A Picture Palette -like Modelsheet feature for TVPaint 10

[Sewie]

...Dhomas had to make a new unlock code for our plugins for TVP 10 but these would not work anymore for 64 bits. The latter requires a complicated reprogramming, which he did not feel was worth the work involved....

...Our developers are considering making some of these functions an integrated function in future upgrades so that we will have the streamlined functionality already built into 64 bits.

Paul, are you allowed to say anything more about this? I lean very much on the Picture Palette, I use it every day, so I am quite concerned by this news...
Do I need to put in a feature request for the developers of TVPaint to implement the PP into new versions?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Michael, I am with you on this one. Dhomas will have no problem recoding your set if you get new lock and unlock codes (maybe; most likely, this had to be done only for us for security reasons and nothing will be changed for you, but 64 bit technology requires all plugins for all software to be recoded to some degree. Exactly how much work this means to plugin developers, I have no idea but I offered to pay dhomas for the work and he showed no interest. Truthfully, I see little difference with working in 32 or 64. I believe the speed of playback or rendering improves by about 20% or less. As I said earlier, we both work in 32 when we rely heavily on Picture Palette and open our projects in 64 only when things really slow down when some of our projects are extremely large.

BTW, do you know that you can import and save any size picture image (JPEG etc,) into the Color Mixer?

[Paul Fierlinger]

Actually another way you can achieve the same results as Picture Palette is to import individual images into a dedicated layer or new project and within each frame you can flip, create image palettes with large pixels etc. The advantage with this system is that you can make more than 9 images available at the same time and it doesn't add memory to your project.

[Sewie]

Thanks Paul. It's a shame that the PP won't function in 64bits. I don't know if I will find it handy to keep both 32 and 64bit versions on my computer; it's the 64 bit version that I am really looking forward to mostly because it will able me to use a larger amount of RAM.

I'll put in a request in the appropriate thread tomorrow or later this week. With a scale-able Color Picker Window that makes two new features I'll be wanting for software that has yet to be released.

[Paul Fierlinger]

How about adding your voice to mine with youngmonkey?

[Sewie]

If he doesn't seem to find it worth the work involved, you suppose he might do it for the two of us?

[Sewie]

I'll send him an email, anyway.

[Paul Fierlinger]

If he doesn't seem to find it worth the work involved, you suppose he might do it for the two of us?

Good point. Maybe it's time to implement it directly into TVP. If dhomas has lost interest in it and if it's preventing a few people from upgrading... and the idea came directly from Sandra...

[Sewie]

That's right, blame the wife...!

[Paul Fierlinger]

What I was implying but avoiding to be direct about for some stupid reason, was that the whole Picture Palette concept was her idea which dhomas implemented for us. Sandra was looking for a model sheet plugin that would travel from scene to scene with all the colors in place. Instead of creating a collection of colors with labels such as Shoes, Socks, Sweater etc. the model sheet would make this obvious. I later latched onto the idea that I could carry photo images from scene to scene, for instance when I was making a film about a well known person and had to stick to his real features.

How do you use Picture Palette in your work?

[Sewie]

What I was implying but avoiding to be direct about for some stupid reason, was that the whole Picture Palette concept was her idea which dhomas implemented for us...

Ah, I see. Pardon.

At the moment I use it as a modelsheet, mostly. When I have different angles for one character I'll have one or more PP windows open so I can keep checking references and proportions, etc. But I can see that it will definitely come in handy in the coloring stage when you would be able to pick your colors straight from a colored model-drawing from the PP. I find it especially handy that you can place your modelsheet anywhere on the screen and keep it apart from your drawing area.

It seems like a relatively small feature but in the day to day workflow it's such a lifesaver to me.

[Paul Fierlinger]

Did you look into the Color Mixer? If you RMB directly in the color area and go to File>Import mixer, you can import any image you need. Then this image gets automatically saved in the collection of mixers. Of course, you get just one image at a time. I just can't see how you would want to miss out on all the new functions of TVP 10 for just not having PP in its most ideal form.

[Sewie]

I'm going to upgrade to TVP10 anyhow.

But that colormixer option is just not ideal to me because I need the colormixer and -picker available. I just use that too often as well.
For a software package that claims to replace handdrawn animation on paper and not have a modelsheet option available in the paperless workflow, it is just a bit sloppy, I find. I'll find a way to make it work but it's not ideal.

[Paul Fierlinger]

For a software package that claims to replace handdrawn animation on paper and not have a modelsheet option available

You make a good point and I agree. I never thought of it that way because we've always had youngmonkey's Picture Palette, but now that it is no longer available, it is time to have this built-in within TVP.

[Peter Wassink]

I agree very much!

a PP like feature would be a powerfull addition to tvp.
it might seem boring for the development team
but having the ability to put up multiple reference images on the screen is very important for animators and storyboard artists.
and currently its not really possible, using another project for this is not the answer because of the behaviour of the project windows, they don't stay on top!
and one (as we now can in the color mixer) is a bit limiting.
so...please consider adding it !

simply the possibility to have multiple colormixers open would be an answer.