[Mike Stumbo]

Hey Niels,

It’s been a minute since we’ve chatted last, and can’t remember if I asked this already, but will AP have shape stencils? Sometimes I suck at drawing circles, or even straight lines. This can really throw off sequences and cause tweens to look really bad. Just hoping🤞.
Well have a good weekend and hope Alpha 8 is coming soon. Cheers!

~ Respectfully,

Mike Stumbo

Animation Generalist

[Niels]

Hi Mike,

I have been reluctant to do tools for shapes (circles, rectangles, etc) – because I see it as less “analogue” hand drawn and a more technical thing. It needs to fit the vision. 😉 My thought have kind of been, you can just draw the shape you need (free hand). However, I do appreciate that there’s a legitimate need after all.

A quick and easy line tool is already on our todo-list (requested by many). Since you are mentioning the circle specifically, I would love to ask you how you see a circle stencil work for super easy and efficient use, without the UX feeling too “technical”? It’s of course not hard to implement in Animation Paper at all, but it is interesting to think about how to do it in the best possible way. Also, it shouldn’t be “too clever” so it just feels alien to people – it could also be totally fine to make it work like it does in other software. But an intuitive, easy, efficient solution is of course ideal.

While I’m in the mode of nerd’ing details. 🙂 Our plan is to do “nudging” of the lines, so when you have very close inbetweens, you can push the lines subtly, to make them sit exactly where you need them (less wobbly lines). With our line engine we can do perfect nudging without the line getting blurry. I’m excited to get to this and try it out my self 😉 Any thoughts on this idea?

Best,
Niels

[Mike Stumbo]

Hey Niels,

So my thoughts on a round/circular stencil is very similar to the lasso tool. How once you’ve made a lasso, only what’s inside can be drawn on, masking basically. However, with the circular tool you can use it to draw around the edges, much like Sketchbook’s circular tool. I use circles/rounds on most of my drawing, as I’ve educated my and others, round lines give organic results while straight or flat lines give a mechanical result.
Nudging will be super helpful, and probably used a lot by myself! Maybe having the nudge tool set to a hot key like ctrl, cmd or alt would be nice that way users don’t have to switch tools or open up menus. That be cool. Sounds awesome though.

~ Respectfully,

Mike Stumbo

Animation Generalist

[Niels]

I see – thanks a lot Mike! Sounds good!

[Mike Stumbo]

Totally—I can’t wait to see what features Alpha 8 will bring! I hope its release is imminent! Haven’t had an update since June, hope Niels and his team are able to get it out before the holidays!

~ Respectfully,

Mike Stumbo

Animation Generalist

[Niels]

Thanks Mike – before the holidays is exactly what we are aiming for. We do have some wrinkles to iron out first though. Fingers crossed!