Documentation

The General Tab

The General tab

The General tab pictured above is composed of several sections and options. Some of them may vary depending on your operating system.

Shared options

-The Language section is used to select the language the user wishes to use. The user may choose between French, English, Japanese and Chinese.


If you wish to change the language, a window informing you that you need to restart TVPaint Animation to apply this change will pop up.

Restart TVPaint Animation warning




-The Keyboard Shortcuts section is used to attribute keyboard shortcuts to almost all icons functions and menu options.


The keyboard shortcuts


To create your own shortcuts, click on the Configure button in the second section. The window above will then appear.
You probably have noticed that when a Tooltip help window appears, many tools, options, drawing modes, etc, already have associated keyboard shortcuts: don't hesitate to change them if they don't suit you. Any modification in that panel will cause a modification in the a Tooltip help window. Please note that it is not possible to associate custom shortcuts to the Left and Right mouse buttons as well as to your keyboard’s Alt key.

Changing the shortcuts is a piece of cake:

1. Pick a TVPaint Animation function from the right hand column, which lists all TVPaint Animation functions available to be associated with a keyboard shortcut.
2. Pick an unused keyboard shortcut from the left hand column, which lists all keyboard shortcuts and shows whether or not they are free to be assigned.
3. Click on the Assign button.
Done!

To assign a sequence of functions to a shortcut, you need to:
1. Pick a function from the right hand column.
2. Pick the desired shortcut from the left hand column.
3. Click on Assign.
4. Pick another function from the right hand column.
5. Hold down CTRL and click on Assign at the same time. You'll see that the second function is added to the first one.
6. Repeating steps 4 and 5, you can add multiple functions to one shortcut. When you use the shortcut, the commands will be executed in the order they were added.


Sequence of functions assigned to a shortcut


The Unassign button is used to remove the association between a function and a keyboard combination.

The list of all keyboard shortcuts is called a keymap. You can save or load different keymaps, clear the current keymap or reset TVP to the default keymap by using the options in the File drop-down menu, located in the upper left hand corner of the Configure Keyboard Shortcuts window.


Keyboard shortcuts are also accessible via the Edit > Shortcuts menu or with the [Ctrl+K] key.


-The Temp Directory section, is used to define a directory in which temporary TVPaint Animation files may be stored.
* This directory may be modified using the associated text field or using the Set button (a file navigator window will then open).
* The temporary files contain data related to the current TVPaint Animation session. Data related to your animations is also stored here (for example, data regarding the various stages of your work which is essential to the Undo and Redo functions’ operation).


The faster the data storage device on which your temporary files are stored, the faster TVPaint Animation will work. Always ensure this storage device has sufficient available storage capacity.


Inexperienced users are not advised to change the default location.


-The Pen eraser section allows you to choose TVPaint’s behaviour when flipping your tablet’s pen.


Pen eraser options


* The The pen eraser is the same brush, but set to ‘erase’ mode option allows you to keep the currently selected brush but changes the drawing mode to Erase.
* The The pen eraser is a freehand eraser option will change the currently selected tool to the Eraser when flipping your pen.

Checking neither of these two options will allow you to replace your current tool with another brush of your choice when flipping your pen.


The other options


-With the Stroke Animator option selected, one can draw across a series of instances by holding down the CTRL key while moving the stylus across the project drawing space. By choosing the Freehand Dot mode while drawing with a brush (simultaneously holding down the CTRL key) you can constrain TVPaint to draw the brush only one time per instance, creating an animation that follows a realtime path.

This feature will be explained in detail in lesson 5.

-The Stencil checkbox, if enabled, prevents you from drawing on a layer with an active Stencil. Disable it to be able to draw on layers with active Stencils without being obligated to deactivate their Stencils every time.

-The Barbecue option, if checked, will use your computer's resources at maximum level. You should avoid it if:
* you are using a portable device in which case your battery life will be really poor.
* you are using other resource hungry software, resulting in crash risks.

-The Default cut mode and Default delete mode allow you to change the software’s behaviour when cutting or deleting instances respectively.

The different options available for those two parameters will be discussed in lesson 3.

Checking the Undo Layer Opacity box will allow for changes made to layers' opacity to be undoable.

Finally, you can choose the default Resampling Algorithm to be used when applying anti-aliasing to your transformations (rotations, rescaling, change of perspective etc.). The Old algorithm is the sole one which was available up to the TVPaint 11.7 version. The New algorithm relies on another mathematical principle which may prove more effective when doing those operations. We recommend you try both as they will react differently to your drawing’s distinctive features.

Windows and Linux-specific options:

The SubPixel option

On Windows and Linux, users can enable or disable the Sub-Pixel mode for future drawings. This is in direct relation with the capabilities of your hardware and, more precisely, with your graphics tablet if you are using one (we strongly recommend it!).

Windows users will need to turn the Wintab option on to make the Sub-Pixel mode appear. The Wintab parameter will be explained in the next section.

All the latest models of Wacom® tablets support this mode, i.e. the tablet’s precision is greater than one pixel on the screen. Enabling this function when suitable hardware is used will allow you to use TVPaint Animation drawing tools with a precision greater than one pixel!

If your hardware does not support this function, your tablet performance may be negatively affected by activating this option (drift between the true position and the position of the cursor on the screen, for example). Activating it will then deliver results considerably different than those expected, especially if you work with a TabletPC or a double-screen configuration.
We therefore recommend you check the compatibility of your hardware to benefit fully from this function.

Windows-specific options:

Wintab and Ink options

The Wintab option, when enabled, allows you to use Wacom® drivers installed on your computer. If you are using another kind of tablet, based on the Windows' Ink drivers, you can disable the Wintab option and choose the Ink one instead.

macOS-specific options:

The Boost line smoothness option

The Boost Line Smoothness option, if checked, offers the possibility to obtain smoother lines while using the different tools at your disposal. Since it uses more resources, it is best to leave it unchecked in case the tools are already behaving in an efficient manner.