Welcome to TVPaint Community forums !

We need for the Animator Panel a special delete frame(s) button that will offer options: 1. to remove without having layer move to the left
2. to ask: current layer only? all layers?

If this already exists, I apologize. I've searched the best I could, by which I mean I have not looked into the x-sheet, which I don't expect to ever use, and the same goes for the Instance Panel. I think this should be a simple addition to the handy Animator's Panel.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:...
2. to ask: current layer only? all layers?

haven't you gone in the project menu?

Duplicate, Insert, Delete Image, Add exposure, ... are commands working on all the layers, except the locked ones.

(I have buttonized a couple, but they still need icons.)

What/where are project menus?

File Edit Project ... , so the third up-right corner, not changed since Mirage.

Have you read my entire post? After all these years do you really believe that I would only now be asking how to delete an image?

I answered to your point 2 :

... current layer only? all layers?

- for current layer : the old way,
- for all layers of the project : Project/Delete Image

In the Mirage Animator's toolbar we had one button which did all of my points. Life becomes much easier to bear when the layer doesn't move left from its position when a frame or sequence of frames is removed.

So it's more like 'clear frame' than 'delete frame' ?
(Because layers can't have 'holes' in the middle)

To have a cutsom button 'ask a question', you'll have to write a george script.
Should be quite easy, anybody ?

personnaly, I think a button embeding 2 functions, I mean systematically opening a question
(options to choose) and waiting for an user's answer, is a bit tedious when using it a lot.
I prefer by far 2 different buttons, each one operating straightfully its job, just by 1 click.

that's a matter of taste, and all tastes are in the nature.

I did mean cut (delete) not clear. Typically I would use it only at the head of a layer. In the middle it behaves the same as the classical delete image.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:... Typically I would use it only at the head of a layer.

in that case, I would stretch/drag the head-handle of the layer, (Cut Images mode),
or I am missing something again ?

Well, that's where the All Layers? option comes into play. It's more efficient than having to select all layers, drag handle of current layer EDIT: right and select Cut Images. This is also used in the middle of a layer where typically I would have placed a hold on all layers and now want to shorten the whole scene by a few images. Essentially it comes to cutting out a one or more images from the middle of a project.

When Sandra paints our scenes, she might have 10 or even 30 layers of just paint variations. If I later decide to delete something, it has to happen on all layers. But sometimes I need to just trim the head of a layer without throwing the layer out of sync with all the other layers -- thus option: Current or ALL Layers?

Paul Fierlinger wrote:... This is also used in the middle of a layer where typically I would have placed a hold on all layers and now want to shorten the whole scene by a few images. Essentially it comes to cutting out a one or more images from the middle of a project.

in that case, the Instance engine can do that :
Ctrl A to Select all Layers,
then click & drag in/out the Tail of the Hold Frame you want to shorten/lengthen in the middle of your layer.
the timing change should be applied on all the selected layers.
(the condition being to have tails aligned in each selected layer)

OK, I should have not said hold frames -- it could be any piece of animation (but it's good to know about the hold case thanks).

There would be a simple solution to this -- maybe. Can the George script from Mirage be copied into TVP? When I tried to use the Mirage custom panel with this button on it, TVP crashed. But since it IS a George script, couldn't one of you techie wizards just adapt it to TVP's George file?