Lite version, pencil test version, painting software for tablets... yes, all those ideas are dedicated to specific use and users, but they all have in common to be casual software, not professional software.
Don't forget TVPaint Développement is a small company, which grows up slowly. Currently, we have some developers to fix bugs and develop new features for 2 different Editions, on 4 different OS and their different versions (Windows Vista, 7 & 8 / Mac 10.6, 10.7, 10.8 & 10.9 / All Linux versions / Android versions...). And trust me, being able to propose the same software, whose files are compatible on any OS, is not a piece of cake.
TVPaint is almost 23 years old.
Several times, we tried to sell "lite" products for a cheap price. But selling "cheap" does not mean selling "a lot".
Theory is nice, reality is not.
How many cheap or free painting and animation software / applications can be found ? A dozen maybe ? That's already too much.
We can't propose a professional software for 50$, and developing a cheap software (lost among all other painting and animation software that exist yet) means at least 3 persons, from the development to the technical support. It's not worth it (not at TVPaint scale).
TVPaint Développement only lives with TVPaint Animation licenses sales + trainings. No banks, no stockholders, no government help, no film funds / commission...
Paying everybody + our offices + other various fees we can't avoid (electricity, gaz, water...) + the numerous trips we have to do (and not in business-class, but economy-class only) to meet people, train users or demonstrate TVPaint.
At the moment, we cannot really propose this kind of product because we have no time for this and it would be to the detriment of current Standard & Professional Edition + future features we are working on. Beta testers should know this better than other users...
Farrow wrote:Fabrice earlier in the merged thread stated, "I could be wrong, but PAP's development is currently more or less stopped ... It illustrates well what we want to avoid."
I am maybe wrong, but it looks like PAP's development is not completely reborn : the developer still needs funds to maintain his project.
CTP is on the market again, but according to Digital Broadcast System (which resells also TVPaint licenses), it's not worth it as much as they hoped.
That's not what I wish to PAP (even if Niels is not very fair by telling we "stole" him the blue pencil, which exists since Mirage, so 2003...). After all, saving 2D animation is the most important