Panning Tool Improvement

[D.T. Nethery]

The beauty of the Panning Tool is that it is non-destructive, so you can shift an image up/down/right/left as many times as you want without causing degradation to pixels, therefore the image stays sharp , with no blurriness as when moving the image multiple times with the Transformation Tool.

But I wonder if it would be possible to make the Panning Tool in TVPaint respond to pressing on the Right/Left/Up/Down arrow keys to move a drawing or a selection of a drawing in small, precise movements. Each press of the directional arrow key would move 1 pixel. Hold down Shift and each press of the directional arrow key moves 10 Pixels.

Of course, this is how the "Nudge" arrows in the Handy Custom Panel behave now, but the advantage to the Panning Tool is that the user may also use it as a freehand move tool to shift a drawing left/right/up/down in broad movements , but adding the feature where the Panning Tool will also respond to the arrow keys to move in precise increments of 1 pixel each or 10 pixels each would be an improvement. So, essentially the request is to combine the current Panning Tool with the function of the Nudge arrows to make the Panning Tool more versatile. We could use the Panning Tool to make large movements to the left/right/up/down , but then also use it for small precise movements of 1 pixel each or 10 pixels each.

This is possible to do by using both the Panning Tool and the Nudge arrows in the Handy Panel, but I think it would be an improvement to combine both into a single tool.

[slowtiger]

[edit]
see my next post

[mox]

It's already feasible, for panning 1 pixel at a time, you can use ctrl+pad 2/4/6/8 for down, left, right & up
But that's it, for something specific as a step of 10pix (that could be useful!), I set up a grid...

[slowtiger]

It's already feasible, for panning 1 pixel at a time, you can use ctrl+pad 2/4/6/8 for down, left, right & up

Indeed! Why didn't I knew that? That's all I need right now (and it's already there in v10). (Works while you have the panning tool selected.)

[D.T. Nethery]

It's already feasible, for panning 1 pixel at a time, you can use ctrl+pad 2/4/6/8 for down, left, right & up

Indeed! Why didn't I knew that? That's all I need right now (and it's already there in v10). (Works while you have the panning tool selected.)

I didn't know it either! I learn something new about TVPaint all the time. Is this procedure of ctrl+pad 2/4/6/8 mentioned anywhere in the documentation or in any of the video tutorials?
(nothing about it here: https://www.tvpaint.com/doc/tvp11/index ... rm-panning )

At first I did not understand what ctrl+pad means. Then I realize I am not using a full size keyboard , so I don't have the numeric pad on my keyboard.


Can this option for the panning tool be invoked using any combination of keys on this type of abbreviated keyboard?

Of course, I still think my improvement request for the Panning Tool to invoke the function of panning 1 pixel at a time (10 pixels at a time holding down Shift) using the Right/Left/Up/Down arrow keys would be better. (for one thing, that's the same way it works in a certain ubiquitous photo editing software that most people are very familiar with)

[mox]

At first I did not understand what ctrl+pad means. Then I realize I am not using a full size keyboard , so I don't have the numeric pad on my keyboard.

Can this option for the panning tool be invoked using any combination of keys on this type of abbreviated keyboard?

If you don't have a numeric pad, you can assign new shortcuts since they are exposed in the keyboard shortcuts (I learnt about this after seeing the shortcuts, there are so many, it's easy to miss an option already there!)

Of course, I still think my improvement request for the Panning Tool to invoke the function of panning 1 pixel at a time (10 pixels at a time holding down Shift) using the Right/Left/Up/Down arrow keys would be better. (for one thing, that's the same way it works in a certain ubiquitous photo editing software that most people are very familiar with)

It would be far more intuitive indeed, but I wonder how it could be done without disrupting the way the arrows works right now with the current engine: you may select the panning tool and want to switch to another layer or frame.

[D.T. Nethery]

At first I did not understand what ctrl+pad means. Then I realize I am not using a full size keyboard , so I don't have the numeric pad on my keyboard.

Can this option for the panning tool be invoked using any combination of keys on this type of abbreviated keyboard?

If you don't have a numeric pad, you can assign new shortcuts since they are exposed in the keyboard shortcuts (I learnt about this after seeing the shortcuts, there are so many, it's easy to miss an option already there!)

