Toggle visibility of Multiplane layers in FX Stack

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D.T. Nethery
Posts: 4125
Joined: 27 Sep 2006, 19:19

Toggle visibility of Multiplane layers in FX Stack

Post by D.T. Nethery »

In the list of Multiplane layers (planes) in the FX Stack , it would be useful to have a check box next to each to be able to show or hide the plane.

As it is now a layer in the multiplane stack can be hidden only by setting the plane's Opacity to 0% , but it would be more convenient to simply enable or disable a plane's visibility by a check box in the list. Why is this useful ? Because sometimes in arranging the positions of the planes to obtain the most pleasing composition it is useful to turn off some planes that may be obscuring parts of other planes. Also , in some cases it is useful to render some (or all) of the planes on separate layers in the Timeline because this allows for additional FX to be added (for example: Color Adjust or Blur) to some layers (but not all layers) after the Multiplane move has been rendered.

With the current set up , each plane must be selected one at a time and the opacity lowered down to 0% on all planes that you don't want to be visible . It would be easier to be able to do this from the list of planes with a check box next to each plane , allowing the user to either show or hide the plane by simply clicking in the checkbox.

Image

Animator, TVPaint Beta-Tester, Animation Educator and Consultant.
MacOS 12.7.1 Monterey , Mac Mini (2018) , 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7,
16 GB RAM , TVPaint PRO 11.7.1 - 64bit , Wacom Cintiq 21UX 2nd Gen.
,Wacom Intuos Pro 5 , Wacom driver version 6.3.39-1
User avatar
D.T. Nethery
Posts: 4125
Joined: 27 Sep 2006, 19:19

Re: Toggle visibility of Multiplane layers in FX Stack

Post by D.T. Nethery »

D.T. Nethery wrote: 30 Nov 2020, 23:29 In the list of Multiplane layers (planes) in the FX Stack , it would be useful to have a check box next to each to be able to show or hide the plane.

As it is now a layer in the multiplane stack can be hidden only by setting the plane's Opacity to 0% , but it would be more convenient to simply enable or disable a plane's visibility by a check box in the list. Why is this useful ? Because sometimes in arranging the positions of the planes to obtain the most pleasing composition it is useful to turn off some planes that may be obscuring parts of other planes. Also , in some cases it is useful to render some (or all) of the planes on separate layers in the Timeline because this allows for additional FX to be added (for example: Color Adjust or Blur) to some layers (but not all layers) after the Multiplane move has been rendered.

With the current set up , each plane must be selected one at a time and the opacity lowered down to 0% on all planes that you don't want to be visible . It would be easier to be able to do this from the list of planes with a check box next to each plane , allowing the user to either show or hide the plane by simply clicking in the checkbox.

Image
This feature request was added in 11.7.1 ("toggle visibility of layers in the Multiplane Camera") , but there is a persistent issue with this feature which needs to be improved, although the issue may not be the Multiplane toggle visibility of layers specifically, but rather an issue about how Undo is applied to actions taken in the FX Stack.

So, let us say I have a Multiplane Camera project with 25 layers. For ease-of-use, so I can focus on adjustments to only a few layers at a time , I deselect 23 of the layers, with only 2 of the layers still selected and visible. Now a problem occurs: while I am making adjustments on these two visible layers if I UNDO (CMD Z/CTRL Z) it will undo the adjustment I made in that layer's X - Y - Z coordinates, but it will also apply undo to the previous layer selections/deselections in the list of Multiplane layers, so now all of the layers will be selected again and the user must manually deselect each layer again to return to the previous state before clicking Undo. It seems to me that Undo should apply only to the last action the user made in the FX Stack while adjusting the coordinates of the visible planes , but Undo should not apply to the previous action of deselecting the planes , so that the deselected (hidden) planes are now selected again.

The other problem I have noticed with the toggle visibility of layers in the Multiplane Camera is if I SAVE the project with only 1 or 2 planes selected (and all the other planes are deselected) when the project is opened next time all the planes are selected again. It did not save the project in it's last state , with most of the planes deselected. When saving the project , the current state of the Multiplane Camera FX Stack should be saved so when work is resumed at a later time the user may start exactly at the point where they left off work in the previous session.

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Screen Shot 2023-06-09 at 11.25.04 AM.png
Screen Shot 2023-06-09 at 11.25.04 AM.png (82.05 KiB) Viewed 3642 times


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Animator, TVPaint Beta-Tester, Animation Educator and Consultant.
MacOS 12.7.1 Monterey , Mac Mini (2018) , 3.2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7,
16 GB RAM , TVPaint PRO 11.7.1 - 64bit , Wacom Cintiq 21UX 2nd Gen.
,Wacom Intuos Pro 5 , Wacom driver version 6.3.39-1
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