Topics to Digital Painting with GIMP

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Revision as of 14:48, 1 April 2016 by Americo.Gobbo (talk) (PRIMARY FEATURES & ASSETS*)
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Introduction

This document is a draft project to related in short the topics and after to organize pages more concise.

Create Proposals

The Forms of Current Proposals - Workgroups
An Idea From Krita Developers - Work on Features Requests


PRIMARY FEATURES & ASSETS

The main features of GIMP to graphic artists are probably the Colour and/or Brushes. Are the assets or resources (binary or formatted text) that could be used as facility or to expand/organize the workflow tasks of the graphic artist.

Colour

Different requests and issues around Colour functions/features.

Colour Swaping

Main Scope

Swap a fixed number of colours used in each session, via a toggle shortcut key.

Current possibilities

  • Swap between FG/BG Colour via keyboard shortcut → screenshot Configure Keyboard Shortcuts.

Swap-colors-fg-bg.png

Configuring the current keyboard shortcut to swap the FG/BG colours.

  • Swatches* of colours used and or stored by the user → image of GIMP picker and current Palette dialog on GIMP 2.9.

Gimp-picker-history-colours.png
Change-foreground-color-dialog.jpg

History Colours in the FG/BG Colour and Change Foreground Colour Dialogs.

(*) The swatches (two rows) could be understood as a palette built, on-the-fly, during the work sessions by the user in three ways:
1) via button '>' to add current colour on FG to palette or;
2) via drag and drop colour in each swatch or;
3) via picker colour, but is added only after the colour is used on canvas. Each new colour is placed, always, in the first slot (left-side of first row), and the displacement of colours happening versus right-side direction to each new colour that is added.

Improvement Reasons

Enhancing the General Usability → [1] to have a fast way to access the history colours used in each work sessions; [2] to avoid excessive use of steps between paint tools tasks (repetitive stress), see test below.

Comments
Scenario | Float full or Dockable | Single Window

Basically is the same thing, because we need move cursor around the window/docks and make clicks to select colours in the different dialogs.

Example: Fill a Mondrian Grid
Swap-colors-flow-1.jpg

Example to find the amount of the steps to pick colours in the current release.

a) Rectangle Tool Selection → select a rectangle;
b) Bucket fill tool;
c) Choose colour;
c1) Click on FG Colour on Toolbox → Open Change Foreground Colour → Move cursor on Dialog → Choice steps (minimal 1 step, 2 steps if need to close dialog);
or c2) Move cursor until FG/BG Colour Dialog → Choice steps (2 steps);
d) Fill the selected rectangle.

To choose colours is necessary minimal 2 steps and maximum 3 steps (cursor movements and clicks).

The sample has 6*6=36 rectangles, only to select colours for all rectangles, we must crossing or move the cursor and do clicks at amount of a minimal 72 and a maximum of 108 times.

Proposal Swap History Colours

 +-----------------------+     
 | A | B | C | D | E | F |  
 +-----------------------+ 
   |   |   |
   |   |   +--Next Colour (C) --------> (3) Hit key again → is selected this swatch.
   |   |
   |   +----> Next Colour (B) --------> (2) Raise finger from key → is selected this swatch, previous of the last colour used.
   |                
   +--------> Last colour used (A) ---> (1) Hit key Shortcut Open Popup with swatches.
        
canvas                           
  • History colour pop-up, for instance, with the last 6 colours stored in history of the FG/BG Colours dialogue. This pop-up is enabled when hit the key shortcut action.
  • Each time that raise finger from key and hit again, the selection colour goes to next colour, for instance, from A to B, and successively until F and in a closed cycle. The principle is the same of the short-cut to swap colours between FG/BG, but in this case we have 6 colours.
  • Each time that the key short-cut is held down, the colour remains stopped in the slot, for example A.
  • The cycle is stopped naturally after a lapse time between hit key and raise finger of key.
  • Have on GIMP preferences the possibility to choose the amount of colours to use in this pop-up, for example, minimal 6 and maximum 12 colours.

Note: is possible to think the sequence from F going to A, where F is the last colour used by user, E the previous and successively.

References

Short video showing general behaviour.

FG/BG Dialog Color [GIMP, Wheel and Scales tabs]

History Colours and Small Improvements

In the current 2.9 Git Master all two rows are destined to history of colours used by the user during the sessions.
The behaviour is described here.
Fg-bg-dialog change-fg-dialogs.jpg

Dialogs where the history colours was implemented.

Improvement Reasons

To graphic design, painting, certain swatches must be of a kind fixed as swatches on canvas (ready as colour tube or reference colour of a layout page). Each work has a fixed number of these swatches... and other are random or temporary. For an artist or a designer, e.g., the fixed swatches are placed on the bottom row. The mixed swatches, the variations (all pick colours) of the first row swatches are placed in the first row.

Comments

Elle Stone

Well, the first thing I do when I want to paint is pick some colors to paint with.

The way things are now, every time I pick and then paint with a new color, the swatches and also the palette tab colors update and rearrange themselves, so I have to keep looking for where the color I want next has moved to. And sometimes the colors are not easy to tell apart just by looking at the swatches, partly because the swatches are small (and need to be small) and partly because GIMP color picker/foreground tool isn't color-managed (and really needs to be).

So that's why I make a layer and paint color swatches for the colors I want to use. But this also is awkward. Having a fixed palette of swatches on the pick foreground tab would be very, very convenient.

