Frame animation turns a sequence of drawings into motion. Each Pixels frame contains independent artwork, so you can change a pose without changing the frames before and after it.
Build The Sequence
Open More > Window > Animation Timeline. A still document appears as one frame; it does not need a separate animation document type.
Duplicate selected frame copies the current pose into a new frame after it. This is useful for small movements. Add blank frame starts fresh instead. Select a frame thumbnail to edit that frame's own layer stack.
Use Frame options to move the selected frame earlier or later, or delete it. At least one frame remains in the document.
Layers provide structure within a frame; frames provide order over time. For example, Character and Shadow can stay separate in every pose while each pose occupies a different frame.
The selected frame has its own layers; the timeline controls the sequence and playback.
Preview The Motion
Set the playback speed from 1 to 60 frames per second, then use Play animation. At least two frames are needed. Enable Loop to repeat the sequence, or switch it off to review a single pass.
Playback is a preview. It does not overwrite the selected drawing or create a new edit for every displayed frame. Editing artwork, changing frame settings, or opening smart-object contents stops playback.
The timeline can be closed to recover workspace room. Closing its controls does not itself stop a running preview, so pause first when you want a still editing view.
Save The Whole Animation
Frames, their artwork, and playback settings belong to the document and are retained by the Pixels layered-project format. Use Save for a shared document, or download a .vspixels project for a local one.
Image export is not an animated export. PNG, JPEG, WebP, SVG, and PSD commands export the active artwork rather than producing a movie, animated GIF, or sprite sheet. Choose the intended frame before exporting a still image.
Try Animate A Sprite for a complete first sequence.
Common Questions
Why did changing one frame leave the others unchanged?
Frames have independent artwork. This lets each pose differ. A duplicated frame is a starting copy, not a linked instance.
Why can I not change frames while editing a smart object?
The smart object's contents are a focused editing session. Finish or cancel those edits to return to the parent document and its timeline.