Lukas Sketch Panel

[Lukas]

Here's the TVPaint Panel I've been creating (and possibly collecting, both code and brushes, hope nobody minds) and using over the years. It's tailored to our own pipeline but could be useful to anyone. Some tools are outdated as I haven't touched them in a long time, so be cautious and always have a backup. I will update code to work with the latest TVPaint when I come across bugs in tools I need myself. But don't expect too much maintenance to be honest. I'll share a optimized shortcut file and color profile later probably.

Screenshot:


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[Peter Wassink]

Hey Lucas, great that you are sharing this!
I have seen this panel on the system of may former frameorder trainees and some functions are really great.
For instance i like the layer[LABLAY] and instance naming buttons. Very usefull!

[Lukas]

Hoi Peter! Next time you spot it, you can tell them to update Though it might be wise to backup the version they're using if they rely on it...

One of my favourites it the 'eye' icon next to the camera. If you shortcut it with H *and* Shift H, it's very useful. And the Yellow left/right icons (when using clips) are an absolute must for storyboarding, i've assigned right keys to them by default. I can't imagine storyboarding in TVPaint without them. Exporting an XML to quickly go from TVPaint to Premiere is nice, as it keeps timing intact and you can easily spot shots because they alternate color in the premiere sequence (should probably write down a tutorial or do a screencapture at some point). Crop clip to camera is also nice for storyboarding (if you need the shot to be wider or closer)

The Faux-Fix+1 button (Hold shift for -1) I also like a lot. Especially in combination with frame markers it makes creating cycles a lot easier.

I plan to do more storyboarding, so I'll probably update the tools while using them. Github will always have the most up to date version. I'm not sure how you can tell what the current version is that is installed though. Right now the identification string is "Lukas_Sketch_Panel 2.5" and the name is "Lukas Sketch Panel". Is there a way to see an identification string after installing a panel?

[Lukas]

In case anyone is interested in storyboarding in TVP and using my XML export script, here's a quick and dirty demonstration.

The "Clips XML" button is a very fast way to go from a TVP Storyboard using Clips, to Premiere. It will keep your timing intact. I personally like 6 fps for boarding, but it will always create a 25 fps Premiere sequence, but with timing intact and alternating colors for shots. Make sure your TVPaint file is following this naming convention: "My_cool_film_STB_v001_L.tvpp". It will trim the version and name initial, and will export your XML to "My_cool_film_STB_clips1" (if you export again, it will create clips2, it will not overwrite for safety reasons).

The XML is a Final Cut Pro XML btw. Adobe Premiere can import it, my guess is Davinci Resolve might support it too.

Make sure you've got the latest version of the panel from github, as the one posted earlier this week is already very outdated. The new XML export should also work in TVP 11 Standard. (Have not tested older versions, but it might work too)

For storyboarding with clips I highly suggest assigning Previous Frame (and Clip) & Next Frame (and Clip) to your left & right keyboard buttons.

Happy easter

[NathanOtano]

Thank you for sharing

[Lukas]

I optimised the XML export. It took over 4 minutes on a 60+ shots storyboard and now render under a minute.

Turns out rendering individual frames take a lot more time than simply rendering sequences, so now it just renders each frame of a hold anyway. The XML only adds the first frame of the hold though, so timing is preserved. Also tv_LockDisplay slowed it down when updating the message. Also added a bunch of other things, but the XML export is probably the most valuable one.