OT 1.5: feature requests after ~6 weeks of testing

[Leaf]

Hello,

Following my initial post detailing various bugs, I'd now like to list a number of features that I hope to see in future major revisions. This is a massive list, and I certainly don't expect the development team to implement everything I've mentioned, but if nothing else, I hope this will make everyone more aware of the many difficulties remaining, with regard to day-to-day production work.

I'll begin with the changes I think would be the most beneficial, then move on to less pressing issues. Most requests apply to both OT and T2D, but I will mention a few of Tahoma's additions that I would like to see incorporated into OpenToonz.

Primary feature requests

• Interface:
  
  
  • Dialog boxes of all kinds should display "OK" and "Cancel" buttons instead of immediately saving changes to fields.
    
    
  • Function Editor: (Function Curves window) allow simultaneous manipulation of keyframes from different curves (for example, X and Y coordinates).
    
    
  • Timeline:
    
    
    • Allow the Zoom tool shortcut.
      
      
    • If the playhead is not on the first frame of a drawing, trying to add a stroke will instead create a new drawing. I would recommend against this, given the existence of the [Cells > Create Blank Drawing] shortcut.
      
      If this can't be implemented, even as an option, one workaround would be to make [Play > Previous Drawing] move to the first frame of the current drawing, before moving to the previous one.
      
      
    • Alternate onion skin mode: display a (user-defined) number of drawings before and/or after the current one, with a fixed transparency, independent of their proximity in the timeline.
      
      The result would be similar to enabling the "Fixed Onion Skin" for a number of drawings preceding and following the current drawing, but much quicker, and very useful for checking consistency between frames without losing visibility on drawings that are too distant in the timeline.
      
      
• Tools:
  
  
  • (OpenToonz only) the Hand, Rotate and Zoom tools all cancel any active selection; selections should be maintained when using these tools.
    
    
  • The outline produced by tool modes like "Freehand", "Polyline" and "Rectangular" are totally black, making them impossible to see over dark areas of a drawing.
    
    In Gimp, selections have a bright outline with thin black borders inside and out, with the "marching ants" effect becoming visible when the user releases the mouse button.
    
    In Clip Studio Paint, the line maintains a consistent contrast by changing its brightness depending on what is under it.
    
    
  • Cursor display options should be tool-specific.
    
    At the moment, the Brush tool has a crosshair, but the Eraser tool doesn't. If the cursor size outline is disabled in the preferences, the eraser loses its only visual indicator aside from the tool icon.
    
    Additionally, the size outline always lags behind the crosshair, making tools feel unresponsive, especially the (crosshair-less) eraser. I'm not sure if this is a general performance problem that will be solved in time, or a smaller issue that can be fixed in the short term.
    
    
  • Keyboard shortcuts for cursor resizing (Ctrl + Alt for brushes, Alt for the eraser) should be customisable, so the user can choose their own modifier keys and, crucially, whether to require holding down the mouse button. This way, the resize function will not interfere with any custom shortcuts using the same modifier keys.
    
    For brushes in particular, changing the Min and Max values should probably rely on two different modifiers, instead of using Ctrl + Alt to change both at once.
    
    
  • Eraser tool:
    
    This tool is extremely limited compared to brushes. A few modest additions would make it immeasurably more useful:
    
    
    • Tool Option Bar: add options to alter the eraser's size or opacity with pen pressure.
      
      
    • An optional square brush tip for more precise erasure. If possible, it would be great to see this evolve, like with the Brush tool, into full support for MyPaint brushes.
      
      
    • An "Aspect ratio" setting to reduce the tip's width or height.
      
      
    • An "Angle" setting to rotate the eraser's tip shape.
      
      
  • Selection tool:
    
    
    • Don't cancel a selection upon clicking outside of it, or switching tools; using the Enter key to confirm changes, or the Esc key to cancel them, would work perfectly well. (Two buttons could also appear somewhere near the selection, perhaps just below it.)
      
      As they are now, selections are too easy to lose and impossible to retrieve.
      
      
    • Similarly to the Shift key which adds a new selection to the current one, there should be another modifier to remove from it.
      
      Nearly two years ago, I posted a lengthy feature request regarding OpenToonz's selection system. Since then, one grievance has been properly addressed (choosing a selection mode). However, nearly everything in the post remains current; I invite the developers to consider it.
      
      
• Keyboard shortcuts:
  
  
  • Timeline / Xsheet subwindow:
    
    
    • A modifier key for moving a selection of drawings, without moving unselected drawings. (Currently, I don't believe it's possible to move a drawing without affecting those that follow it.)
      
      
    • A "Toggle Locked" setting to lock / unlock the currently active layer, rather than using two separate functions: "Lock Selected" and "Unlock Selected".
      
      Also, right now it's necessary to click the name of a column before either shortcut will work. I believe they should apply to whatever column the user is currently working on.
      
      
    • The [Play > Next Frame] and [Play > Previous Frame] shortcuts are constrained to the limits of the playback area, unlike the arrow keys which can exceed the playback range. These arrow-key functions should be remappable.
      
      

Secondary feature requests

• Interface:
  
  
  • Upon closure, the software should save:
    
    
    • which images are being displayed in onion skin mode
      
    • the last selected style (for each column)
      
    • the active column and current frame
      
      
  • Remove the unnecessary "No more Undo / Redo operations available." dialog boxes; greying out the Undo or Redo button is sufficient.
    
    
  • Infinite view dragging in subwindows (similarly to Blender, where the mouse cursor snaps to the opposite edge when it reaches the boundary of the subwindow).
    
