Blue Pencil toolbar

The Blue Pencil toolbar gives you access to common tools and operations, letting you switch tools, add and remove keys, change the drawing color and toggle ghosting.

The Blue Pencil toolbar

To open the Blue Pencil toolbar:

Note: You can also see these tools settings in the Blue Pencil Tool settings.

Pencil

Lets you draw freehand in the Viewport at the current time in the Time Slider. See the Pencil section in the Blue Pencil Tool settings topic for more information.

The following options are available:

  • Size
  • Opacity
  • Enable tablet pressure for size
  • Enable tablet pressure for opacity

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil. for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Note: The Pencil tool Enable Tablet Pressure for size option is On by default, while Enable Tablet Pressure for opacity is Off by default. See Use a tablet with Blue Pencil for more information on tablets.

Brush

Lets you draw freehand in the Viewport with a softer edge at the current time in the Time Slider.

The following options are available:
  • Size
  • Opacity
  • Enable tablet pressure for size
  • Enable tablet pressure for opacity

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Note: The default Enable tablet pressure setting for the Brush tool is On. See Use a tablet with Blue Pencil for more information on tablets.

Eraser

Erases brush strokes on the Blue Pencil sketch at the current frame.

The following option is available:

  • Size
  • Enable Tablet Pressure for size

See Clean up Blue Pencil sketches for information on Erasing frames and Use a tablet with Blue Pencil for information on tablets.

Text

Adds a text box to the scene where you can type.

The following options are available:

  • Font
  • Size
  • Opacity

Blue Pencil uses the system default font on operating systems other than Windows which uses Arial. On Macintosh, San Francisco is the default font and Liberation Sans is used on Linux.

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Note: Currently, Blue Pencil text does not support Chinese or Japanese character sets. To use Chinese or Japanese character sets, copy and paste them into Blue Pencil from a text editor.

Line

Drag across the screen to create a straight line.

The following options are available:
  • Size
  • Opacity

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Arrow

Drag across the screen to create a line capped with an arrowhead.

The following options are available:
  • Size
  • Opacity

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Ellipse

Drag across the screen to create an oval shape.

The following options are available:
  • Size
  • Opacity

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Rectangle

Drag across the screen to create a square shape.

The following options are available:
  • Size
  • Opacity

See Draw in the Viewport with Blue Pencil for information on working with Blue Pencil sketches.

Transform mode Activates Transform Mode, which lets you move, scale, and rotate (among other things) your Blue Pencil sketches.

See Modify drawings with Blue Pencil Transform mode for more information.

Draw Color
Note: The Draw Color setting appears under each drawing tool.
Click the color tile to open the Color Chooser and change the tool color. The Color Chooser displays the current drawing color.

Ghost Previous

Displays ghost sketches for frames before the current frame.

The following options are available:
  • Pre-Frames
  • Pre-Frame color
  • Enable Color Override

See Preview frames with Blue Pencil Ghosting for more.

Ghost Next

Displays ghost sketches for frames after the current frame. The following options are available:
  • Post-Frames
  • Post-Frame color
  • Enable Color Override

See Preview frames with Blue Pencil Ghosting for more.

Retime Forward

Moves the Blue Pencil frames after the current frame ahead on the Time Slider by the amount set in the Frame Range field. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Retime Backward

Moves the Blue Pencil frames after the current frame back on the Time Slider by the amount set in the Frame Range field. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Add Frame

Inserts a blank frame at the current time. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Clear Frame

Empties the current frame. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Delete Frame

Removes the frame at the current time. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Duplicate Previous Frame

Creates an identical version of the previous frame at the current time. See the Difference between Copy Frame(s) and Duplicate Previous Frame section in the Work with Blue Pencil frames topic.

Cut Frame

Removes the frame at the current time and copies it to the clipboard. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Copy Frame

Copies the selected frame to the clipboard. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Paste Frame

Pastes the contents of the clipboard at the current time. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Jump to Previous Frame

Moves the selection to the frame before. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Jump to Next Frame

Moves the selection to the following frame. See Work with Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Import Blue Pencil Frames

Opens .zip archives and adds the frame to the current scene. See Import or export Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Export Blue Pencil Frames

Saves the Scene's Blue Pencil frames as a .zip archive. See Import or export Blue Pencil frames for more information.

Note: If you reference Blue Pencil drawings into another scene using File Referencing, they do not appear. They are meant to be added to the final scene.