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I wonder if it might not be more convenient if the collapsed mode of the light table was something like below... this would display ONLY the essential controls once the transparency and color, etc. was established for the before/after frames... And a quick click would reopen the full LightTable panel controls. Sven

Fantastic idea! I've been grappling with this handicap myself because I map the range of my Wacom stylus as close as possible to the size of my project window. This solution is so simple and so necessary.

Great idea!

+1

Svengali wrote:I wonder if it might not be more convenient if the collapsed mode of the light table was something like below... this would display ONLY the essential controls once the transparency and color, etc. was established for the before/after frames... And a quick click would reopen the full LightTable panel controls.

SH_004 Feb. 12 11.10.jpg

Sven

Very good suggestion it leaves only the "work"buttons of the lighttable,
the color, bin and other menu's are settings buttons and don't need direct access all the time.

Peter Wassink wrote: bin and other menu's are settings buttons and don't need direct access all the time.

Although I would question the usefulness of the zero button -- how many people use that one to turn the light off and on? If we had the collapsible version above, I'd like to be able to use that tiny space to dim the power of the light, which is something I do a lot. Perhaps we could place our stylus on that little square and drag left and right to dim the light; not up and down as would seem intuitive, but which would defeat the purpose of having a thinner LT profile.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:

Peter Wassink wrote: bin and other menu's are settings buttons and don't need direct access all the time.

Although I would question the usefulness of the zero button -- how many people use that one to turn the light off and on? If we had the collapsible version above, I'd like to be able to use that tiny space to dim the power of the light, which is something I do a lot. Perhaps we could place our stylus on that little square and drag left and right to dim the light; not up and down as would seem intuitive, but which would defeat the purpose of having a thinner LT profile.

a left right movement for brightness is not that illogic, because the layer opacity setting is also horizontal.
but i must say i do use the zero [0] button all the time because its the global switch especially handy when you have multiple animation layers with lighttable on, i'm surprised you don't use it.

Maybe...

Or, better yet, self-indicating buttons.
(although this requires a newly programmed UI, I think)

I like Asaf's suggestion. It could be useful.

How about combining both? Move Sven's slider up, into the bar, and keep the zero where it is with the brightness indicators on the active frames.
Or how about placing the slider where the X is and to undo an off peg one would double click on any of the active ones?

Paul Fierlinger wrote:How about combining both? Move Sven's slider up, into the bar, and keep the zero where it is with the brightness indicators on the active frames.

The point of the buttons with the level indicators is to also act as a slide-buttons: If you click and drag them up/down you get to change the frame opacity, or, in the case of the '0' button, the overall opacity. Therefore a further slider button sitting in the title bar is redundant.

malcooning wrote: The point of the buttons with the level indicators is to also act as a slide-buttons: If you click and drag them up/down you get to change the frame opacity, or, in the case of the '0' button, the overall opacity.

That then there is the perfect solution
EDIT: Hold it! How can the Zero button be both OFF/ON and slider?

wait a second.

The whole point of collapsing the LightTable is to minimize real estate but maintain essential functions: toggle individual previous or next frames on and off and/or select a frame for off-peg use. It strikes me as silly to design intricate, non-obvious, redundant functionality into the collapsed version when the full-blown version with sliders and all the option buttons is one click away. All paul really wants is to be able to dial down the opacity and all Asaf wants is to be able to disable the LightTable visibility on all layers simultaneously which is accomplished by setting the slider to zero.

Sven

Svengali wrote:disable the LightTable visibility on all layers simultaneously which is accomplished by setting the slider to zero.

Exactly. And if to tweak it more tightly: Double-Click (or even just single Click) on the '0' button to toggle it on/off, and Click+Drag the button to alter the opacity level. I think it should be easy to implement in the current version, but the way the UI is built, a visual indication of the levels (as I suggested earlier) will not be possible.