    
  • Menu option: [File > Close Scene] (to return to the main view, with an empty scene.)
    
    
  • "Columns" should perhaps be renamed, since they are laid out horizontally in the timeline view. "Layer / level strip"?
    
    
  • Level Settings: extra option in the Resolution section: "Use Current Camera Settings".
    
    
  • Output Settings: beside the "Shrink" field, allow the user to explicitly set an output resolution, with or without aspect ratio locking.
    
    
  • Menu option: [Render > Render Single Frame] (with similar settings to the [Render > Render] option). A "Transparent background" checkbox, for image types that support it, would also be helpful.
    
    
  • Style Editor:
    
    
    • A "Favourites" section would provide quick access to frequently used brushes. Right-clicking on a style could include an "Add to Favourites" option.
      
      
    • Next to the "Frame Rate" setting, a "Set as default" button would be convenient for those of us who don't typically animate at 24 FPS.
      
      
  • Timeline:
    
    
    • When clicking a column's visibility or locking icons, it becomes the active column. This seems unneeded, particularly when disabling visibility or locking the layer, which both prevent editing.
      
      
    • Ideally, it would be possible to select and move multiple levels (that is, blocks of frames) at a time.
      
      
    • When moving a level, a modifier key (like Shift) could be used to keep displacement vertical or horizontal.
      
      
    • Frame selections could be a different colour in locked layers, as a visual reminder that the frames can't be manipulated. Or, locked layers could have a different colour or outline.
      
      
    • [Right click > Set Start Marker / Set Stop Marker]: personally, I would prefer the marker to be placed on the clicked frame, rather than where the playhead is. (Checkbox option in settings?)
      
      
    • "Fixed Onion Skin Toggle" buttons are located just above "Relative Onion Skin Toggle" buttons, making it easy to accidentally select the wrong one; it may be more convenient to only have one toggle button, and add a modifier key to change the mode when clicking.
      
      
• Tools:
  
  
  • Hand / Rotate / Zoom tools: if possible, I'd prefer not having to click to use each tool.
    
    
  • Zoom tool: allow the user to invert the zoom direction.
    
    
  • Geometric Tool: the "Circle" mode seems superfluous; the same result can be obtained with the "Ellipse" mode by holding the Alt and Shift keys.
    
    
  • Brush and Eraser Tools: allow the user to set the amount of size change for the "Brush size - Increase / Decrease max / min" shortcuts (as either an absolute value, or as a percentage).
    
    
  • Selection Tool:
    
    
    • Rotating the selection requires the cursor to be placed in a very small and specific area. I suggest expanding this to the entire area outside the selection square.
      
      A user who wants to disable the selection could use the Esc key.
      
      
    • "Selection brush" mode: a brush that creates, adds to, or removes from a selection area, with similar settings to the regular brush (shape, size, min and max values, etc.).
      
      
    • A modifier key to move the pivot point wherever the user clicks. Currently, the user must click and drag a very small icon, which can become bothersome over many hours.
      
      
• Shortcuts:
  
  
  • Enable the Tab key as a regular shortcut key if "Use Numpad and Tab keys for Switching Styles" is unchecked in the settings.
    
    
  • New shortcut for [File > Open Recent Scene File]. (Either open the submenu, or display a dialog box.)
    
    
  • New shortcut to resize a brush's Min and Max values proportionally.
    
    
  • New shortcuts and menu items:
    
    
    • [Visualization > Show All Contents] option: expand the view to show all contents of a layer (or all layers), including strokes outside the scene borders.
      
      
    • Selecting the next / previous column.
      
      
    • [Visualization > Reset Flip] option: to reset any horizontal or vertical mirroring without going through the [Visualization > Reset View] command.
      
      
    • "Previous Brush Style" / "Next Brush Style".
      
      
      • Toggling visibility.
        
      • Setting opacity.
        
      • Toggling the colour filter.
        
      • Setting the colour for the filter.
        
        

This is a fairly exhaustive list of what I feel is still missing in OpenToonz. Again, I make no demands, and I do not imagine that everything here will be addressed as I've suggested, or at all in some cases.

My intent is mainly to create awareness of the many possible obstacles to an ideal workflow. This is by far the most time I've given to a new release of OpenToonz; previous versions made me less than confident about its potential, but I now see a real path forward, and that's to the credit of the development team.

Thank you all.

[Leaf]

To explain a few formatting errors in the "Secondary feature requests" section:

1. The empty bullet point for the Selection tool is accidental, and was not meant to contain anything.

2. "New shortcut to resize a brush's Min and Max values proportionally." could be better worded as: "New shortcuts to increase / decrease a brush's Min and Max values proportionally."

3. In the "New shortcuts and menu items" list, the final set of four bullet points should have had a "Layer settings" header:

• Shortcuts
  
  

• • New shortcuts and menu items:
    
    

• • • Layer settings:

• • • 
      
      
      • Toggling visibility.
        
      • Setting opacity.
        
      • Toggling the colour filter.
        
      • Setting the colour for the filter.
        

[Pipeline TD]

great to see this list! Can add them on the Github for Opentoonz so the developers can work on it? This will be a lot of work because every feature or bug needs its own task. But this would help developers a lot. Am I right?

[Leaf]

Since this is the official English OpenToonz forum, my hope is that the developers will catch sight of this, and incorporate some of its observations and suggestions into long-term development.

If no one from the team responds... I'll likely submit a few issues on GitHub, linking back to this page.

[Age3rcm]

i wish you the best for the developers to notice this post

[Leaf]

Thank you.