A Layer View Panel

This section is dedicated to the feature & improvement requests (be sure what you are asking does not exist yet in TVPaint Animation ;) )
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NickA
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Joined: 22 Jun 2009, 01:27

A Layer View Panel

Post by NickA »

I would like to have a compact panel that shows the various layers in the timeline for the current frame only (similar to what you'd see in a illustration program).

I'd use it as a visual reminder of what layer I'm on and for basic single frame timeline editing.

I would like each layer image to be a good thumbnail size (maybe 60 - 90 pixels high?) and take up most of the panel space.

I'd imagine that I'd prefer a vertical display, but a horizontal one might also be good. :D
Elodie
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by Elodie »

hmm... in fact, I'm not sure to understand what you want. Could you try to "represent" it with an image ?
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Byron
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by Byron »

Sounds like that other program to me... The one that begins with P and ends with shop! :lol:
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Fabrice
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by Fabrice »

try this :)

Maybe not exactly what you want, but it can help.
Attachments
Timeline.jpg
Timeline.jpg (69.95 KiB) Viewed 22385 times
Fabrice Debarge
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Peter Wassink
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by Peter Wassink »

i think Nick means this:
vertical timeline.jpg

in the preferences you can set the timeline to vertical,
Just another reason why you really don't need that other program... :wink:
Peter Wassink - 2D animator
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Elodie
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by Elodie »

that's what Fabrice showed ^^
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NickA
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by NickA »

Thanks for the vertical timeline suggestions. I knew about it, but for a single screen it still tends to take up a lot of space. I guess I could scale it back to the side to show just the preview images without the timeline or opacity bars. :oops:

However there is a few of problems with this setup:

1) I actually like to keep horizontal timeline view as default for when I want to view a large part of the timeline (rather than dragging a vertical timeline back and forth). Can I currently have two different timeline windows?

2) If there is no image on a particular layer, it's on hold or in the middle of an exposure I can't tell from glancing at the previews. It'd be good to have a symbol on the previews to indicate if any of these are the case (without needing to view the timeline part).

3) For just viewing layers, it still wastes space:
space.png
4) I still find the preview images a tad small for my preference. A preview view window would allow for larger thumbnails without taking space away from all the other features of the timeline window (Or alternately, could or do we have the option to resize these preview images and timeline images?).


Ideally, I'd just like the option to have a window that shows the layers of the current frame and little else like so:
layer view window.png
I don't actually own photoshop, but all the other illustration programs I've seen do the same. A lot of the time in TVP I focus only on a single image, so why not have a viewer that represents that without the bulkiness of a timeline (to match these standards when I'm in an illustratory frame of mind)?

Just a "it might be nice" suggestion, not a dire need (despite the girth of this reply). :roll:
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malcooning
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by malcooning »

A few years ago Mark (forum name: Lemec) developed a panel called "Layer companion".
It basically minimized the footprint of your layer panel, granting access to all its basics.
It's no longer available as his website is not online.
But you can PM him and ask if he still has it, and if it's compatible with the latest TVP.
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NickA
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Joined: 22 Jun 2009, 01:27

Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by NickA »

Interesting, I'll have to look into that. Mark's made a great bunch of custom features. I also liked the look of his custom color selector (ppallette?) and the curvelinar drawing tool. :D
Kwadrope
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Re: A Layer View Panel

Post by Kwadrope »

I just read this topic and it might be a bit similar to my request of making the minimized layer view a bit more compact and with all the properties visible


viewtopic.php?f=21&t=4882" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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