The C&W animation toolkit · Krita

Your first steps in Krita.

Free digital painting and 2D animation. Made by artists, for artists.

Krita is a free, open-source painting program you can use for concept art, illustration, comics and frame-by-frame animation. Follow the eleven steps below and you’ll go from downloading it to drawing your first animated loop.

Start at step 1 ↓ Download Krita ↗
iMe designing at a drawing tablet
Ash Mountford as a clay character

“Krita feels like it was made by people who actually draw. The brushes behave like real pencils and paint, and I can go from a rough sketch to a moving animation without ever leaving the canvas.”

Ash MountfordHead of 2D at Carse & Waterman
£0

Free, for good

No trial, no subscription, no adverts. It’s open source, made by the Krita Foundation and volunteers around the world.

Crayon

Named for what it does

“Krita” is Swedish for crayon or chalk. It’s built for drawing and painting first, not photo editing.

2D anim

Animation built in

Draw frame by frame with onion skins and a timeline, then export a video. No extra software needed.

Step by step

Eleven steps to your first animated loop.

Pick a step, watch it play, then try it in Krita. Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

    1

    Keep this handy

    The Krita cheat sheet.

    Everything from the steps above on one card. On a Mac, use Cmd where it says Ctrl.

    Moving around

    Space + drag
    Pan
    Scroll wheel
    Zoom
    Shift + Space + drag
    Rotate the canvas
    Numpad 5
    Reset the rotation
    M
    Mirror the view

    Drawing

    B
    Brush
    Shift + drag
    Brush size
    Ctrl + click
    Pick a colour
    E
    Eraser on and off
    Insert
    New layer
    Ctrl + Z
    Undo

    Animating and saving

    Window ▸ Workspace ▸ Animation
    Animation layout
    Right click ▸ Create Duplicate Frame
    New frame
    Ctrl + S
    Save (.kra)
    File ▸ Export
    Save a picture
    File ▸ Render Animation
    Save a video

    Where next

    Keep going. It’s all free.

    Done the steps? These are the places we point people to next.

    Look it up

    The Krita Manual

    Every brush, docker and menu explained, with beginner tutorials to start you off.

    Open the manual ↗     Animation

    Animating in Krita

    The official guide to the timeline, onion skins and rendering your animation.

    Read the guide ↗     Ask for help

    Krita Artists

    The friendly community forum: share work, ask questions and pick up brush packs.

    Join the forum ↗     Video

    Krita on YouTube

    Official videos showing off new features and how to use them.

    Watch on YouTube ↗

    Where it can take you.

    Drawing and 2D animation skills lead into real jobs. These are some of the roles that start with what you just learned.

    • Concept artistPaints the first look of characters, places and props.
    • IllustratorDraws for books, adverts, games and packaging.
    • 2D animatorBrings drawings to life, frame by frame.
    • Storyboard artistPlans every shot of a film before it’s made.
    • Comic artistTells stories in panels, from webcomics to graphic novels.
    • Background painterPaints the worlds that animated characters live in.

    Made something? Show us.

    Tag @carseandwaterman with your first Krita drawing. Or if you’d rather the humans made it for you, we’d love to hear what you need.

    Let’s talk →