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Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 07 Dec 2009, 22:42
by slowtiger
I'd like to have an option to turn my self-defined palettes to read-only. Could be an additional menu point, maybe.

Although it's nice to be able to add new colours easily to a palette, a finished one (like a character's colours) shouldn't change anymore. I find myself adding colours accidentially and then needing to erase them again.

Since we're at it: can't we have an option to get bigger inkwells? The little colour squares are hard to meet for me.

And how about being able to start new rows at any moment?

And maybe naming colours (visible as tool tip)?

Well, many wishes, but it's Xmas soon ...

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 07 Dec 2009, 23:40
by ZigOtto
slowtiger wrote:I'd like to have an option to turn my self-defined palettes to read-only. Could be an additional menu point, maybe.

Although it's nice to be able to add new colours easily to a palette, a finished one (like a character's colours) shouldn't change anymore. I find myself adding colours accidentially and then needing to erase them again.

Since we're at it: can't we have an option to get bigger inkwells? The little colour squares are hard to meet for me.

And how about being able to start new rows at any moment?

And maybe naming colours (visible as tool tip)?

Well, many wishes, but it's Xmas soon ...
for palette lock, bigger inkwells, new rows, naming, ... and more (separating colors groups,
hiding/showing groups, export ...) you can make yourself an alternative palette via a custom panel,
grab color A to add a new color button, ...etc, when finished, make the CP non-editable
to prevent accidental change.
8)

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 08:22
by mox
slowtiger wrote:Since we're at it: can't we have an option to get bigger inkwells? The little colour squares are hard to meet for me.
It's something that would be convenient, an option such as the one already available between the A and B colours (for the last used) and easy to toggle on/off on demand (normal/bigger display).

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 16:48
by Animark
Hey, is this the wishlist for the tvpaint xman? I have something to add:

I like to have a possibility to import colorpalettes from standard formats, e.g. .aco from Photoshop.

I also loved a function in the past I've found in C.T.P. (Cartoon Television Program) and in Animo. There for example you can put a whole colored character in a kind of a palette. The brush/bucket changes to a pipette when its above the palette and grabs the color on mouseclick. Then the cursors comes back to the tool you used before (e.g. the bucket) and you can color the next part of the drawings. It is an very intuitive and fast way to find the right colors for your character, even when you worked the hole day in front of a screen.

Anyway, I agree with Slowtigers wishes.

Remember, I've been a good boy this year ;-)

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 17:20
by Fabrice
I like to have a possibility to import colorpalettes from standard formats, e.g. .aco from Photoshop.
too much expensive to pay Adobe for this ... :(
I also loved a function in the past I've found in C.T.P. (Cartoon Television Program) and in Animo. There for example you can put a whole colored character in a kind of a palette. The brush/bucket changes to a pipette when its above the palette and grabs the color on mouseclick. Then the cursors comes back to the tool you used before (e.g. the bucket) and you can color the next part of the drawings. It is an very intuitive and fast way to find the right colors for your character, even when you worked the hole day in front of a screen.
Already done. :)

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 17:24
by Fabrice
see here : "New Palette from Image"

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 18:17
by Animark
Mhm, "New palette from Image" was not what I tried to discribed. Imagine it more in a way like putting an image inside the color picker panel. You can see the image there everytime an you can pick up every color of it. Clicking on the nose chooses the nose color, clicking on the eye chooses the eye color and so on.

Yes, the adobe thing is ugly, but it should be an example. I would like to have a possibility to exchange colorpalettes with other programs. Sometimes its possible to do it using XML files, html-files, text files and something else. It is not a "must have feature" at all, in some rarely situations it makes sense for me.

Here is a picture of the coloring process in animo.
Image

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 18:36
by Paul Fierlinger
We've been using PicturePalette for years (actually it was Sandra's idea and dhomas trenn designed this for us still back in the Aura days):
http://www.youngmonkey.ca/hands/restaur ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
GUI.gif
GUI.gif (10.74 KiB) Viewed 29815 times
GUI-2.gif
GUI-2.gif (16.25 KiB) Viewed 29815 times

Picture Palette, as its name suggests, provides the capability of working with pictures as palettes. Sometimes referred to as Color Models or Color Sheets in the industry, this tool is essential for, but not limited to, animation and color artists. It's as simple as grabbing a rectangle area of any size from a project, or loading a reference picture, and then single-clicking anywhere in the view to set pen colors.

The Zoom mode makes it easy to accurately select colors. If you want to keep a picture palette for use later, it's just as easy to name and save them - organized however you want. But, if you forgot to save, there's no need to worry because the current picture pallette is automatically saved on exit if it hasn't been saved manually. And the Save Status display lets you know if a new picture palette hasn't been saved. Two window position/size memories per panel, and up to 9 panels opened simultaneously make sure that you've got access to everything you need, where and when you want it.
Features

* Up to 9 Picture Palette panels open at once, with independent settings and positions.
* Two window size*/position memories per panel.
* Single-click setting of either the A Pen (left-click) or B Pen (right-click).
* Load images directly or quickly grab picture palettes from any project using three different Grab Modes.
* A sizeable* auto-scaling view means that you can work with any size picture palettes, in any size area of your desktop.
* Zoom mode for accurate color selection.
* Automatic or manual background coloring for images/grabs with transparent areas.
* -NEW- Flip: Horizontal/Vertical
* Save Status display indicates that a picture palette hasn't been saved.
* Automatic save/recall of last used picture palette.
* Palettes can be easily shared with other Picture Palette users.
* Previews of saved picture palettes make loading the correct palette easy.
* An infinite number of user palettes.

* Smart start-up procedure that doesn't allocate system resources until the plug-in is actually used.
* Inline Help balloons for gadgets.
* Multi-language capability through localization (.loc) files. English included.

* * View size is not adjustable in Aura 1.0c and Aura DV 1.0e.

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 19:43
by Animark
PicturePalette is exactly doing what I am talking about. Thanks for that hint.

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 19:48
by Paul Fierlinger
You won't be disappointed. On top of what it's designed to do (a model sheet) I use it to keep reference pictures from the web in sight as I draw certain difficult objects or specific buildings etc.

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 08 Dec 2009, 22:20
by Peter Wassink
you can do it in 9.5 by importing a jpg into the color mixer (see image)
just make sure the color picker (bottom right) is active (yellow) and you can "pick and paint"
small problem with it though: you do need to prepare the palette image, if the palette image is to big, you only see the left side of it.

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 09:39
by Fabrice
I have just edited Paul's Post to add the text from Dhomas and the pictures. :)

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 16:18
by Sierra Rose
I too have had the inexpensive Picture Palette for years and use it all the time. It does everything you are wishing for.

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 09 Dec 2009, 17:11
by Animark
Thanks again :-)

Peters suggestion works very well, but I also see the advantages of the PicturePalette. It could be very helpful to have more than one picture open at a time with possibilitys to zoom. Not to forget those other fine functions ... I will keep it in mind and come back to it later.

In TVPaint 9.5+ its usefull to scale the picture/drawing for the mixer panel to a width of 172 pixel. So it fits nearly perfect inside the panel.

Image

Re: Can palettes be locked?

Posted: 10 Dec 2009, 08:21
by KenC
+1 for picture palette. It's great!

You can have up to 9 and they remember images/palettes loaded between sessions. Bind them to keys etc..