[Essey Russom]

I was wondering when is the next alpha being released and what new features will it have?

[Niels]

Hi Essey, thanks for asking 🙂

It was supposed to have been released months ago. As we are working on new additions, we also try to fix the bugs found in the previous Alpha version. We have one really annoying bug, that we can’t seem to get rid of. It’s a freeze that happens to only a few people while exporting png or jpg files. We want to have this fixed before we release Alpha 8. So it is hard to set a date.

New stuff is so far this:

Drop vector data option (to not have the lasso slowness problem. Huge!)
Autosave
Scale option for movie clip export (export in, say, double resolution with perfectly crisp lines)
Save and use pen settings
Touch gestures on touch screen computers
Reset rotate view with double click
Stamp floating selection in all selected drawings
Reverse sequence
Many bugfixes and smaller improvements

If you want me to explain some of the above – feel free to ask. (But maybe you can tell already what they are about).

Best,
Niels

[Augusto]

It seems awsome update!

[Sam W]

Hope you manage to nail that bug! Next update sounds great.

[Julien Rashti]

I was just about to ask actually, I hope you manage to fix it, definitely an alpha version worth waiting for!

[Niels]

Thanks Julien! We are actually still struggling with that exact problem (it’s a particular difficult one). But we WILL crush it eventually! (Along all the other things we are evolving). 😉

[Alex Madrigal]

Just wanted to hop in and offer words of encouragement. Keep kicking butt! And also, how far are you from having the ability to merge layers? Anybody have tips for doing this fairly quickly before the feature is fully implemented?

[Niels]

Thanks a lot Alex! It’s funny, Merge Layer is something that has been on our todo-list since the very beginning. We have kept pushing it, because other stuff seemed more important – even though a merge layer feature is obviously important and necessary. The funny thing is, that you are the only one ever mentioning it. Nobody else has asked about it, so that’s why we have kept postponing it – making all the other features instead. 😉 Apparently people did not need Merge Layer. 😀

The Alpha 8 release is super close. Merge Layer will be part of the release after that, which is the first beta.

[Julien Rashti]

Hope it’s getting closer and you’ve squashed the bug!

[Niels]

It IS getting closer! It’s a tough one. Updating a lot of systems and ironing stuff out. 🙂 Now it’s mostly testing that’s needed on obscure computers 🙂 Getting there…

[older man]

Curious if vector brushes will be in AP,currently do my cleanup in other apps .Not a urgent thing ,just when I saw the paint section it did have me wondering will it be solely rasterized or will vector tools be added in at some point.

[Sam W]

I’m unsure how the painting will be done but as far as I’m aware all of the current brush tools are vector based. So adding vector tools, like a curve editor or something wouldn’t be out of the question although unlikely a near future feature.

[Sam W]

Also, really excited to hear you managed to figure out the bug! Really looking forward to trying out the new version!

[Niels]

Older Man, Animation Paper is actually vector internally, even though it feels like raster. This gives us a lot of advantages now and in the future. So what you are drawing with is already vector brushes, though simple ones at the moment. We do plan to expand these to a much more advanced set of vector brushes, ideally compatible with brushes from other software.

[Niels]

You got it Sam. 😉