Raster Drawing - still missing from AS

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:16 pm

One of the features that I think would make AS a killer app for me is a raster drawing capability, similar to Photoshop or Toon Boom. This'd be awesome. Then I could use my tablet and do frame-by-frame stuff instead of using Toon Boom Animate/Photoshop.

Been asking for this for a while now.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 5:40 pm

Absolutely agree. There would be a new kind of frame by frame layers with its own controls. To keep the anme file clean and still editable on notepad, it could create a folder with each image layer created.

It would be awesome to have nice and fast bitmap tools. I'm thinking as example on Sai Paint tool, an awesome and light software (no more than 2mb on a zip) full featured and one hundred times faster than photoshop or corel painter. It would be ideal to have that kind of features and velocity on AS.

pd: mikdog, you absolutely should try that little software, they have a 31 days demo you can download here
http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

PARKER · Post by **PARKER** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:44 pm

Totally agree, i give you 10 points for your idea Mikdog.

Imago · Post by **Imago** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:47 pm

I think it can be a good new feature, but...
Where you can put the buttons?
The AS tool bar are very full, I'm running out of space for tools.

Post by **Víctor Paredes** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 7:56 pm

Imago wrote:I think it can be a good new feature, but...
Where you can put the buttons?
The AS tool bar are very full, I'm running out of space for tools.

Drawing tools could switch to bitmap mode when you have a frame by frame layer selected.

F.M. · Post by **F.M.** » Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:14 pm

Maybe soon!

crsP · Post by **crsP** » Sun Jul 18, 2010 11:55 am

Good idea, and I will add that a better onion skinning is needed. One where you can see the actual stroke and not just the wire centre line. Maybe something like Pencil or Tweenmaker, where you have a 'rough' layer, which will essentially be a bitmap drawing layer. So even if you're going to end up with just vectors, you can lay down some key frames [in the animation sense] which you will then 'ink' with vectors.

Matsuemon · Post by **Matsuemon** » Mon Nov 15, 2010 4:32 am

Hey yah, I completely agree about the rastor drawing tools. Would make some things so much easier and not so frustrating.

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:22 pm

Toon boom uses vector.
The drawing tools are far better in toon boom.
I think it would be a far too large task to implement full raster drawing like in Corel Painter . If we were able to import more vector files then we could prep the art in out raster application of choice then vectorize in inkscape, illustrator flash or whatever.
I do long for better drawing tools and love the idea of some raster tools for sketching and FBF scene planning but they don't need to be awesome as the beauty of vector is the resolution independence that are often so indispensable for serious work.
I agree with the onion skin, the existing line is harsh, distracting and easily confused by many lines.

dueyftw · Post by **dueyftw** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 1:54 pm

How about taking this idea to the next step? Vector drawing tools that are like Toonboom? Instead of a single line, a line that is a shape? That shape line that would connect by two points to another shape line. As the line is drawn it would lay down parallel points with an edge setting and a fill color?

Each point would have a 'sister' point.
If you edit the shape by moving one point the sister would move with it but as the two points move all of the other points will keep the same distance. The move tool would be like the magnet tool, so the line would keep it's shape unless you start editing each point individually. The size of the tool would control the size of the curve added to the line.

Dale