you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

[handrawn]

what about this....

you have a raster drawing vectorised and lo ! look at all those nodes



if you want to bow out the cheek to make the face fatter, it's going to be a pita in xara which only allows you to either bow out between to adjacent nodes, or move nodes as a block

what if you could switch to a tool that would allow you to treat this object as a line, even though it is a shape



you could then bow it just like you could if it were a line, without having mess with all those nodes



icing on the cake: you can smooth this centreline adding and removing nodes so you can adjust easily

Harmony does this


i don't think Xara ever will... it has left real graphic drawing behind....

it does not have to be a vectorised raster of course - the ability to treat a shape as a line is pretty powerful all round

[gwpriester]

Not sure if I am reading this right, but with the Shape Tool and selected nodes you can apply Smoothing that based on the amount will remove a few unnecessary nodes or a large percentage.

[handrawn]

yes but then you still need to manipulate it using the nodes; and xara does not let you choose which nodes to anchor the start and finish of the curve... this is a line function, not a shape

[gwpriester]

I'll take your word for it. :-) Just not something I have ever thought about.

[handrawn]

probably not

but if you have a shape that is defined by its perimeter nodes, its a pain to curve is it not.. a centerline function would be much better so it is like a line

[Michael]

Handrawn wrote "Harmony does this"

What Harmony?

[handrawn]

sorry:

https://www.toonboom.com/products/ha...SAAEgJ44vD_BwE

[Jonopen]

I agree, this would a welcome feature, as indeed the addition of any innovative new drawing feature or vector plugin capability.

Years ago I worked on a small experimental animation using Anime Studio Debut (now called Moho Debut) which had a similar feature, but no doubt far less sophisticated than the Harmony one.

My job was to make some green bitmap cacti wiggle about! I've just had a quick look, but I can't find the files (probably for the best!)

Not the same thing at all, but the Shape Painter tool (Warp) can sometimes be useful for tweaking vector shapes.

[handrawn]

I remember anime studio I think - wasn't it the program with 'rubber-bone' rigging?

maanipulating a shape in the shape of a line, the same way as a line, is just basic as far as I am concerned

the warp tool is useful indeed for localised changes or sculpting

[David O'Neil]

handdrawn - have you looked at Blender's Grease Pencil tool lately? It is becoming quite powerful: Smoothing and adjusting strokes in Grease Pencil