Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

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Jack the R
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Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby Jack the R » Mon Sep 08, 2008 3:48 pm

Link

This ends up being rather a lot of paths.

Suggestions for smoothing out and speeding up this process are welcome.

I'm doing this on an Asus R1e tablet pc. Maybe the resolution of the screen is too small. It's kind of hard to draw on and I can't do as well. It's hard to place the lines accurately. It's better than the shaky lines GIMP makes though.

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microUgly
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Re: Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby microUgly » Tue Sep 09, 2008 9:08 am

That's brilliant work with the calligraphy tool.

I think that whilst traditionally with vector you would aim to create drawings with only as many paths and nodes as you needed, that idea can be too limiting when it comes to freehand drawing.

Having said that, you can use simplfy to reduce the number of nodes, but the effect can be devastating if the threshold in the Inkscape preferences isn't ideally set for the object you are simplifying.

You can also select like paths and do a union to make them into one big path. I believe there is intention to create a button for the calligraphy tool that will auto union each stroke you make so you don't create so many paths when inking. You can do this now by holding Ctrl (or Shift, I can't remember), but I find it far too awkward to continually hold it.

Jack the R
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Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:51 am

Re: Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby Jack the R » Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:42 pm

microUgly wrote:That's brilliant work with the calligraphy tool.


Thanks!

microUgly wrote:I think that whilst traditionally with vector you would aim to create drawings with only as many paths and nodes as you needed, that idea can be too limiting when it comes to freehand drawing.


Yeah, it needs to be as spontaneous and fast as possible, but even with Linux and 4 gigs of ram all these paths slow a computer down noticeably. And they can be tricky to manage.

microUgly wrote:Having said that, you can use simplfy to reduce the number of nodes, but the effect can be devastating if the threshold in the Inkscape preferences isn't ideally set for the object you are simplifying.


The default wasn't as bad as I expected, but probably more of a change than most line artists would like to see. I couldn't find the preference for simplify. It sounds like it would be too inacessible to adjust on the fly.

microUgly wrote:You can also select like paths and do a union to make them into one big path. I believe there is intention to create a button for the calligraphy tool that will auto union each stroke you make so you don't create so many paths when inking. You can do this now by holding Ctrl (or Shift, I can't remember), but I find it far too awkward to continually hold it.


It's shift, it works good. I can set up an auto-hold down with the Nostromo N52 but unfortunately it knocks out other hot keys while it's on. A switch in inkscape for auto-union would be great.

Is it possible to get a new calligraphy stroke to snap to the end of an old one? I looked at this etching thing -

Link

but I couldn't get it to work (or don't understand what it does).

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microUgly
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Re: Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby microUgly » Tue Sep 09, 2008 3:58 pm

Jack the R wrote:I couldn't find the preference for simplify. It sounds like it would be too inaccessible to adjust on the fly.

You can find it under Inkscape Preferences > Misc > Simplification threshold. So, yeah, it's not very accessible and since it's impact varies from shape to shape I tend to think you should get to choose the threshold when you apply it. Of course, you can always set it much lower than you need it and apply it multiple times.

Is it possible to get a new calligraphy stroke to snap to the end of an old one?

Not really. You want it to snap so you seamlessly continue the line you are inking? That's a no.

I looked at this etching thing - Link but I couldn't get it to work (or don't understand what it does).

This screenshot demonstrates what it does - http://www.inkscape.org/screenshots/gal ... aving1.png

Jack the R
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Re: Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby Jack the R » Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:49 am

microUgly wrote:Not really. You want it to snap so you seamlessly continue the line you are inking? That's a no.


Bummer. I think these tablet screens are probably not accurate enough on their own for my style of line art. The resolution is too low and then there's the thickness of a monitor and a screen protector between the stylus and the wacom pad. It's not a problem with Inkscape but it may keep me from drawing with Inkscape.

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microUgly
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Re: Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby microUgly » Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:52 am

Oh, you're using a tablet PC, not a Wacom Graphics Tablet? I expect those issues would be true for any drawing software?

Jack the R
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Re: Line art doodles with calligraphy tool

Postby Jack the R » Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:43 am

Yeah, I'm using a tablet pc, and IMO the difficulty with drawing I'm having comes from the design of the tablet, not Inkscape. If the tablet were capable of greater accuracy I could connect the calligraphy strokes more smoothly.


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