Ok, that would work for me . I think I will simply assign the functions of shift 1 pixel right - left - up - down to keys 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 , which are grouped together and are easy for me to remember: 1 (shift right) 2 (shift left) 3 (shift up) 4 (shift down). Of course , this doesn't allow for shifting 10 pixels, but maybe shortcuts could be added for shift right-left-up-down 10 pixels.

It would be far more intuitive indeed, but I wonder how it could be done without disrupting the way the arrows works right now with the current engine: you may select the panning tool and want to switch to another layer or frame.

Yes, I had not considered that. Maybe it is best to leave it alone and simply use the options we have now using Nudge arrows - 1 pixel or 10 pixels - in the Handy Panel, or assigning keyboard shortcuts to shift 1 pixel right-left-up-down when the Panning Tool is selected.

[Svengali]

FROM THE GEORGE SYNTAX DOCUMENTATION:

tv_panning.png (66.69 KiB) Viewed 8237 times

For a long time now I've had my 4-shift and 4-control directional keys (up, down, left, right) setup for the purpose of moving the image exactly a single pixel or 10 pixels in all directions using the tv_panning command in GEORGE.

In a custom panel, I start out by creating eight buttons, each named as below with one of the following embedded, single line scripts:

button-names (tv_panning iX iY 0|1 0|2)
Shift+Left tv_panning -1 0 1 2
Shift+Right tv_panning 1 0 1 2
Shift+Up tv_panning 0 -1 1 2
Shift+Down tv_Panning 0 1 1 2

10 Pixels:
Control+Left tv_panning -10 0 1 2
Control+Right tv_panning 10 0 1 2
Control+Up tv_Panning 0 -10 1 2
Control+Down tv_Panning 0 10 1 2

Then, in shortcut keys, under my custom panel name, I assigned each shortcut key-combo to the custom button with the appropriate matching name in the custom panel.

Notice I set all tile-mode values to 1 so that the moved image will fill the screen, i.e.wrap around)

Sven

EDIT: I'm uploading a version of the Panning Panel for anyone one who wants to try it...

[Peter Wassink]

Nice one Sven...
i felt free to make a version with a more visual lay-out.

Panning Panel.tvpx

(461.5 KiB) Downloaded 666 times

Panning Panel - tvpx.png (4.83 KiB) Viewed 8195 times

[Svengali]

Nice one Sven...
i felt free to make a version with a more visual lay-out.
Panning Panel.tvpx
Panning Panel - tvpx.png

Thank you Peter, your panel layout makes total sense. I think the panning key assignments do what David was describing.

sven

[D.T. Nethery]

Coming back around to the first post:

Sven's scripts and Peter's custom panel are all great ...but can someone from the TVPaint Development team respond about whether it is possible to implement the original request to have the Panning Tool respond to pressing the Forward-Back-Up-Down arrow keys to move 1 pixel forward-back-up-down or 10 pixels forward-back-up-down if holding down Shift key . (just like in a certain ubiquitous photo editing application that many people use , so they don't have to remember a different method of accomplishing this common task.) Would it potentially mess up other functions that use the Forward-Back-Up-Down arrow keys ?

[Dean]

Hello David, I confirm that the team has seen your post and that we will discuss it
This might have to wait until after the holidays, as some people are going on vacation and we are still fixing some day one bugs on v11.7.1.

[D.T. Nethery]

It's already feasible, for panning 1 pixel at a time, you can use ctrl+pad 2/4/6/8 for down, left, right & up

I found an old full size keyboard with the number pad, but when I try ctrl+pad 2/4/6/8 for down, left, right & up it does not do anything. Maybe this is a Windows-only thing ?
I also tried cmd+pad 2/4/6/8 , but that did not work. EDIT: using Cmd+pad numbers 2/4/6/8 for down,left,right,up does work . For some reason it wasn't working when I tried it previously. (It's possible that I did not have the Panning Tool active when I tried it earlier?)

Is Ctrl+ pad 2/4/6/8 (Windows) or Cmd+pad 2/4/6/8 (Mac) mentioned anywhere in the documentation ? I can't find it. It's a useful function , so I think it should be in the User Guide.

[slowtiger]

It only works while the panning tool is active (but also for transform).

[D.T. Nethery]

It only works while the panning tool is active (but also for transform).

Thanks. I think when I tried Cmd+ pad 2/4/6/8 earlier I must not have had the Panning tool or Transform tool active. Now it works.