X Sheets button not there

[BruceM]

Can anyone tell me how to get to the x-sheets? The video tutorial isn't up yet, and the user guide instructions show a little "Clip: X sheet" button just to the right of the "Project" and "Timeline" buttons. But on my screen, the "Clip: X sheet" button is not there. Just the "Project" and "Timeline" buttons are there.
I'm on TVPaint Pro 11.0.3 64bit
Thanks!

[JQuinn]

Hello BruceM

I think you might just need to go to Edit > Preferences > Display > Timeline > and tick the box next to 'Display XSheet Tab' then it comes up next to the Project and Timeline tabs.

Have fun

Joanna

[BruceM]

That did it. Thanks so much Joanna!
I love your work, by the way. That's so cool that you're using TVPaint. Do you find that you're able to get your distinctive look with it?

[JQuinn]

Thank you Bruce. Yes I'm really enjoying TVPaint and Elodie has been especially helpful helping me to develop pencilly brushes etc. I'm 80% happy with the look but I still have that 20% to crack - but I am enjoying the challenge! The scene I'm working on now was animated on paper which I scanned in and am 'cleaning up' or rather 'art working' in TVP and the combination looks good. I love using the layers to keep the rough animation underneath and the art working layers on the top. The combination seems a good way of replicating the fluidity of the pencil on paper line. I'm still trying to get a good system but I think I've just about worked it out!

Good luck with mastering the x-sheet. I need to experiment with that next!

Joanna

[BruceM]

Wow! I would really love to hear more about your process in TVP. I'm a long-time traditional commercial animator struggling to make the leap to "tradigital". For me, it's not an easy transition. That said, I have to admit that there are aspects of it that I really love, and can see that this IS the way forward.
Can I ask how you have been handling doping your animation sequences without the aid of using the X-sheets in TVP?
If you respond, and if you prefer, you can use my regular email to keep this back & forth off the user forum. It's bruce@rowboatanimation.com

Thanks again for your help Joanna!

-Bruce

[JQuinn]

Hi Bruce - no it's not been an easy transition for me either, but I think I'm getting there. I understand the software enough to animate confidently but I've not got into camera moves yet or explored the dope sheet but these are next. It's still not as intuitive as drawing on paper but I expect that comes with practice. As long as I work from layouts drawn on paper I find I'm ok. I find it a bit hard creating the layouts on TVP as I find drawing on paper much more inspirational which is important for the initial ideas and sketches. This is probably just me though.

The best thing for me were the following...

1. Discovering the Flip tool! I have 2 flips set up - one that flips from a few drawings back and forward which is changeable depending how many drawings you fancy flipping and also a general flipper covering a number for drawing just to check the movement. A combination of the flip option and the light table has made the animation process feel much closer to animating on paper.

2. Colouring the instances so they are clearly recognisable as a key, in between or an in-between of an in-between. I still do the little ladders in the corners of the drawings but by colouring the instances you can see at a glance the status of all the drawings in the timeline. You can write notes along the top in the audio section - but its really designed for the sound direction. I do have a book with all the notes pertaining to each scene as there's nowhere to do it in TVP - this is my version of the dope sheet I suppose. It would be good if there was some area for writing notes in each scene. My tentative explorations into the dope sheet were not very successful as I couldn't work out how to write on it - so I left it till I was desperate....which will be soon as I'm going to be sharing work out soon.

3. I also find it helps enormously by setting the main short cut keys on the Cintiq buttons. I find it distracting having to reach for the keyboard and find the right keys. Too much typing distracts you from drawing. Everything within a few centimetres of the drawing I say!

4. Importing drawn animation is easy too. Then once in TVP you can work away on it to your hearts content. I'm liking this combination more and more.

Watching Elodie's tutorials on the website and also the Elephorm package that you have to buy have been a great help. Also the videos by Aaron Blaise are a wonderful tool too.

