Lost Scripts' Shapes Window (**New** BETA 3) for Moho 14.1 Pro
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 6:29 pm
![Arrow :arrow:](./images/smilies/icon_arrow.gif)
Release Notes:
- New Features:
- New Modes/Helpers! -> Mainly focused on dealing with coloring. The new menu allow you direct interaction with Select Shape tool and, among others, provide new ways of recoloring thanks to Mike Kelley kindly allowed me to include his "mk_adjust_colors" functionalities
. Oh, and this could change, but to actually see these controls make sure you have a Swatch visible!
- STYLE Mode -> It's fully functional now. There you can inspect, delete, create, modify (to a certain extent) or just get them handy for quick apply.
- Some (Limited) Brushes Support -> I couldn't do it as I would have liked due to some unexpected limitations, but there it is even if it's only to allow to see if a shape has a brush applied...
- Item Preview Improvements -> Fills are showed again, plus some issues having to do with this and keyframe deletion should have been solved as well.
- Enter Key (FINALLY) Confirms Renaming -> I think I found a way that seems to allow it. Available, but still under observation, though... UPDATE: It seems the patch prevents you from entering special characters. Oh, well...
- Swap Buttons -> For quick Fill/Stroke colors and Style 1/2 swapping.
- Tool Palette's Button Allows Closing -> That way you can open the window, do your thing, and quickly close it if no further needed all by a shortcut (thanks Daxel for the request!). Of course, Show In "Tools" Palette option must be checked for the shortcut to work.
- *More* Live/Scrollable (kind of) Swatches! (Under Development) -> Choose any of the factory swatch or create your own ones in Moho, if a Pose/Morph named "SLIDER" is found it will allow certain kind of (limited
) interaction. Please, don't expect them to be very precise in terms of color theory either... they are more intended to provide a quick way of first rough coloring. The included factory swatches are placed under "Custom Content Folder\Scripts\ScriptResources\ls_shapes_window\Swatches", but PLEASE, is advisable you place your own ones (or copy it for reference) in "Custom Content Folder\Swatches" instead.
- General Menu's "Beginner's Mode" Change -> It allows you now to disable certain tooltips that may be useful at the beginning but annoying in the end...
-
And I think that's all? -> But there are of course other improvements, although not all the ones I would have liked to do...
- And some screen recordings related to the new features and improvements. First one, the window can be now more interactive and precise. Click over a shape's fill to get the controls ready for modifying its fill, the same applies to stroke (if any) and shape effect's handles, which now can be adjusted numerically and, therefore, more precisely:
- More direct Style picking and modification:
- Recolor in action, concretely HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) in this case, but there is also a RGB mode. Both, allows quick recoloring/randomization over all OR selected shapes in a layer, the idea is it can work over several layers as well, but for now:
- Some of the new scrollable Swatches:
- Some Known Issues (Priority Ordered):
- [v] Recolor (RGB) incorrectly handles the alpha value -> FIXED in v3.0.1
- [v] Recolor (RGB/HSB) modes don't take into account strokes -> FIXED (as option) in v3.0.1
- [x] Use enter to confirm remane fix prevents you from entering special characters, and it's also likely the cause of a weird caret and Backspace behavior -> TBC
- [x] Swatch rectangle can appear blank upon opening? -> TBO
- [x] Plus the still unsolved ones listed below -> And, probably, some new others that I'll be adding as they arise or come to mind...
Please, as usual (until I have a better system for it, someday
...
![Arrow :arrow:](./images/smilies/icon_arrow.gif)
Release Notes:
- New "General Menu" options:
- Open On Startup -> If checked, the window will appear upon opening the first document (intended to work in partnership with next option).
- Show In "Tools" Palette (Experimental) -> Show/Hide the button in toolbar, so you have a chance of can save some space as more of these kind of windows arrive... If hidden, go to "Scripts -> Lost Scripts - Shapes Window" to open. It kind of cheats Moho, but works perfectly fine here; any issue, please report!
- Use Large Buttons -> Just that, same buttons but with larger clickable area (with the advantage of increasing Swatches and shape preview area a little bit too).
- New Features:
- Mode Switcher -> Allows to to switch between SHAPE and STYLE mode (where you can now do basic style management) at any time.
- Item Preview (Under Development) -> The currently selected shape is showed here for more quick/direct selection feedback.
- Multi-Renaming -> You can quickly rename more than one shape (or style) at a time (thanks to Maarten's request).
