I’m kinda used to using my tablet in Flash for FBF animation, and since Flash has the capability of vector painting it’s pretty quick when I need to get a decent drawing done.
When I switched to Synfig I LOVED its tweening method since the vector tangents are precise and don’t go unexpected. But my real drawback was drawing within Synfig; since I can’t use my tablet the way I’m used to I have to use the Bline tool to vector my drawings. No matter, I can do that.
But now that I’m working on a big project, this drawback creates a huge difficulty especially when you’re dealing with countless of drawings. I’ve noticed that the sketch/polygon tool has been disabled in this version since it was pretty buggy (a wise move), but I need to know if there’s a way I can draw quickly with a tablet without the hassle of the Bline Tool, while keeping the tangents precise.
Interestingly, I’ve stumbled upon Xara Xtreme for Linux, and I liked the way it handled drawing vectors with a tablet (of course, you’d still need to tweak a lot, but hey, better than the Bline Tool). But I’ve noticed that Synfig doesn’t have the capability to import those files, especially when Xara cannot export in SVG.
No, I don’t need to know how to do FBF in Synfig, because I know it’s strength lies in tweening. But I do need to know how I can speed up the process of vectoring/drawing in Synfig.
EDIT: Another thing. It seems the right-click on my tablet doesn’t work anymore, thus creating problems for “Loop Bline”. I Ubuntu, is there any other way/shortcut I can use the right click, such as, CMD + Click in Mac? (And I don’t have a Mac)
Which version? I believe that we have all the tools enabled in the latest version.
If you don’t mind to tweak later, what’s wrong with the draw tool?
IIRC there is not shortcut for the right click context command when using the bline tool. It is absolutely needed that all the options that can be done with the right click pop up menu options could be done with the left mouse click or/and a shortcut. This is one mayor feature request for usability in my opinion.
@Mukayoh: Inkscape is pretty much okay, but some functions keeps me refraining from using it with Synfig, especially since SVG import isn’t precise yet.
Funny thing is, I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. The draw tool has been disabled in 0.62 (especially the DEB package I downloaded from your website).
I’ve been refraining from re-enabling it especially since it was noted that the tool was still buggy. The only thing I CAN use with my tablet is the sketch tool which only serves as quick reference sketch tool for animations.
Basically I’m just looking for ways to speed up my drawing process in Synfig.
Hmm, so a shortcut would be released in the next version?
What’s buggy is not the Draw tool (which is enabled by default) but the extended devices detection. Please once you run synfigstudio please go to Device Settings menu entry on the Toolbox and DISABLE all the devices you can find there. Then look for the specific device for your tablet you can find there (for curious, which tablet model you have?) and enable it to screen. It should work.
Extended Devices detection is fixed for the next release.
Next version is very close, maybe for the next one.
-G
Can’t wait!