4 video with true color, a ZIP of PNG frames for editing and a sprite sheet no larger than 4096 pixels per side — with the grid in the file name.

Frequently asked questions

How many frames can I draw?

Up to 240. At 12 frames per second that is twenty seconds of animation; when frames are held for more than one tick, the clip runs longer with the same number of drawings.

How do I move part of a drawing instead of redrawing it?

Duplicate the frame, take “Select” and outline the part with a box or a lasso. You can drag it, rotate it by the handle above the box and pull its corners. While the part is “in the air” the frame is unchanged: “Done” puts it down as one step, and “Undo” brings everything back as it was.

Why did the paint bucket fill the whole sheet?

The outline is open: there is a gap wider than 4 pixels in the line and the color got out through it. Press “Undo”, draw the line closed and fill again. Narrower gaps are closed by the tool itself while “Close gaps” is on.

What is onion skin?

Translucent neighboring frames under the current one. Earlier frames are tinted pink and later ones blue, so you see both the direction of the motion and the step between frames. While you draw the background, onion skin is hidden.

Why does my drawing look grainier in the GIF than on the sheet?

The GIF format stores 256 colors per frame at most, so soft brush edges and translucent strokes are built out of dots. A GIF is also scaled down from the sheet to the size you picked. If exact color and full sharpness matter, save a video or PNG frames.

Can I draw with a finger or a stylus?

Yes. Stylus pressure changes the line width, and a palm resting on the screen next to it leaves no marks. Two fingers zoom and move the sheet, and a quick two-finger tap undoes the last action.

What is a sprite sheet for?

Game engines take an animation as one grid image. The tool lays the frames out in a grid, scales it down to 4096 pixels per side — a texture size every engine accepts — and writes the number of columns, rows and the cell size into the file name.

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Who is this tool for?

🎬 Video Creators

Published 09 Aug 2026 Updated 06 Oct 2026 Author: The Supreme