Auto Smooth Line While You Draw

[Svengali]

Sierra,
As Elodie said, RIGHT-click in the MainMenu (on the stroke icon) and the Shape Settings window will open.

At the bottom of the Shape Settings window you'll see a check box for Activate, a check box for Real Time and a slider labeled Smoothing.

• check Activate to have strokes smoothed.
  when Real Time is checked, the line is smoothed as it is drawn.
  when Real Time is unchecked, the last drawn line is smoothed AFTER the stylus tip is raised.
  set smoothing slider value higher for greater smoothing.

Sven

[ZigOtto]

hi Sierra,

if you already have updated your tvpa version (last released = v9.5.12 I think),
you should have 3 extra lines at the bottom of your [Shape Settings] window,

picture :

smoothingSettings.png (4.29 KiB) Viewed 34783 times

[Sierra Rose]

Thanks to you both...I found the 3 new controls on the shape settings panel. Another little TVP miracle.

[Boomslang]

I tested it, it's good! Though there's a quite some lag with higher smoothness. But that's probably just my computer.

[Elodie]

what do you mean by "high" ?

[Boomslang]

Well anything above the smooth-settings over 20 or so, it has some lag. I don't know if others experience this as well. I guess it just takes some getting used to.
Either way great update!

[Fabrice]

it's not properly a lag, if you set the value to 20, we just need 20 pixels to calculate the average path and then only draw after the corresponding line.
That's why the line can't be directly under the cursor for high values.

(I'm not sure it makes sense)

[Peter Wassink]

it's not properly a lag, if you set the value to 20, we just need 20 pixels to calculate the average path and then only draw after the corresponding line....

I think you guys should work harder and create an algorithm that calculates where the animator will move the cursor so that this 'lag' effect can be solved.

[Fabrice]

In fact, it's physically not possible because the pixel "where your cursor is" can't be the same after the smooth calculation, and we need all the information of the previous positions of the cursor to calculate the final results in realtime.
We can not guess if you will change the current direction of the line, break it or change the angle ... unfortunalety no algorythm can predict the future

The only way to avoid this is to uncheck the "realtime" box, the smooth/average calculation will then be done after the whole stroke is done.

[Satrip]

Maybe another good way to solve this would be an option to set the smooth value relative to the cursor speed (with a customisable curve),
so that if the smooth value is set to 20 (for example), the line is smoothed at 20 when drawing/moving fast then the value reduce progressively to reach 0 when stop moving.

Edit: Also a very good smooth on a raster inking tool is the one created by a japanese guy in a patch for GIMP (called "Gimp Painter", don't confound with "Gimp paint studio" the prestets/brushs pack). It worth the try to compare!
Here is a page explaining the feature
Some more technical details here
And here the patch+windows/mac/deb builds

[Peter Wassink]

...We can not guess if you will change the current direction of the line, break it or change the angle ...

If there is one team that can do it.... its you
imagine animators no longer having to think about where to move the cursor..... it would be fantastic.

[Peter Wassink]

sorry about that....i'll stop joking now

Satrips suggestion doesn't sound half bad.

[Fabrice]

...We can not guess if you will change the current direction of the line, break it or change the angle ...

If there is one team that can do it.... its you
imagine animators no longer having to think about where to move the cursor..... it would be fantastic.

ok, ok thanks for that nice comment about us

if we can improve something, we will ! Sooner or later !

[meslin]

The smoothing is a revelation for TVP, I haven't closed the Shape Settings window since the update.
Actually, between the two options of Real-Time (with # Smooth Pixels Lag) and Smoothing After Stroke is Complete, there is a third option, one that is used in the Japanese software NekoPainthttp://www2.tbb.t-com.ne.jp/neko_paint/. They call it "Neko Correct" but I am fairly certain that it just draws your unsmoothed real time stroke and then replaces it with the smoothed stroke when it has enough pixels to make the smoothing calculation. So with smoothing set to 20, you could start drawing a 20 scribbly pixels, and at the 21st pixel, the first one would get moved, at 22, the 2nd one would get moved, and you can see a little smoothy snakey line chasing after your cursor. It is actually quite nice!

David

[valeli]

good day to all and to the TVPaint team,
I'm glad you guys considered implementing a smoothing feature tool
this can help artists make cleaner line art

although the TVPaint's current smoothing feature is great, it doesn't work so well for me, as my hands aren't that quick and stable
and the tails of the lines go straight to where your cursor is after you stop

i like this similar smoothing feature used by some software, mostly 2d painting programs coming from Japan
here are some examples i recorded of "Lag Smoothing Feature"/"Pen Stabilizer" from

SYSTEMAX PaintToolSAI - i really believe they were the ones who first implemented this


-notice on the first image that the thickness at the line ends aren't calculated, this results
from an instant stop in a stroke
-the delay only works with tablets(like tvpaint's)

CELSYS IllustStudio(from the developers of RETAS Animation Studio)


-line ends are calculated/compensated
-there is delay even if only the mouse is used

these are in real-time
the line follows an estimated direction of where the cursor goes and the lag adjusts to the cursor/drawing speed
in short its a "slow motion" effect

sorry for my bad english