Jitter option for Brush Tool on Toonz Raster layers

[Lukas Krepel]

The MyPaint brush options are nice, but I really can't give up the advantages of the Toonz Raster level. Any improvements to the basic Brush Tool would be very very appreciated. I imagine a 'Jitter' option with a min/max value similar to the 'Size' option would greatly expand the usefulness of the Paint Brush.

[Rodney]

Don't forget that you can move in the other direction... into vector brushes... where creating your own brushes is as easy as saving out a vector image (PLI file).

At first blush this might not seem to be a good tradeoff but keep in mind that it's a fairly trivial process to copy/paste back and forth between Toonz raster and vector levels.

So, drawing with a custom vector brush and then copy pasting to a Toonz raster level may be an option.

I've attached a 'kindajitter' brush I just threw together based a little off of your example... needs to be a bit thicker.

Drop that into the vector brushes directory in the Library found in your OpenToonz stuff directory and it will then become available for use in the vector brushes menu.

[Lukas Krepel]

Thanks for the workaround suggestion, but having to copy every single drawing or line from a vector level to a toonz-raster level is not something I'm willing to incorporate into our pipeline. There's too many drawbacks.

[konero]

Hi Lukas, I know what you mean, fortunately OpenToonz has an FX that can fix this.

When working for TV and heavy production, commonly we work with aliased lines such as the Toonz Raster brush in a mechanical way, so the lines are very clean and easy to understand, perhaps very digital looking, and we add anti-aliasing/smoothing/texture/jitter when rendering out to meet a specific aesthetic, such as a gritty cel line. Multiple ways to do this...

My preferred way:

• As an example, create a Toonz Raster level and a Raster level.
  
• Draw your main production work on the Toonz Raster level, for this example just draw a bunch of lines.
  
• Now over on the Raster level, make up a jittery blob shape, as if you was creating a brush head in Photoshop or Clip Studio, this will act as the new texture shape (brush head) for our Toonz Raster lines.
  
• Now open the Schematic FX window and add the FX: Toonz_Level > Art Contour.
  
• Attach the Toonz Raster level to the Source input, and attach the Raster level to the Controller input, now attach the Art Contour node to the XSheet.
  
• Open the Art Contour settings by double-clicking the Node, and reduce the Distance.
  
• Hit the Preview button in the viewer to preview the effect.

Alternate way:

You can also get a similar effect by using the FX: Toonz_Level > Calligraphic Line.

• Attach the Toonz Raster level to the Source input.
  
• Open the settings to the Node.
  
• Bump up both the Vertical and Horizontal thickness variation sliders to 100.
  
• Play with the Noise, Smoothness and Thickness sliders until satisfied.
  

And also, you can use the FX: Toonz_Level > Texture. However it's not worth me explaining this, you'll have to play around with it. Basically, load in a texture file onto a Raster level, similar to the Art Contour node.

You can also combine these if necessary.

I know it won't show up as you draw, but as I said above the Toonz Raster brush is designed for a specific work flow, if you add jitter during the process then painting becomes more difficult, more time consuming, post-processing is more difficult, and cleanup artists may not stick to the same line style as they draw differently, etc.

[Lukas Krepel]

I just tried it and the result is amazing! Your 'preferred way' gives me great results even on the first try. I was trying much more complicated things with some effect stacking and way to many nodes, but this is really good and satisfying. Thanks for the thorough reply!

[Jane Eyre]

Ooh, that opens up so many possibilities!

[Rodney]

Great workflow tip @konero!

[Shun Iwasawa]

I just made a new improvement which will enable MyPaint brushes on Toonz Raster levels.

https://github.com/opentoonz/opentoonz/pull/2257

Hope this helps! ;-)

[Lukas Krepel]

Wow! It sure does. Fantastic! thanks a lot!