Project Settings: The Foundation of Your Animation

Before you draw a single line or insert a single keyframe, you need to tell Brinimate what kind of project you’re making. Is it a cinematic short at 24 FPS? A retro game asset at 12 FPS? An Instagram reel or a widescreen desktop wallpaper?

The Settings Panel (accessible via the Gear icon in the header) is where you define these fundamental parameters.

🎞️ Framerate (FPS)

FPS stands for Frames Per Second. It dictates how many drawings are flashed on screen every second.

Standard FPS choices:

24 FPS: The global standard for film and classic 2D animation. Smooth but retains a slightly “filmic” look. (Default)
30 FPS / 60 FPS: Common for web animations, UI motion graphics, and video games. Extremely smooth.
12 FPS: “Animation on twos”. Classic anime and retro cartoon style. Choppier, but requires half the drawing effort of 24 FPS.

Crucial Warning: Change your framerate before you start animating. If you animate a 1-second action at 24 FPS (24 frames long), and then change your project settings to 12 FPS, that same action will now take 2 seconds to play.

📐 Canvas Size (Resolution)

The Canvas Size determines the physical dimensions (in pixels) of your final export.

Common Resolutions:

1920 × 1080 (16:9): Standard HD video (YouTube, TV, monitors).
1080 × 1920 (9:16): Vertical video (TikTok, Instagram Reels, Shorts).
1080 × 1080 (1:1): Square video (Social media feeds).
Custom: Any dimensions you require.

You can change the canvas size at any time. However, if you’ve already filled the 1920x1080 screen with a background and then change the canvas to 1080x1920, you’ll need to manually resize and reposition your artwork to fit the new aspect ratio.

📏 Grids and Guides

In Brinimate, you can toggle a visual grid on the canvas to help align your artwork.

In the Settings panel:

Toggle Show Grid.
Adjust the Grid Size (e.g., 50px, 100px) depending on the precision you need.
Toggle Snap to Grid. When this is on, the Eraser tool, Selection bounding box, and new shapes will mathematically click to the nearest grid intersection.

This is indispensable when creating isometric art, UI mockups, or architectural / mechanical drawings where precise alignment is required.

🎨 Background Color

By default, the Brinimate canvas has a transparent/white background. In the Settings panel, you can set a global Background Color.

A dark gray (#1e1e1e) is excellent when working mostly with light colors or the Effects brushes (Neon/Glow).
A pure green (#00ff00) acts like a virtual greenscreen if you plan to composite your animation in a video editor later.

This color is strictly theoretical — it exists behind all your layers. If you want a real, animatable background, draw a massive rectangle on your bottom-most layer.

💡 Pro Tip — Setup Once, Auto-Save Forever If you are setting out to produce a 10-episode web series, open Brinimate, set your Canvas Size to 1920x1080, set FPS to 24, configure your Grid to 100px, and define your background color. Save this completely empty file as template_series.json. Every time you start a new episode, import the template. Never configure settings twice!