Feature Request: New Vector drawing mode "Liquid"

[Giovanni]

+1

...as for spiro drawing mode.

[BobInce]

Liquid could be a property applied to any vector object

I don't think it can work as a property, there would be lots of weird interactions (like eg. what happens if you have two different-coloured liquid objects, or two liquid objects with a non-liquid object layered between them). You could have a tool that made a liquidy object out of a bunch of paths, though.

We already have something quite like it in the form of the contour tool. An inner contour with rounded joins, no intermediate steps, and the outside (original) shape hidden (set to fully-transparent) produces something very much like this. The drawback is that it doesn't cope well with pure lines, and doesn't combine paths before operating (you get separate objects), so you have to use 'Convert line to shape' and 'Combine shapes' before you can use it. And these are destructive operations so you can't edit the original lines afterwards.

Whilst a liquid tool might be useful, a 'Live processing' tool for things like line-to-shape and combine-shapes definitely would be. I would very much like to be able to edit the source shapes and have them boolean-combine on-the-fly before another effect is applied - like editing the inside of a clipview at the moment, for example.

Then one could make a liquid-tool out of live processing plus contour, and still keep the source lines editable. And probably many other combinations.

[ivan louette]

I don't think it can work as a property, there would be lots of weird interactions (like eg. what happens if you have two different-coloured liquid objects, or two liquid objects with a non-liquid object layered between them). You could have a tool that made a liquidy object out of a bunch of paths, though.

Bob, about interactions between several kind of objects, take a look at this old post : http://talkgraphics.com/showthread.php?t=14586

We already have something quite like it in the form of the contour tool. An inner contour with rounded joins, no intermediate steps, and the outside (original) shape hidden (set to fully-transparent) produces something very much like this. The drawback is that it doesn't cope well with pure lines, and doesn't combine paths before operating (you get separate objects), so you have to use 'Convert line to shape' and 'Combine shapes' before you can use it. And these are destructive operations so you can't edit the original lines afterwards.

The contour tool gives very different and much less smooth results. It's also a fairly heavy tool. It couldn't be used for an interactive natural media look drawing. On the other hand I asked some times ago for a tool which converts feathered shapes or lines into vectors.

Whilst a liquid tool might be useful, a 'Live processing' tool for things like line-to-shape and combine-shapes definitely would be. I would very much like to be able to edit the source shapes and have them boolean-combine on-the-fly before another effect is applied - like editing the inside of a clipview at the moment, for example.

Then one could make a liquid-tool out of live processing plus contour, and still keep the source lines editable. And probably many other combinations.

Live booleans could be an excellent idea. They already exist in 3D and I think for a long time that 2D vector drawing could benefit of integrating some concepts from this area.

kindly,
ivan