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Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 04:41
by alaric
Hello TVPaint community! I'm about to get started on my thesis film for my animation degree and I've decided to go the paperless route. I've been giving the TVPaint trial a shot and it seems to be a promising package. The brush customization is awesome. However, I've run into an issue with tilt-sensitivity and I'm not sure if my tablet or TVPaint is to blame.

I'm using a Cintiq 21UX with the latest drivers, but tilt-sensitive functions like Azimuth and Altitude seem to oscillate as I move the pen across the screen--I can actually see the brush cursor wobbling as it moves along. The oscillation is regular and reproducible. Following is a screenshot of a single, straight stroke using a 50% Aspect brush with Azimuth mapped to Angle @ 90 degrees:

Image

Notice the awful undulations in the stroke caused by oscillations in Azimuth/Angle. If I perform the stroke quickly, the problem is more or less mitigated, but that is not an option for precise work. So I'm wondering, does the problem lie with Wacom or TVPaint?

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 08:00
by Hervé
Hi Alaric,
This but is fixed since the 8.6 version.
What version are you using ?

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 14:00
by ZigOtto
let me guess ... v8.5.4 ...? :mrgreen:

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 17:20
by Paul Fierlinger
ZigOtto wrote:let me guess ... v8.5.4 ...? :mrgreen:
Was that the cracked one? :|

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 17:22
by alaric
I'm actually running the TVP Animation 9 Pro DEMO (9.0.7).

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 17:31
by Paul Fierlinger
OOOPS! Sorry. :oops: Could you upload a screen print of your settings? LMB click and hold on top of the Tool Panel and hit G. A brush of that panel will be now attached to your cursor. Go to Export Panel, select the Custom Brush Tab at the very top and save the brush as a JPEG and upload here.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 17:53
by alaric
Image

EDIT: Been browsing the forums. I get the 8.5.4 joke now. :wink: You guys must get a lot of that.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 18:51
by Paul Fierlinger
Well I tried as much as I could to emulate what you are getting by fooling around with my Wacom settings and the Profile editor but I can't draw anything but a fat straight line. I have the Wacom 4 which might make a difference but I doubt it. There are people on these forums who are real experts on drawing tools and I'm not one of them. The French take their weekends seriously and hide their computers from themselves until Monday. I seem to be the only one in here with you and I'm no help so you might have to wait till Monday, sorry.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 19:26
by alaric
I appreciate your efforts Paul. I'll just have to continue noodling around with settings until Monday rolls around. By the way, My Dog Tulip looks amazing. I'll be sure to watch when it screens in the US.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 19:40
by Paul Fierlinger
Thanks. Tulip will be out in distribution in art houses towards the end of the year.

As you can see, my lines are exactly on the opposite pole of yours; size 3.00 with Pressure on and 100% Opacity and Power with AA turned on and that's it -- the only pen I ever use, so that hasn't taught me much about drawing tools. :) Some of the people here have created some sophisticated and amazing paint brushes which my wife works with and which are all available here as share ware.

Have you played around with the Custom Panels, perhaps making a test one of your own drawing tools? Once you buy TVP you'll be using those a lot.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 20:49
by ZigOtto
yes, a serious "15 août" weeeeeek-end here !

well, I can't help too because I haven't one of these new expensive gems from wacom,
(cintiq or Intuos4), my tablet is still an Intuos "old generation", just like me ... :)

Alaric, does it give you the same wavy stroke when you draw horizontal or vertical lines ?

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 22:20
by alaric
When it comes time to animate I'll probably use a brush similar to what you describe, Paul. But yeah, I have been having a lot of fun playing around with custom-made brushes. The possibilities seem endless.

Image

I'm going for an expressive graphite brush above. It comes to a nice point when I hold the pen upright, but gives me a nice, fat stroke when I tilt it, much like a real pencil. As you can see, I'm still getting wavy lines when I do a slow stroke.
ZigOtto wrote:my tablet is still an Intuos "old generation", just like me ... :D
That's cool ZigOtto, "old generation" is best when it comes to animation. :D
ZigOtto wrote:Alaric, does it give you the same wavy stroke when you draw horizontal or vertical lines ?
I'm afraid it does, but again, it's more pronounced the slower I move the pen.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 15 Aug 2009, 22:32
by Paul Fierlinger
To me this seems to be most likely a Cintiq issue, because there aren't that many people here who use one and we haven't heard about this since the TVP bug was fixed some years ago. I believe that within a couple of days you'll hear from a Cintiq user who can test this out.

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 17 Aug 2009, 15:36
by Fabrice
I coudn't reproduce that bug on Intuos 4 ... :?:

Alaric, do you have the same problem with the classical pen ?
Do you have any kind of background task(s) which could make those problems occur ?
What's your config ?

Re: Hello! ...and tilt sensitivity issues

Posted: 17 Aug 2009, 21:53
by alaric
Hi, Fabrice.

I've been doing some research and I think Paul is right--this is an issue with either the Cintiq drivers or hardware, not TVPaint. There have been reports of others with the same problem with their 21UX's and 12WX's, some of them going back for almost a year. Plus, I can actually see the tilt values oscillating in the Wacom diagnostic tool. I'm in correspondence with Wacom to figure out why such an expensive piece of hardware has such a glaring flaw. Any other Cintiq users, please chime in. I could use as much evidence as possible to get Wacom off their asses to do something about it.