Doodly Intermediate Tutorial

Chalkboard Images

Intermediate Tutorial #8
Illustration showing how to have clear images on a chalkboard background in Doodly.

Chalkboard Images

Images placed on a chalkboard canvas become grainy and sometimes unreadable to provide they appearance they were drawn with chalk. This is not always desired but how do you get rid of the grainy look on these images? Keep reading.

Reveal hand medium

Doodly provides two different mediums for revealing; chalk and marker. The chalk is what determines whether the image will be grainy. A chalkboard canvas only has a chalk as the option for medium therefore all images using a chalkboard will have that grainy look to it.

Chalkboard Image

Obtain a chalkboard image by either using one of the websites listed in my Working with Images video tutorial or by exporting a single blank scene in Doodly with the chalkboard with 10 seconds added at the end of the scene and then screenshot the image.

Whiteboard Option

A whiteboard only has a marker associated with it so the images will not appear grainy. When importing the image as an image asset and then stretching it over the canvas, just ensure to disable Erase Mode in the video settings and you have a chalkboard with nice clean images.

Note: Using the whiteboard option will make so grid cannot be seen because the image asset will cover the entire canvas.

Custom Background Option

The same image as mentioned above can be utilized as a custom background image by choosing the custom canvas and selecting background image. Browse to the image on your computer and resize the bounding box to cover the canvas.

Note: The custom background option will allow for the grid to be utilized. This method does not require Erase Mode to be disabled but it does require the marker to be selected as the medium which means the hand will appear to be drawing on a chalkboard with a marker.

Frequently Asked Questions

Find answers to the most common questions regarding this topic.

Images appear grainy on a chalkboard canvas because the software automatically uses chalk as the drawing medium. This chalk effect is designed to look authentic but it can sometimes make your graphics hard to read.

You can avoid the grainy appearance by using a whiteboard canvas instead and importing a picture of a chalkboard to use as your background. Since the whiteboard uses a marker instead of chalk, your imported graphics will remain clear and sharp.

You can download one from various stock photo websites or you can generate your own directly within the software. To make your own, simply create a blank chalkboard scene, extend the duration for ten seconds, export it, and take a screenshot.

When you stretch an imported image to cover the entire whiteboard canvas, it will hide the alignment grid. Additionally, you must remember to turn off the erase mode in your video settings for this method to work properly.

To keep the grid visible, you should select the custom canvas option and upload your chalkboard picture as a custom background image. Just resize the bounding box to fit the screen, and your grid will remain usable, though the drawing hand will hold a marker instead of chalk.

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