reduce point tool useless?

General Moho topics.

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

Post Reply
User avatar
Nicohk92
Posts: 269
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:31 pm

reduce point tool useless?

Post by Nicohk92 »

Hey everybody.


Some great things in V10 (and some less great ones some of which have been mentioned already) but much props to the developers.

Am I the only one to find "reduce points" completely useless?

Been trying to clean up some SvGs. Not only does it miss the most obviously un-needed points (like the little nodes lost in between two close ones), it takes off the one crucial nodes and change my shapes. No matter the tolerance setting or radius, I don't find anyway to put this tool to good use.


Any advice?


Thanks
User avatar
AmigaMan
Posts: 1017
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 3:40 pm
Location: UK
Contact:

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by AmigaMan »

I found it very useful for reducing points after using the Blob Brush. I don't think it's intelligent enough to know which points you want saving and which you particularly want deleting. I have no idea what "SvGs" are? I hate it when people abbreviate words and leave others to work out what they mean but maybe I'm just thick :D However, it really isn't difficult just to use the Add Points Tool and trace around your designs. Don't use the Freehand Tool. I never use it.
User avatar
heyvern
Posts: 7035
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 4:49 am

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by heyvern »

I agree the reduce points tool isn't perfect... but... useless? Not quite. :) I use it "selectively" not "globally".

p.s. SvGs... are... well... they are SVGs... .SVG vector files. ;)
User avatar
Nicohk92
Posts: 269
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2014 4:31 pm

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by Nicohk92 »

I tried using it on many occasions and always ended up having to do it manually (but I haven't used the Blub brush much yet). I was thinking there could be a way for the program to determine which point would change the shape and which one wouldn't. Not that tool unfortunately but I don't loose hope that it improves in future releases. Thanks for the responses.
User avatar
heyvern
Posts: 7035
Joined: Fri Sep 02, 2005 4:49 am

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by heyvern »

I too PREFER doing it by hand. Normally for something like removing points there is no way a computer is "smart" enough to do it correctly.

Point placement in Anime Studio is an "artistic" process. It isn't "mechanical". You need to have an eye for what it should look like. Point placement is critical to the shape in Anime Studio. Unlike programs like Adobe Illustrator you can't add or remove points without disrupting the shape to some degree.

I use the reduce point tool for a "brute force" type of thing, then rearrange the points.

p.s. In the olden days long ago... I tried creating a "remove points" tool for my pencils and paint brushes... I never got it to work effectively. ;)
User avatar
Greenlaw
Posts: 9192
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:45 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by Greenlaw »

heyvern wrote:p.s. In the olden days long ago... I tried creating a "remove points" tool for my pencils and paint brushes... I never got it to work effectively. ;)
That's what I really want. While I don't find Reduce Points to be 'useless', I was actually hoping that the tool worked like a brush-style eraser where you could just 'rub out' the points you absolutely don't want. I hope the devs will be able to add this in an future release. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult since it's essentially a variation of the existing Reduce Points tool.

G.
Last edited by Greenlaw on Wed Apr 16, 2014 10:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
OlgaI
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Apr 16, 2014 3:54 am

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by OlgaI »

Useless for me, too. If the threshold is low it doesn't reduce much and if it is high it changes the line. So manual work will be needed anyway :)
User avatar
dueyftw
Posts: 2174
Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 10:32 am
Location: kingston NY
Contact:

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by dueyftw »

Greenlaw wrote:
heyvern wrote:p.s. In the olden days long ago... I tried creating a "remove points" tool for my pencils and paint brushes... I never got it to work effectively. ;)
That's what I really want. While I don't find Reduce Points to be 'useless', I was actually hoping that the tool worked like a brush-style eraser where you could just 'rub out' the points you absolutely don't want. I hope the devs will be able to add this in an future release. I imagine it wouldn't be too difficult since it's essentially a variation of the existing Reduce Points tool.

G.
If you could make the delete key a tool, then all you would have to do is select a point or more and click on the delete tool. For me it would an improved work flow.

Dale
User avatar
Greenlaw
Posts: 9192
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:45 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by Greenlaw »

Actually, if the Reduce Points tools had an alt-mode that made it behaving like the 'Point Eraser' described above, that would fulfill my wish item perfectly. For example, pick Reduce Points, hold Alt and erase away. No point selections necessary.

Just wondering, Is there an official place where users can make bug reports and feature requests?

G.
User avatar
InfoCentral
Posts: 935
Joined: Fri May 26, 2006 8:35 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by InfoCentral »

If it wasn't for the fact that AS adds all those points on import in the first place you won't need a reduce point tool.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML-based vector image format for two-dimensional graphics with support for interactivity and animation.
MEETUP.COM - start or join a group
User avatar
Greenlaw
Posts: 9192
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:45 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by Greenlaw »

My intended workflow for the Reduce Points tool was to use it to quickly clean up free-handed drawings for occasional frame-by-frame sequences. In 'Scareplane', there are a couple of shots that needed to be animated as FBF, which I felt were made more difficult to create in ASP than necessary. A good example is the scene where Sergent tumbles backwards from the pilot's seat (1:46)--I would have liked to have added more frames to smooth out the animation but the frames simply took too long to plot and edit manually with the 'traditional' ASP tools. While I don't ordinarily mind plotting points on a curve for rigged characters that can be re-used, In this particular case I would have preferred to quickly freehand the individual frames and then used a Reduce Points and the requested Erase Points tool (if they had existed in ASP 9.5) to do quick cleanup in the frames.

IMO, if the Reduce Points tool in 10 had a few more enhancements, it could help make creating FBF sequences (as seen in 'Scareplane',) more practical to do in ASP. As the tool stands, it doesn't go quite far enough. To me, it's not exactly 'useless' but a few more options and the requested 'eraser mode' could make it a heckuva lot more useful.

Naturally, improvements to the Freehand tool itself are also desired--I wish the tool was a little more like the vector brushes in Manga Studio EX. Maybe in ASP 10.x? The new Blob brush is certainly an interesting addition to the drawing tool kit, but what's really needed is a better Freehand tool.

Just a few thoughts. :)

G.
User avatar
exile
Posts: 359
Joined: Mon Jul 30, 2012 10:25 pm
Location: Brandenburg, Germany
Contact:

Re: reduce point tool useless?

Post by exile »

I couldn't find a setting (yet) which preserved the shape and reduced points to a manageable number - just thought it was me not getting something. Blob is cool for a hand-painted look on tree foliage and such, but adds a huge number of points.
***********************
Steve

***********************
http://www.youtube.com/user/toonlyrics
Music Website: http://www.singadream.com
Post Reply