Documentation

CTG Layer : parameters, limitations and aspects

The first thing to do is to create a New Layer by clicking on the New button in the Timeline.

You can use the project Bob as a first exercice.



Several opitons are available. Click on Colo & Texture Layer. As we learned in lesson 4 (chapter Layer Preset Manager), a new layer, named COLO_Bob by default, will appear below the current layer. It will be a duplicate of this current layer, with the same number of frames and instances, but empty instances.

You can change this name, as for any other layer, by double-clicking on its title. An alpha-numeric field appears, allowing you give a new name. You can also access this field by right clicking on the layer : on the top of the menu, click on Rename layer.

Should you wish to configure some preferences of a CTG Layer, you can open the Layer Preset Manager panel. See the lesson 04 about Layer Management, and read (once more) the corresponding chapter.

Limitations of the Main Panel

This new layer changes the options avilable in the Main Panel.



The following tools are the only ones available :
- Freehand Stroke and its One Point Dot and Dot (Filled Stroke is deactivated) tools.
- Zoom options
- the Crop tool
- the Camera tool
- the skull that clears the content of an image
- line smoothing
- the Stencil

If you click on one of these icons, for example Line, a pop-up will warn you that you cannot use this tool in a CTG Layer.

Limitations of the Tool Panel

In the Tool Panel, your options are limited to two tools, tied to the Freehand Stroke:

The Squiggle tool will help you to colorize.
The Eraser tool will only erase these Squiggles, not the color.


Once you will have erased a Squiggle, the color will disappear or be replaced by the color of the dominant Squiggle.

The only available mode is Color.

Size will let you change the dimension of the Squiggles and the Eraser, by using the adjacent numeric field or the mini-slider.

Exclusion : only accessible when the Squiggles is chosen. This funciton will be explained later on.

The Reset button resets the parameters to zero.

You can cancel a Squiggle at any time by using Undo. You can also use the specific Eraser tool to remove the Squiggle that no longer suits you.

Aspect and functions in the Timeline

This CTG Layer will also be diiferent by its aspect in the Timeline. It is indeed larger than an Animation Layer.



On the right, under the Opacity bar, the 0 source(s) (in red) give you access (thanks to a left click) to a list of sources that correspond to the other Layers in your Clip.
In our Bob project, we only have one layer for the strokes (Lines).
Check the small empty box and a ☑ will appear. Click on another location on the Timeline to quit this list.



0 source(s) then becomes 1 source(s), in white.



Our two layers are now tied, for the Lines layer to act as a "border" to the colorization.

For other projects, there might be several sources. You can even choose several of them. Check each empty box and a ☑ icon will appear. Click on another location on the Timeline to quit this list.

As explained in lesson 4, you cannot change the pre or post behavior of a CTG Layer.