Step-by-step: Making the most of frames

In Preferences>Layer Frame, set the Frame Border Horizontal Space and Vertical Space to 5mm each. Clip Studio Paint uses the 5mm both as a default and a guide when moving frames close to each other, but you can adjust individual frames to overlap them or alter gutters. (If your measurements aren’t in mm, change that in Preferences> Ruler/Unit>Unit Of Length.)

Once you’ve created a new frame (Layer>New Layer> Frame Border Layer), with a border set using Line Width (it will remember your last used size and default to that), you can then slice the frame up using the Divide Frame Folder tool, making sure it’s set to Divide Not Folder but Frame Border. Hold Shift while placing the cut to fix the angle of cut in 45- degree increments.

Select Rectangle Frame, making sure the layer selected is the frame folder layer (if you’re on another layer, creating a rectangle frame will also create a brand new frame folder layer). You can now add this new frame on top of any other. Since Clip Studio Paint lacks any tools for reordering panels, though, it’s handy to know that cutting and pasting a frame moves it to the top.

Using the Polyline Frame and setting its Draw Border property to unchecked, you can now draw a frame over the top of any other. This is incredibly useful if you want to add a bit of drama to a frame by having a character punch his way out, or even open the top or bottom of the frame up. The Polyline frame sits on top and hides the frame borders of any frames it’s on top of.