Native DSLR Camera Support!

[Senneman]

My biggest suggestion for improving TVPaint is adding native DSLR camera support. While controlling a USB camera is perfect for pencil tests, having the ability to use high-quality cameras like DSLRs or cinema cameras such as Blackmagic would be incredible for capturing cleaned frames. Currently, I find myself switching back and forth between Dragonframe and TVPaint. Although there is a workaround for Windows, I haven't found a suitable solution for macOS. If this feature could be added, TVPaint would be the only animation software I ever use.

Additionally, and already discussed before, I feel that the new bones feature wasn't as necessary and still feels somewhat beta-ish. Focusing more on traditional animation would be my personal recommendation. The reason I rely on TVPaint is its ease of use. It excels as a traditional animation software that prioritizes drawing skills over technical software knowledge. Just like traditional paperwork. While the non-destructive transform tool is a great addition, many of the other new features feel unnecessary and add too many buttons, making simple drawing more complicated.

So, let's unlock the full potential of TVPaint: add native DSLR camera support!

[D.T. Nethery]

+1

TVPaint has great potential as a stop-motion animation tool and for those still animating on paper to make pencil tests. Support for frame capture from DSLR cameras would be of great value . This has been requested for years. (my most recent request was from 2023: viewtopic.php?p=131641) Also , there was much recent discussion about it in this topic: viewtopic.php?t=15257

SDK's exist for both Canon and Nikon . The free open source software Tahoma2D has camera capture support and would be a good example of what could exist in TVPaint. The free software TupiTube also has it. If free software made by volunteers can make use of the Canon and Nikon SDKs to incorporate DSLR capture into their interface , I would think TVPaint could do the same. I posted about it here: http://www.tvpaint.org/forum/viewtopic. ... 51#p131847

[Senneman]

Thanks for your reply!

I know OpenToonz and used it as a linetest software back in the day when I couldn't afford TVPaint. But the interface was a bit overwhelming for me. I hadn't heard of Tahoma2D, but it seems like a great option if it supports my Nikon or BMPCC. If TVP hadn't spoiled me with its ease of use, I might consider migrating to that software .

All in all, native DSLR camera support would be a fantastic addition! Maybe they could get it to work with something like PTP Webcam (https://github.com/dognotdog/ptpwebcam).

[D.T. Nethery]

I know OpenToonz and used it as a linetest software back in the day when I couldn't afford TVPaint. But the interface was a bit overwhelming for me. I hadn't heard of Tahoma2D, but it seems like a great option if it supports my Nikon or BMPCC.

Tahoma2D is an off-shoot of OpenToonz. https://tahoma2d.org/index.html
It supports frame capture with most DSLR cameras and also HD webcams.

Tahoma2D Camera Capture.png (55.59 KiB) Viewed 1400 times