Having the top row of swatches update the bottom row be fixed (even after closing GIMP) unless/until deliberately changed would seem to be ideal, but of course would need testing to be sure.
Improvements Schema

Is very useful to divide the two rows with different scopes (Elle Stone Suggestion):

  • Top row is set once and remains until is not deliberately modified/reset;
  • Bottom row changes as new colours are picked.
History-pick-colours-options history-and-user-r2.jpg

Explaining the improvements on the dialogs.

Colour Internal Tabs of Colour Dialogs

Implement the possibility to have as independent tab, the internal tabs of the picker colours GIMP, Wheel and Palette.

Current Colour Dialogs

The different pickers are as tab on the Change Foreground Color Dialog or as button to select each picker as is on the FG/BG Colour Dialog.
Change-foreground-color-dialog.jpg
Gimp-picker-history-colours.png

The two dialogs of Colour with picker tabs and colour controls [GIMP, Print, Watercolor, Wheel, Palette, Scales]

Implementation Reasons

The more complete dialog is the Change Foreground Colour Dialog, but is very invasive on canvas. To have the main picker colours as independent tab is possible to think in the docks where we have two or three views of colour instances. For instance, GIMP picker + Scales or Wheel + Scales.

Implementation Schema

Transform the internal tabs of GIMP, Wheel, Palette and Scales in the independent tabs.

Independent Colour Picker Tabs

GIMP-picker-tab.jpg Wheel-colour-picker-tab.jpg Palette-colour-picker-tab.jpg Color-scales-picker-tab.jpg

Note: Is possible that the history colours not is usable in all tabs. Perhaps useful only the traditional picker colours as GIMP and Wheel.

Dockable Picker Colours Example

Each tab, in this way, can be dockable, for example, Palette + Scales:
Palette-colour-picker-tab+scales.jpg


Redesign and new paint dynamics of the default set [!?]

Perhaps is interesting to create the author sets or technique sets to improve or to expand the current set. These sets could be promote directly by gimp.org > assets.gimp.org [?!]

Tool Presets Bugs and flow problems

Bugs to edit presets

  • Tool Options dialog - define in short ...
  • Tool Presets dialog

Problematic flow to create

  • Tool Options dialog
  • Tool Presets dialog

Suggestions

Tools & Around

Toggle Modifiers & Usability

Increase/decrease size and hardness brush on canvas

Have a toggle modifier key to interact with the size and hardness brush. The size and hardness is controlled by of the device (mouse or stylus) drag, for instance, to right increase, to left decrease. The GIMP users can show or not the outline of brushes. Some users prefer to have only the pointer mode without the outline. In this case, with no outline, the toggle modifier key must enable also (preferable) the brush outline, while this key is down (this method is used by Krita. See the short video of the feature). In this way is possible to control better the increase and decrease.

Current 2.9 git master

Is possible to change the size and hardness via short-cuts:

  • Size - Bracket keys of keyboard, '[' to decrease and ']' to increase.
  • Hardness (Custom) - the shorcuts do not working Bug report

References

Dynamic Zoom

The current keyboard shortcut (+) and (-) or the wheel mouse are difficult to use in a painting session, mainly because on digital painting is common to use the graphic tablets.(1) Use the Zoom tool becomes a bit difficult while painting: every time you must to select the zoom tool, via tool box or via keyboard, and to reselect again the paint tool to continue the painting session. To have a feature, as we have in Krita/Photoshop and MyPaint, turns the tasks more friendly and with a minor step number to make zooms and to return the main task.

On MyPaint and Krita this feature have a identical behaviour, the zoom is enabled with Ctrl+Mouse Wheel and Drag.

Notes
1. Some tablets, more new, have devices that can be used to simulate the wheel of mouse. But this is not a rule... many people prefer the tablet more simple and not wacom to work. For example, some artists use simple or economic graphic tablets, because they are more efficient to drawing.

Paintbrush with eraser ability

To use the same brush to erase a stroke with a toggle short cut (recursive). In MyPaint and Krita is possible to use recursively the two tools using only the key 'E'.

To make this in the current stable and development releases we must follow this flow:

  1. To share the paint options between tools
  2. Change between the P or N key with Shift+E and again P or N (for instance)to follow painting/drawing.

The process that is possible is a bit unfriendly if I do a comparison with the flow with Krita/Photoshop and MyPaint. Have a toggle or recursive key to make this, it turns this action more easy and fast to execute. Imagine the users that are using a graphic tablet with GIMP... is necessary stops the action with paint tool, and to use the hand (left/right) to invoke the eraser, with Shift+E, and after again, 'P' or 'N' (for instance) key to follow using the paint tools.

I think that the 'Paint Options Shared Between Tools' works fine in many cases... but not to all. My suggestion, here, is to provide another option to have the eraser directly on paint tool. For me and many painters that are using MyPaint and Krita, this feature is working fine. See thread on mailing list - Some ideas and suggestions around digital painting on GIMP.

Brainstorming and ideas

  • A plug-in action (with a toggle key) to enable some blend modes on the paint tools to erase the strokes. For example, the paint tool with blend mode + foreground colour to erase the stroke/stain. I have tested with Addition Mode, with white colour as foreground and works fine to delete. The main question here is: we want/must eliminate a wrong stroke or many strokes (this is a simple task) or we need of the Eraser Tool to make actions more complexes? I am thinking that both flow options are important and convenient, but each of these depends what we are doing in each moment. Normally, during the paint sessions, we must to delete some wrong or undesirable strokes/parts.

References

  • Krita and Mypaint way - I've made a short video using Krita to exemplify the feature. The key 'E', by default, is used to enable the erase feature. On MyPaint the feature has the same behaviour and short-cut key.