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LOL, I "love" this message, but anyway,

here is my question:

We try to emancipate from other penciltest software and want to use TVPaint to test (grab frames from video source) handrawn animation on paper and analog cut out animation. We are using Logitech 9000 webcams connected to TVPaint. Everything works except for the onionskin function. I think, the mix settings in the video input panel is made to do the job, but it seems not to work here. Wether I set it to 0%, 50% or 100%, there is no project overlay over the video signal. Maybe I just doing something wrong.

Should the mix-setting work and would it be useful for animation (onion skinning)?
Is there another possibility to get kind of onion skinning when using the video input? Maybe with the lighttable?
The goal is, to have kind of a transparent overlay over the actual video signal to see, what's happen in the previous frame(s).

Many thanks for any help!

Animark wrote: here is my question:

We try to emancipate from other penciltest software and want to use TVPaint to test (grab frames from video source) handrawn animation on paper and analog cut out animation. We are using Logitech 9000 webcams connected to TVPaint. Everything works except for the onionskin function. I think, the mix settings in the video input panel is made to do the job, but it seems not to work here. Wether I set it to 0%, 50% or 100%, there is no project overlay over the video signal. Maybe I just doing something wrong.

Should the mix-setting work and would it be useful for animation (onion skinning)?
Is there another possibility to get kind of onion skinning when using the video input? Maybe with the lighttable?
The goal is, to have kind of a transparent overlay over the actual video signal to see, what's happen in the previous frame(s).

Many thanks for any help!

If you capture drawings via a webcam the images have not been Scan Cleaned yet , so those are opaque images (therefore the LightTable Onion-Skinning won't work , just like if you import scanned drawings in to TVPaint you must Scan Clean them first before you can see the previous frames and following frames with the Light Table turned on). For straight forward video capturing of drawings for a pencil test I think Onion Skinning while shooting is not necessary ... just capture all the drawings, then run the Scan Cleaner on the captured images and then you can use the Light Table.

However, for stop-motion Cut-Out animation of course you would want to be able to see your previously captured frame(s) superimposed over the current live frame so you can accurately gauge how much you need to move the Cut-Out puppet on each subsequent frame.

To do that you need to do three things: 1.) have MIX enabled (at around 40% - 50% ) on the Video In settings , AND 2.) you must also adjust the opacity of the Layer to about 40% - 50% , AND 3.) have the Light Table enabled.

Here is a screen capture that shows the settings for Stop-Motion capture , whether with cut-out puppets or 3-dimensional puppets -

Maybe I'm wrong, but I guess it works even if it's not Scan Cleaned, if you change the light-table mode from color to tint
EDIT: Sorry for the oversized screenshot, I stil don't understand the scaling in Windows 10

Wow, thanks a lot for the really helpful answers.

Yes, our wish to use onion skinning is mainly directed to try out cut out animations in a stop motion way. For classical linetests it is not really needed, but there are sometimes excaptions (for example when our animation teacher take the drawings out of the peg to demonstrate alternatives for the spacing). The golden hints are, to set the layers opacity to let's say 50% and to use the enabled video ipnut at the project instead of watching the video input screen. I will try it tomorrow, but aftter watching the screenshot I am sure it works
And also YES to schwarzgrau. Since TVPaint 11 the new tint mode of the lighttable should make it possible to onion skin with full opac pictures.

Great, I am happy

BTW, I think I have seen the screenshot before, maybe in an older TVPaint manual. For 11 the manual says "This lesson is not yet available. ... ask the forum". So, the manual is very correct with the last three words -

Animark wrote:
BTW, I think I have seen the screenshot before, maybe in an older TVPaint manual.

The little giraffe stop-motion test is from an older TVPaint manual . (I think by ZigOtto ? ) The animation is still on the website here:

http://www.tvpaint.com/v2/content/artic ... motion.php" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;