Layer UI suggestion

[Lukas]

Just a thought on how layer's are represented in the UI I really like TVP11 compared to 10. There's definitely some big improvements, but still a lots of quirks linger in the interface.



Top image is current TVP11, lots of squares in view. 2 squares per instance. If you have many layers you'll quickly have your screen filled with squares.

Bottom image is a suggestion. It shows the same info, without all the draggable squares. They could simply appear when you move your mouse onto an instance (see 5th instance in the image). Also, removing the color label (colorize the dashed line in the center instead) and thumbnail from empty instances would greatly improve visibility of empty frames.

[Peter Wassink]

Excellent UI improvement suggestions Lukas!

i like your suggestion of having the instance handles only show when hovering over the instance.
It would indeed make for a much less cluttered view of the layer.

Your other suggestion is also very good and i believe easier to implement:
To NOT color code the empty instances will provide a much clearer distinction between empty instances and instances that contain drawing.
This would drastically improve readability of the layer panel content.

[Lukas]

I just noticed the "Put an X on Empty Instances" setting the in Display settings. It's a start, but what's not great about that solution is that it actually draws the eye towards the empty instance instead of the instance that has a drawing in there (drawings are often not filling the whole canvas, so the thumbnail is mostly white...). It would be better if the drawing would draw the attention instead of the empty big X. Photoshop lets the user choose between "Clip Thumbnail to Layer Bounds" or "Clip Thumbnail to Document Bounds". With small drawings on a big canvas the first option is very very useful. That would be nice to have in TVPaint too. I can actually barely read my thumbnails in the current state, they're 80% white pixels.