Some Frame By Frame (FBF) Thoughts

[cgrotke]

(Moving my feature request discussion to a better place.... this started here: http://www.lostmarble.com/forum/viewtop ... 08#p194508)

I did a bit of experimenting with FBF and Chucky's V11 template and have a few ideas for Moho:

- Simplify FBF Mode Set-up

Chucky's template takes things in the right direction. I'd like to see Moho incorporate some of this into a FBF Mode, as installing a template and getting settings right takes some time. It would be great to click on FBF Mode and have It load those labeled reference layers, set up onion-skinning correctly, and have tool presets ready for using the blue and red pencils, inking, highlighting, shadows, and fills a single click away.

From a user POV, it could be something along the lines of "click on FBF mode, grab choice of pencil or pen, begin drawing" instead of "open template, double check settings, open advanced style options, select a pencil from the Style menu, etc..."

- Pens and pencils

In the template, these worked great. I could work relatively quickly. The idea of having red, blue, and ink referenced to one another is great. (I did have some crashes, and crashing changed by cleanup lines back to blue lines each time it crashed, but the idea is good.)(Also, "Merge Strokes" didn't seem to be working in 12.5.1, and perhaps this led to crashes?)

It would be nice if a tool choice also selected the correct layer. Grab a blue pencil and it draws on the blue layer. Red draws on the red layer. And so on.

- Coloring

This was a slow process for me and not very satisfying. Any effort to speed up fills/coloring would be appreciated.

It would be nice to have a fill tool that could "ignore gaps" - I did a lot of blob brush sealing of holes, which was sloppy looking and slow (where's the gap? Nope, not that one...). It would be astounding if we could color the first frame and have it do the rest for us... : )

It would be nice if the coloring tools knew what was inside or outside of a line... as if they were automatically pre-masked, or as if it knew that where you first put a brush is the "inside"

- Shading and Highlights

This worked well for me with the template. Same basic suggestions as above - it would be great to have a shade pen and a highlight pen ready to grab and go.

It would be excellent if the tools auto-selected the proper layer (I got going with my highlights and realized I was on my shade layer. Ugh).

I'd love for the tools to know what's inside and outside of lines, that automatic masking or first-click-is-inside, to speed things up.


Interface-wise, it would be great to have Moho switch to a drawing table view, with a blue pencil, red pencil, clean-up pen, highlight pen, and shade pen sitting there in an easy-to-grab drawer. Smart layers would know where to put art based on the tool selected. Merge strokes would be on by default. New tools for fills and painting would better handle edges and gaps.

Overall, though, with Chucky's template and a bit of figuring it all out, the current FBF wasn't too bad. Much appreciation to all who have taken it this far.

[Greenlaw]

You bring up some very good points! Thanks for sharing.

One feature I really like in TVPaint is how I can mark closed shapes in a frame with color (style) marks (just a little dash or squiggle,) and TVP will color the following frames with those colors automatically. It does this by tracking similar regions and positions, and it does it surprisingly well. It doesn't always work as expected, especially when the changes are extreme, but they also have tools for correcting and guiding this system, and it can really speed up the coloring process. It would be great to see something like this in a future version of Moho.

Overall, though, with Chucky's template and a bit of figuring it all out, the current FBF wasn't too bad. Much appreciation to all who have taken it this far.

I agree, it's always been a good start. Just needs a few improvements to become truly useful.