- Shape Visibility Button -> Gives you individual control over hidden shapes, which will be marked with an * in palette.
- Checker Selection -> Does the same than Style Window checkbox.
- "Style 1" & "Style 2" Selectors -> Does the same than Style Window ones.
- Live (kind of) Swatches! (Under Development) -> Choose any of the factory swatch or create your own ones in Moho, if a Pose/Morph named "SLIDER" is found it will allow certain kind of (limited
) interaction. Please, don't expect them to be very precise in terms of color theory either... they are more intended to provide a quick way of first rough coloring. The included factory swatches are placed under "Custom Content Folder\Scripts\ScriptResources\ls_shapes_window\Swatches", but PLEASE, is advisable you place your own ones (or copy it for reference) in "Custom Content Folder\Swatches" instead.
- New UI -> The script has now its own resources, so everything looks more homogeneous and fitted.
- Plus -> Much more improvements and additions...
- And a screen recording of the window in action and the suggested swatches (though colors don't looks great in GIFs) usage and possible types:
- Some Known Issues (Priority Ordered):
- [x] The window always opens/reopens at the center of the screen -> WON'T FIX (Moho's API limitation)
- [x] Swatches' slider shows slightly offset respect to cursor while dragging -> TBC
- [x] Custom Swatches and Use Selection entries does nothing for now... -> TODO/TBC
- [v] Style creation is not yet possible -> DONE in v3.0
- [v] Paste button stopped working as expected at some point -> FIXED in v0.2.1
- [v] Open at Startup and window size problem -> FIXED in v0.2.1 (Kinda dirtily, but enough for now?)
- [v] If open by Open at Startup, there may be then unwanted beeps upon frame change until reopen -> FIXED in v0.2.1
- [v] Freehand/Eraser "Alt+LMB" width resizing doesn't work as expected if Points-Based Selection option is checked -> FIXED (I think) in v0.2.1
- [v] Delete key doesn't act over selected keyframes while the window is open -> FIXED in v0.2.1
- [v] Swatch frame can appear empty if the window is open by Open at Startup -> FIXED in v0.2.2
- [?] I'll go adding more of them as they arise or come to mind...
...
![Arrow :arrow:](./images/smilies/icon_arrow.gif)
Release Notes:
- Menu options (They could change, but as a quick reference of some of its current features):
- Points-Based Selection (Experimental) -> It allows a more bidirectional interaction but it can affect performance... Basically if you select all the points that conforms a shape, the shape/s gets also selected, thus you can work with it in palette.
- Ignore Non-Regular Vector Layers -> If checked, Mesh Warp kind of layers' shapes are ignored (Curver and Auto-triangulated Warp Mesh layers are always ignored anyway).
- Link To Style Window -> Uncheck this can improve performance, but then Style window won't be in perfect sync with the Shapes Window...
- Advanced (Create) -> Just Hide or Show shape creation related widgets if unneeded or for saving vertical space.
- Half Dimensions -> If checked, the window will open arround half of current viewport height.
- Show Infobar -> Infobar provides some info you may find useful while working with shapes, but uncheck it if you wanted to save some more vertical space...
- Main Features:
- Well, the name should say it all, but...
- The idea behind this project, apart from experimenting with all this Moho 14 new modeless windows possibilities, was mainly allow to know what's going on in vector layers at a glance, specially when "Liquid Shapes" (best feature ever
) comes into play. To probe a point:
Although I've ended up adding some more things and it has taken more time than expected, but there it is for anyone that want to give it a whirl. Please, take into account it's BETA (plus Windows only tested) and there may be issues, so install it at your own risk and all that... If you found one, please, let me know bellow and I'll be glad to look at it as soon as possible. That's the main reason to publish it like this for now, instead of maybe in a more "official" way, but it seems that what I had planed instead, involving the due repository with its bug tracker and such, is also going to take (much) more time than the expected...
The overall design of the window is what it is because, don't ask me why, I also wanted to test how far I could go by only using already installed Moho resources. Regarding performance, well I've tried to do my best, but I'm sure there is room for improvements on that area... Apart from that, I've ended up adding more and more buttons and features that I thought could come in handy, but for their icons (and with the little help of tooltips) they should be self-explanatory, or I hope so
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
P.S. Some more demonstration gifs...
- Shape selection/creation no matter the active tool:
- Switching projects, open, closing, etc. shouldn't be a problem:
- And the different view modes: