Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

Sweet.

I know this is an old topic.

"I have a dream"....traditional X-Sheet. (Vertical time line) Same functions as horizontal time line...Just on the right side corner.....

Hello

I might have posted a "wish" in the wrong place.

I wanted to ask if anybody can let me know if the "X-sheet" (Vertical timeline) function is actually working in the updated version of TvPaint?

I ask because I am the happy owner of Tvpaint 10,5 and the "X-sheet" is not (as far as I can see) working!??

It seems like it was put in but never finished..?

All the best.
A.

The X-Sheet in TVPaint (10 - 10.5 - 11 - 11.5) works, but in (my opinion) a very counter-intuitive way that will especially vex traditional pencil-on-paper animators coming from using hand-written paper X-sheets. There's been a lot of discussion about it over the years. I got to the point where I stopped caring about it and just embraced the horizontal timeline format which does everything I need it to do. At some point I hope the developers will look at revamping the vertical X-sheet format , but as it is now it is pretty much unusable (imo).
Here is one of the previous discussions about it: https://www.tvpaint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=8116

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I should add that the X-Sheet in TVPaint is something different than the Timesheet custom tool posted at the beginning of this topic, which is specifically made for Japanese production pipeline.

But , you mean this , right ? --

Hey.

Yes that was what I meant.

I realize posting about this issue here , that it might have been the wrong place.
Apologize!

I am no programmer. And I do not know what amount of work that goes into programming a piece of software.(Respect)

I know that the ,now new, industries standard is "A horizontal timeline". And you can get use to it.

And people that do not have any experience with a "traditional" X-sheet would never ask questions about this. (Most likely)

With all due respect to programmers ,I am just thinking,when programing the timeline there has to be some line of code saying "Horizontal" and if there is, why not add also "Vertical" and still keep all the same functions?....

It is really puzzling to me, to produce and clutter up space in a piece of the software with seemingly an area and functions,that is useless and confusing to the users!?!?

My reason for this comment is that I now more and more see "FREEWARE" animation/drawing software's that has and offer the "X-Sheet" as a standard.(at the same time as the timeline) It feels refreshing


Completely free to use and have!!

With all these new "freewares" on the marked, being so flexible, one might wonder for how long TvPaint can survive?
Personally I prefer to stay in one software as much as possible..

Thanks for your feedback.
Happy holiday!
A.

Anim-Illustrate wrote: ↑16 Apr 2022, 19:43
I know that the ,now new, industries standard is "A horizontal timeline". And you can get use to it.

And people that do not have any experience with a "traditional" X-sheet would never ask questions about this. (Most likely)

Yes. I think most people who have never worked in traditional animation don't even think about it. Even with Toonboom Harmony which actually has a very good vertical X-Sheet I notice that many people (especially those migrating from Flash/Adobe Animate) just use the horizontal timeline in Harmony.

Anim-Illustrate wrote: ↑16 Apr 2022, 19:43 With all due respect to programmers ,I am just thinking,when programing the timeline there has to be some line of code saying "Horizontal" and if there is, why not add also "Vertical" and still keep all the same functions?....

I would be happy to have that function, to be able to have a Vertical version of the Timeline that functions the same way as the current Horizontal timeline , but with the layers and frames stacked vertically.


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Here's a custom panel you may be interested in:

Mads Juul's Tracker Panel
https://www.tvpaint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7132

Mads was (is?) a real TVPaint power user. He has contributed many very useful custom panels over the years and used to be active on the beta testing team, but hasn't been around here much since 2018. I hope he is well and I hope he still checks in here from time to time (?). I still use his custom panels every day, especially his Tracker Panel.

Mads' Tracker Panel performs several useful functions as described in the first post here: https://www.tvpaint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=7132 , but one thing I use it for constantly is to Auto-rename the instances on my Timeline so they always match the frame number , like on a traditional X-Sheet where if you have animation ON 2's, the numbering of the drawings is 1, 3, 5, 7 , 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, etc.

Mads' Tracker will respect the exposure of the drawings (instances) and will number the instances to match the frame number . For example, if you have a series of drawings partially exposed ON 1's and partially exposed ON 2's , by default TVPaint will simply number the instances as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 ,16,17,18,19,20,21,22, consecutively , even if some of the drawings are exposed ON 2's , but Mads' Tracker Panel automatically numbers them correctly as:

1 _ 3 _ 5 _ 7 _ 9 ,10, 11, 12, 13 _ 15_ 17_ 19_ 21_ , etc.

(in this example , the first four instances being exposed ON 2's , the next four instances exposed ON 1's , then the next five exposed ON 2's ... )


.

D.T. Nethery

Thanks a lot!!

This is cool!

TvPaint might never see the day of an X-sheet.....

All the best.
A.

Anim-Illustrate wrote: ↑17 Apr 2022, 01:36
Thanks a lot!! This is cool!

Yes, I love using that Instance Tracker script by Mads Juul . I think the default way of renaming instances in TVPaint should be like Mads' script.

Anim-Illustrate wrote: ↑17 Apr 2022, 01:36 TvPaint might never see the day of an X-sheet.....

And I'm not totally sure that's a problem. I say that now even though for many years I was a very vocal advocate of having a usable vertical X-Sheet (like a traditional X-sheet , as found in Harmony or OpenToonz) , but I came to the conclusion it was more about how I had been used to working on vertical X-Sheets in traditional pencil on paper animation. Now that I've spent so much time working with horizontal timelines in TVPaint and also in After Effects, Flash and Harmony , I guess I got accustomed to using the horizontal timeline format , so I don't miss the vertical X-Sheet as much. On the other hand, if they added one (not like the current version in TVPaint) that is more like the X-Sheet in Harmony or OpenToonz , I would use it , so I still hope they will add an improved X-Sheet to TVPaint , but I can get along fine without it.

I agree with you on this.

You can get use to it...

Yess this is one of the freewares out there. OT.

It is actually pretty awesome. In my opinion I totally love the look. (Almost bringing me back to the old AMIGA look) Really oldschool. Easy to navigate... And also all the brush options and settings on these...

But personally I only use a few brushes so I can live with out all of these fantastically amazing out of this planet brushes and all their settings.

I just need 4B pencil and a mechanical HB pencil for clean ups.. heheh...

But it will be interesting to see TVP´s further development.

A.