Saving and Loading color palettes?

[Brian B]

Hey guys! Been awhile since I posted! :D

Anyway, I've got a question or so about the palettes. Last night a friend of mine and I were trying to figure out how to preserve a palette with the colors. She recently started playing with OpenToonz, and for the most part is enjoying it. Last night we were both working on figuring out a couple of things, features/functions. Nothing heavy, but then again, she's a beginner and even though I've had OT downloaded longer, I'm still very green with the software. The one thing last night that neither of us could figure out, was how in the heck to load a user-created palette. She wanted it for one of her characters. Using the RGB dropper to make styles from an older colored pic, that she made prior to downloading OT a couple weeks ago. She tried saving the palette, but then couldn't find where to load it from.

I had a similar experience when I attempted the same. I made a quick couple-style palette, saved it, but could not find a command or shortcut for loading a palette. EVENTUALLY, I found that if I moved the palette-file I had saved, from Sandbox into the >>Studio Palettes >>Global Palettes folder that I could access it in OT by clicking on the Global Palettes folder and selecting it there. However, surely there must be an easier way to save, load and use the palettes.

I hope someone can enlighten me. As for version, we're both using version 1.1.3 of OpenToonz. I use Windows 8, she's got Windows 10.

Oh! And while my palette originally saved in the Sandbox folder, not in the sandbox's sub-folders, HER palette apparently saved in Sandbox >> extras folder. I also find that weird that it's the same program, version and all, and yet our clicking of the Save Palette As button saved our palettes in different locations on our respective computers.

Anyway, thanks in advance!
Also, any ideas on when the next official Opentoonz release might come out? I'm pretty curious about what may be added to it!

Thanks again!

[John Dancel]

Open up the "Windows" -> "Studio Palette". From there you can see both Global and Current Project level palettes and perform a number of different actions that you are looking for (loading, saving, creating, modifying, etc).

Normally project level palettes are saved in the same directory as the level files they are associated with which is why it may appear under drawings or extras depending on how that level was created or brought into OT.

[Brian B]

Thanks a lot!
I wonder why there doesn't seem to be a right click or icon command for loading a palette? Even though there are 2 options for saving a palette.
Oh well, Thanks again for the help! :)

[Rodney]

Brian,

Don't forget that one quick and useful way to activate or open a palette is to drag and drop it from the Studio Palette window into the current project's palettes.

This will create a new page/tab in the palette window.  

We don't have to be precise here when opening as we can drag and drop a palette right onto the canvas area as well.

One of the easiest ways to open a palette is to use OT's browser window to locate a palette and then drag and drop that into OT.

We can also select multiple palettes at the same time and when we drop them into the current pallet (or OT) all of them will be added as new pages of the palette.

In short, OpenToonz will recognize the palette's file extension and know what to do with it.

Saving can work much the same way.*via drag and drop" but it can take a little experimenting to get a feel for what to grab and where to drop.

The palettes need to be dropped onto a folder.OR INTERESTINGLY a sub-folder in the Stuidio Palette window.

I need to explore OpenToonz palettes myself because there is a lot going on there that I'm surely unaware of.

The bottom line here is that if we know where our palettes are (outside of OT or within the Studio Palette window) it's easy to access them via drag and drop.

[Rodney]

Something useful I just experimented with is opening multiple palette windows and using those to aid in transferring style/swatches from one palette to another.

The palette windows are initially linked so they update together so it's important to lock or more  down via what looks like a power button.

Once locked down other palettes can be brought up in the other palette window(s) and style/swatches easily transferred via copy/paste.

This button isn't a power button and I suppose technically it doesn't lock down the palette (as palette pages can still be changed in the window) but importantly...  this will de-link that palette window from other palette windows unless/until you toggle off that button again.  At that time the palette will revert to matching the other active palette window.