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  1. #11
    Join Date
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    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    thanks for the link david - that looks like a very useful storyboard tool

    not looked at blender for quite a while...time I went back
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  2. #12
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Dallas, TX
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    1,127

    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    I believe most of this video was made with the grease pencil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKmSdY56VtY. Tons of tutorials out there for using it, even though I never have - I've just been blown away by their results.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
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    7

    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    In InkScape, you can select your nodes and press CTRL+L in order to simplify (or click Path - Simplify).
    In Moho, CTRL + M will simplify your curve between 0 and 100% but Moho is not the best tool for static images.
    In VectorStyler, you can remove some nodes from paths by painting over the node.

    In Xara, there is nothing. Yet you can use the paint tool (in pucker mode) to adjust your spline, then you select the nodes to remove, and finally you delete them using the delete key:
    Click image for larger version. 

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  4. #14
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
    Location
    Riverside, CA
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    217

    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    Quote Originally Posted by handrawn View Post
    what about this....

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

    Attachment 129069

    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

    Attachment 129070

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

    Attachment 129071

    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
    My tactic is to hand trace the bitmap using the Pen Tool. Adding, moving, deleting nodes as I go. Bending when needed. It has worked for me but maybe not what you're looking for.

  5. #15
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    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    thanks dan

    in xara you can convert a line to a shape

    if you have a shape that is a line-shaped shape, you cannot treat it as a line; it would be nice to be able to convert it [back], or at least as with toon boom treat it, as a line

    tracing as you suggest produces a line of uniform width; my wish is to preserve the existing profile of the shape whilst editing it as a line
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  6. #16
    Join Date
    Jun 2004
    Location
    North Tawton, UK
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    1,152

    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    The Shape Painter tool does something close to what you want, I think.

    With the shape selected, go to that Shape painter and choose "Warp" from the dropdown at the right hand end. Then drag the point in smooth strokes across the shape in the direction you want it to move.

    So long as you cross both edges of the shape at roughly the same speed they will move by the same amount, thus keeping the profile.

    (Sounds more technical than it really is.)

  7. #17
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    Feb 2007
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    UK
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    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    Hi Phil - great to see you back on the forum these past months

    Indeed the shape painter tool will warp in the way you describle and that is useful thanks, but [you knew there would be a but didn't you ]...

    ....that is not manipulating the shape as a line

    look at it the other way round, if you said: hey guys from now on the only way you can repositon a line is to use the warp tool, what might be the response ?

    if I want to switch a character's cheek from sunken to bloated, and it is a line, I just push it out with the cursor; that is what I would like to do if it is a shape;

    I would settle for a function that reverts the shape to a line if that preserves the profile; easy enough to convert it back to a shape again
    Last edited by handrawn; 06 May 2021 at 06:33 PM. Reason: clarity
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  8. #18
    Join Date
    Jul 2020
    Posts
    7

    Default Re: you want a new vector tool rather than a rehash ?

    handrawn, you are true, there is no way, in Xara, to simplify/smooth a line. You must convert it to a shape, then the shape cannot be converted back to a line.

    It is interesting to note that even very old software like Expression can simplify a line while Xara still cannot.
    So when I face such problem, I convert my file into EMF, SVG or whatever and edit it into another app, then open it again in Xara. It is not convenient.

 

 

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