Easy select outline layers inside groups

General Synfig general discussion
1

Problem:

Strokes with no region placed in groups folder are harder to select in the viewport than strokes with regions. You often have to zoom in hard to select hair thin lines in the viewport.

Solution:
Enable region layer and outline layer in draw tool settings. Set region color to 50% rgb colors under RGB tab in colors popup window or use #808080 in HSV tab setting = gray or middle dark gray.

Set fill/region color Alpha to 25% in colors popup window. If you use lower than Alpha 25% selecting the shape is as hard as using stroke/outline only. 25% and upwards Alpha setting is ok.

Now when you draw you should have a stroke and a faint region that helps you select strokes/objects easier especially when they are placed inside folders and subfolders.

Removing faint region:
Use “Hard light” blend method for lineart group layer. This will remove the fill/region gray tint for all lines just preserving the lines.

Place the outline group and separate fill group inside a Filter group to avoid having outline group being masked by fill group layer.

face.sifz (36.6 KB)

face_visible_stroke_regions.sifz (36.6 KB)

You can try disable the fill regions by hiding their group layers but it will be much harder to select the thin strokes. Medium thick strokes are almost always easier to select. This workflow is mainly for hair thin lines.

2

Why not to use Navigator Window as a reference (a bit blurred indeed) and have the zoom in the canvas ?
You can move the viewport of the canvas inside the Navigator or use mouse middle button to pan in the canvas, and select the individual strokes in the zoomed canvas.

3

I had problem selecting lines when brush size is below 1,0px. That’s why I did this workaround. Navigator window is one solution but still I have to zoom very hard before I can select.