Novice Question About Selections

[k00kla]

Hi,

I want to select an area of my drawing and then manipulate (scale, rotate, translate) that part of the image. I can't seem to do this. I make the selection. Then I go to the transform tool. This tool defaults to having both "Apply to Image" and "Apply to Selection" checked; transforms i make affect the whole image. If I leave only "Apply to Image" checked, same thing. If I leave only "Apply to Selection" checked, it only affects the selection itself, not the image at all. I have looked in the manual, but I just don't understand. Right now, I have to copy the selected portion of the image to another layer, make the transforms, then merge it back down which is really slow and awkward. Any ideas? Thanks!

[ZigOtto]

I don't know exactly what is you method to animate, or even if you are animating,
but if you do animate, I think you should go with using CustomBrush,
because when cuting/transforming/pasting, cuting/transforming/pasting, ... from a frame to the next
a part of your drawing several times successively, you will get a more and more blurish zone,
due to repeated AntiAliasing effect, so, to get rid of this deterioration, you can select the desired area,
then cut it as CustomBrush (Tool : Select / Cut to Brush), or cut it directly by using one of the cutbrush tools,
then use the Edit button to change the Width/Height/Angle values, and hit "Apply",
or alternatively, use the B.E.T. bar to do the same in the HUD project preview, then paste it .

Unfortunately, the Warp tool (4 points) works only with the whole layer as source,
to apply it on a selection only, or a custombrush, we need to go in the stackFX/ Distorsion/ Perspective 4 Points FX,
or a 2x2 Wrapping Grid FX, which are both a bit cumbersome, and not really appealing/user-friendly.
a big place for improvements here!

[k00kla]

as one method to do what I need, but I didn't know how to rotate and scale it so your information helps. Thanks!

I animate pretty traditionally and what I'm doing right now is drawing my extremes and keys - working on getting the right poses. It would be so useful to have a transform tool that works on selected areas of the image like in Photoshop - very helpful if I decide that a hand, for example, is slightly too big or at the wrong angle. The Custom brush will do this, but it seems unnecessarily complicated. Then again, maybe I'm just not used to it yet.

Anyway, thanks again for your help.

[Peter Wassink]

...if I decide that a hand, for example, is slightly too big or at the wrong angle. The Custom brush will do this, but it seems unnecessarily complicated. Then again, maybe I'm just not used to it yet.

It should not be complicated. i use the custombrush for the purpose you discribe all the time.
if you pick up the custombrush with the rightmouse button (=the front button on top of your wacom pen) you cut out instead of copy what you select.
this way you can rotate (C) or scale (Z) it as necesarry and place it back directly... without complications.

[k00kla]

Didn't know bout the C and Z key modifiers. Sweet! Thanks!

[Peter Wassink]

Didn't know bout the C and Z key modifiers. Sweet! Thanks!

cool! its always great to see people slowly getting a grip on the powers of TVP

also....be aware that you can easily create your own prefered short cut keys
using CTRL-K.
here you can assign any key(or combination of keys) to any of the many many functions in tvpaint (if you check, you'l see its quite a long list)