GTS 2.5 is extremely confusing

[Dofu]

Hey Guys, I wasn't sure where to post this, but I just downloaded GTS 2.5 and I'm already having issues, I have a HP deskjet 3630, and I was trying to test it by just having it scan one picture, but there's so much features that I don't know where to start or where to even scan the picture. Every time I try I get these  error saying "Scan critical error" Ive been messing with it a lot but I cant seem to figure it out. The only reason i want this is because of the tracing feature. But i don't even know how to do that if I cant scan a simple picture in. The YouTube videos are outdated and the Japanese manual doesn't help because I don't understand Japanese and the images doesn't really do me justice. If anyone knows how to use is, please let me know! Like I don't know what setting to adjust. I've also try importing my scanned images to try the trace tool but it either crash when its a jpeg or it comes out like this.  I don't know why its like that, it's just a single drawing, but it came out in threes and all dotted and barely visible. If I cant able to scan it, I don't mind scanning and importing it in GTS but I don't know how to import it without looking like that and editing it. Sorry for dropping all of this, I'm just a little frustrated that I can't able to work it. 

[Wolf In A Bowl]

In my opinion GTS feels a bit cumbersome and dated.

OpenToonz provides the ability to trace scanned images, but to use it you need to scan your drawings separately.

Usage:

1. Scanning and saving

Scan your drawings and save them to a folder (I'd recommend using the png format), make sure the drawings' file names end with a number e.g. A1, A2, A3, etc

The formatting does not matter as long as a number is at the end, for example you could name your files A01, A001, A0001, or something similar.

2. Sequencing and renaming

Open OT and navigate to the aforementioned folder in the Browser, I'd recommend using the Browser room for this.

You should see a list of your drawings, right click on the first one and choose 'Rename'.

In the 'Level Name' box, choose a name, optimally a short one.

Optionally you can choose to delete your original images, if left unchecked, OT will produce copies of your images with the new name.

Upon performing the renaming operation, you should see a new entry in the Browser, it will have the level name you gave it, e.g. a level name of 'A' will give you 'A..png'.

You should also see a number showing the amount of frames, this number should be equal to the number of drawings you saved.

This means that OT is seeing those newly renamed images as an image sequence due to how their names are formatted.

This is important as it allows OT to import all of your images and treat them as a single connected level rather than creating a unique level for each drawing.

If all drawings were on separate levels, they would not share the same palette.

3. Tracing and finalizing

Import the sequence, all of your drawings should appear in a single blue column.

Enter the Cleanup room, you will see the Cleanup Settings panel on the right.

For traditional binarized output like that seen in GTS, set the Line Processing to Color, and the Antialias to None.

At the bottom left of the Cleanup Settings panel, you will see a + and - button, hitting + will allow you to add more colors to trace.

Open the Windows drop-down and choose 'Style Editor' to add a widget to allow you to change the currently selected color.

Press the 'Use Current Level Settings' button to make sure the size and DPI settings match your saved drawings.

With all of your colors added, select your first drawing in the XSheet, then go to the Scan & Cleanup drop-down and choose 'Preview Cleanup'. (I'd recommend binding this to a shortcut).

You should now see a preview of your trace, the drawing being previewed is dependent on the XSheet and the current frame. You can even press play to preview the traced drawings as an animation.

3.1 Tracing Settings

These are the main settings I like to adjust

Sharpness:

I typically just set this to 100 from its default of 90. Decreasing this will tend to produce a rounded image.

Despeckling:

Useful in most cases to remove stray pixels and spots.

In some cases e.g. if your character has freckles or small pupils, you may want to use a value of 0 to avoid wrongly removing those elements.

Brightness:

Increasing this generally produces thinner lines, too high of a value will remove lighter drawn strokes, any gaps in your lines will need to be fixed later.

Color Thresh:

This is only available on the first color (typically black), decrease this value if you are seeing wrongly colored pixels where there should be black (or whatever your first color is) lines.

Decreasing this too much will introduce wrongly colored pixels in your other colors.

3.2 Confirming the trace

With the settings adjusted to your liking, go to the Scan & Cleanup drop-down and choose 'Cleanup', then chose 'Cleanup All' in the window that opens.

Now, where your Raster Level (blue) was in the XSheet, you will now see a ToonzRaster Level (green).

3.3 Finalizing

You can use the Paint Brush Tool in Pencil mode to close gaps and repair any lost areas.

You can also use the Tape Tool with 255 opacity to close gaps in a more automatic fashion, I like to use the Rectangular mode. Just surround the gap with a rectangular selection and it will be closed.

If the gap doesn't close, try increasing the Distance setting. If the gap still does not close even with a high Distance, it may be too wide and will need to be closed manually.

Make sure your color separation lines are set to Autopaint, this option is present in the Settings tab of the Style Editor window.

This setting needs to be set for each color individually.

You can tell if a color is in Autopaint mode by the small 'A' in the lower left corner.

You can now paint your drawings, any colors in Autopaint mode will be adjusted when filling.

Hope this helps!

Edit:
Something I'd like to add

You can use the many MyPaint brushes to fix any issues with your scanned drawings before tracing them.

[gab3d]

I will eventually translate these docs into English, just haven't had enough time yet to do it.

Besides that, the program is fairly simple to use, but I'm afraid for using its scanning features you should have an Epson scanner, because it is not known to support well any other brand.

For sure you can import your scanned images into GTS to process them, I do this myself (even though I scan with GTS) to preserve the original scans intact.

In spite of all that, OpenToonz can usually do fairly good cleanups too, so you can do it there if you wish.

Luck!

[Dofu]

Hello! Thanks so much for your time to type and send me this! This really helps alot! I'll try your method and hopefully it works, I really appreciate it! 

[Dofu]

Hello Thank you for your response and I really appreciate you for eventually translating those documents, 

when you say you import it, how do you do that? I tried it but it either crash or doesn't come out right (from the example of the image i provided)  

[Hans Jacob Wagner]

I don't think that jpg is can be used for GTS - we saved our drawings as rle compressed .tiff in grays ale or color if we used separation lines.
But today I wouldn't bother to fight with the scanner - using a dslr camera and Jeremy's stopmotion feature is way more quicker and cheaper than the Epson scanner.