Hope the above helps Bruce and I really like the work on your website

Joanna

[Elodie]

You can write notes along the top in the audio section - but its really designed for the sound direction. I do have a book with all the notes pertaining to each scene as there's nowhere to do it in TVP - this is my version of the dope sheet I suppose. It would be good if there was some area for writing notes in each scene. My tentative explorations into the dope sheet were not very successful as I couldn't work out how to write on it - so I left it till I was desperate....which will be soon as I'm going to be sharing work out soon.

I took good note of this one. Won't be easy to add so don't expect it in the next update, but it's worth to think about it

[slowtiger]

I have used the note section for timing, and it worked well for me. But I never did a fully filled dope sheet anyway.

[BruceM]

Joanna - Thank you for your time in helping me out with all of this information. That's very kind of you to do!
Doing your layouts on paper and scanning them in is a great idea. I feel the same way about not being comfortable with beginning the process directly on the Cintiq. But as you mention, it's probably something that just comes with doing it over and over.
I really do need to dive in and set up the flip tool. The way that you've set it up to flip just keys, and also to do a full motion flip of your drawings sounds perfect! I will try that out as well.

With regards to the "combination" process that you've been working out, are you saying that you do some of your keys on paper, scan them in and then work digitally on top of those drawings? Do you then set the opacity of the original paper drawing back a bit? I can see how that kind of a process could give that nice soft look that you get with your work.
Could I ask which functions you've found to be most useful to program in as your shortcut keys on your Cintiq?

I did purchase the Elephorm tutorial package and have watched the Aaron Blaise videos as well. They're very helpful, but it's also very helpful to hear about your process with TVP. Thanks again for your help Joanna. I really appreciate it!

-Bruce

[JQuinn]

Hi Bruce

Glad this is helping..

With regards to the "combination" process that you've been working out, are you saying that you do some of your keys on paper, scan them in and then work digitally on top of those drawings? Do you then set the opacity of the original paper drawing back a bit?

Yes well Ive already animated some of the film on paper, so Ive scanned it in as a layer then like you say take the opacity down and do the additional tweaking and shading on new layers. You can adjust the opacity of the paper animation depending on how rough it is. I am animating in TVP this way too. Rough animation layer, then new layer on top. Building up the layers but leaving the ghosting of the rough animation seems to emulate paper animation quite well.

Attached is how I have my keys set up. Only on the left so far. From top to bottom it is...

- Display toggle ( to flick between the screens)

- Flip all

- Flip in-betweening

- UNDO

- Zoom

- Rotate and Pan

- Image mark FORWARD

- Image mark BACK

It might be interesting for you to see how I lay out the project too. I stretch the project across both screens. At the moment I have the monitor above the Cintiq as there is less side to side head turns!

Hope the above helps - it certainly would have helped me!!!

Joanna

[BruceM]

Seeing how you've set up your hot keys is very helpful. Thank you for spelling that out! I'm going to try my hand at setting those up today! Have you programmed your pen buttons for anything?

I know that I'm asking a lot of questions, but can I ask one more question regarding how you import your scans? -- how do you assign your imports to go the their proper layers in the timeline? I'm not seeing any command that tells the program which layer you want a particular group of scans to be imported to, but I know that you must be able to do that, right?

Thank you again, Joanna!

-Bruce

[JQuinn]

hi Bruce . I havent assigned the imported scans to a particular level. I have just imported in all the scanned drawings before building the project. Once they are all in I can copy and paste to different layers. There maybe a way of doing it but Ive only done the above.

Hope all is going well.

Joanna

[BruceM]

Ah, maybe that's how it's meant to be done? I'll post the question to the group and see if perhaps there's a more direct way to get the drawings on their proper levels.
Thanks Joanna! Have a great weekend!

-Bruce

[slowtiger]

It's actually simple: just name the drawings while scanning like "a1, a2, a3, b1, b2, b3" and so on. TVP will import all a drawings into one layer, then all b drawings into another layer, and so on.

[BruceM]

Yow! That's fantastic! I'll give that a go.
Thanks Slowtiger!