Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

i'm currently making a film in watercolour and i import the drawings in tvp to time them and make a mask in another layer for every character. so for each one of the positions of the character there is a layer with the line, another layer with his colour and another layer that is the mask that corresponds in that position.
i time in the animation layer the drawings of my character and i want to copy the structure of the timing of the layer on the layer where i have my masks and on the one where i have my colours. so for example the first 5 drawings make a cycle that is repeated for 4 times and the other 4 images that follow are in threes the next 3 at twos and then we have image 2 again. is there a possibility to do a script that copies the timing of every drawing of the layer and also copies the drawings that are repeated again later and places them in the right position so that i don't have to repeat the same thing manually on the layer of the mask and of the colour?

Hm, that's a rare request, because most of us tend to be finished with all timing issues before we start colouring, and the occasional final correction will only be some few frames which isn't too much work even in 3 layers.

Sometimes I flatten the 3 layers to one - but keep the originals - and adjust the timing in that "master" layer.

this wouldn't have been a problem if i had used tvpaint to draw my animations within the program. but since my animation and the colouring is on paper i have to import the drawings in tvp and time them. i already know my timing from the linetests that i've already done. i use tvp for this project to time the drawings and make the masks since in after effects is more complicated to time them and it takes more time to do the masks. i have to do the masks because everything is composed together in a multiply mode and as a consequence they become trasparent and we see the background through them. i know that i can have the same layer structure if i use the x-sheets. it's just that with the x-sheets you have double amount of layers within no reason and you have to pass from the image library process wich also i think is a waste of time.

hi Anelkon, and welcome!

anelkon wrote:...i know that i can have the same layer structure if i use the x-sheets. it's just that with the x-sheets you have double amount of layers within no reason and you have to pass from the image library process wich also i think is a waste of time.

I donno exactly what's your workflow, but, if you in first time up the rough drawings (linetest), then clean and color them on paper, then re-import the line + color sequences, then re-time to fit your previous linetest's timing,
I can suggest you :
a) to use Xsheet*, it's pretty easy to add new source(s),to duplicate your already-timed Xsheet-layer (linetest), and change/set the default source to a new one.
of course, you can hide the source layers (your shooted sequences) by using the layers color-code gadgets,and make them disappear from your timeline window.
b) to consider to work paperlessly, once your rough anim drawn and timed, you just have to clone the animlayer, (same timing but empty cells), and navigate from head to head to clean over your rough (blue) drawings,
idem to color/paint on a separate (clone) layer.

*some features are still missing in the Xsheet interface, such as Rename, Set colorCode, Drag&Drop to change layer's order in the stack, ... so we have sometimes to swap between the Timeline/Xsheet tab, a bit tedious, but not a big deal.

thanks for the tips and the welcoming.
the point is that the timing it's not done in tvp cause at school the program that we use at the linetest unit is ernest, so i have to redo in tvp the timing of the roughs.
i also cannot do the colouring in tvp
1. because i will never have the effect of the real watercolour drawings
2. the last short i did entirely in tvp made me have terrible pains in my hand which became useless for about one month and it took me 2 months of every day exercise to put it back in shape. as you understand i try to work in a computer as least as possible.

anelkon wrote:the point is that the timing it's not done in tvp cause at school the program that we use at the linetest unit is ernest, so i have to redo in tvp the timing of the roughs.

so you can consider tvpa installed on a laptop and to make your linetest directly within tvpa at your school.

anelkon wrote:2. the last short i did entirely in tvp made me have terrible pains in my hand which became useless for about one month and it took me 2 months of every day exercise to put it back in shape. as you understand i try to work in a computer as least as possible.

I don't get that point,
drawing on paper or drawing on a wacom is merely the same gestures,
(maybe easier on a tablet because you don't have to push so hard on your pencil/pen),
how can you draw on paper without any pain,
and as soon as you replace the paper by a tablet, it become painful ?



a last tip I forgot to mention :
when you have to time several layers together, select them (the anim-layers from the same character f.i.),
then drag the tail of the cels on one animlayer, the others will follow.

thnx for the last tip! i hadn't noticed it!

about my hand, it didn't come immediately. it was after working 10 hours per day during 1 month with almost no breaks. it was bad position, a chair that wasn't a desk chair, no sports and the fact that in order to control what i draw with the wacom apparently makes my hand tensed.

ok, take care of your hands, and your back, (I have personnaly some troubles with my back position),
and don't hesitate to open a new thread in the Wip - User Gallery section on this forum
if you have a piece of work to show us, I think it could bring you back some interesting feedback.
(technical and/or artistical comments).

anelkon wrote:...no sports

I so forget to do that too...
bad habits.
And my back is paying high price too.
more and more I find myself thinking of leaving computer drawing for good, and just do painting standing up right, large surfaces, real bristles with real smelly paint and dirty hands.
Or maybe I'm saving this pleasure for later years.

p.s. - Anelkon, what size wacom do you have?

the tablet is A5. by the way, this year i cycle to school and i do sports twice a week. it helps a lot!

about the gallery, i will upload some images once this film is finished.

In my college they had only A6 size tablets, and of the Graphire kind. I hated working on such small size. I managed to fix an older generation wacom sized A4 (with serial interface!!) from the department's technical person, and just worked at home instead.

For future sake, the larger the tablet the better (sans considerations of desk space...). Optimally, the strokes and movements should come mostly from your shoulder and elbow, not from the wrist. Besides getting better control over the strokes, you get to spread the effort over more muscles, therefore you get less fatigue. By sitting near the screen and stooping over the tablet, so much tension goes to the wrist and palm that I often find my hand partially paralyzed. Personally I still haven't solved these issues and am waiting to have more space and set my desk up rightly.