Psmith wrote:Herbert:
I read the documentation in all the links you provided - but I still don't know how to animate with Grease Pencil 2.
Well, GP Tools is still a work in progress. Version 2 made it into the main branch only a week ago - and the page I linked to is NOT documentation on how to work with GP tools, but a document that describes the features and Grease Pencil improvements.
And keep in mind that the new 2d animation and drawing functionality relies on two things: 1) the improved grease pencil, and 2) the GP Tools addon.
To access the grease pencil animation panel, open the dope sheet, and switch to grease pencil pencil mode. To enter drawing mode, switch to Edit Strokes mode in the view.
Layers are supported, and colour palettes control the colours. It is quite similar to OpenTOonz in operation - the main difference being that filled shapes do not need to be filled - rather, the fill is transparent or not.
Psmith wrote:Since Blender is run by programmers, it only makes sense that they never need explain themselves, or their work, to anybody - I am well acquainted with this fact.
The main "lead" or public face behind the new 2d animation tools is Daniel M. Lara, and he is an animator. The tools were motivated by his wish to integrate a production-ready 2d animation system into Blender - this project wasn't run by programmers only. And Mr. Lara is quite persistent that he will only release the GP Tools addon when he deems it fit for production.
He also mentioned on his Facebook that it is now time to start work on mini-tutorials, which explain the functionality. Please do not be too hasty in your judgement - in principle none of these tools and grease pencil improvements are officially released yet. If Blender were a commercial product, these tools would only become available to the public on the official release date. In this case, being open source, we (the users) may play with pre-release versions in advance, and I think it is quite unreasonable to expect manuals and tutorials when the tools are not even completely finished and/or released yet.
Psmith wrote:
Here are some entry level questions:
1) Does Grease Pencil 2 support "Tweening"?
Yes, the GP Tools addon allows for direct stroke tweening, with curve control.
I hope this will be do-able through the regular graph editor at some point in the future, though.
Blurry image taken from one of the demo movies - notice the curve control to fine-tune the transition. Also note the GP Tools addon on the right.
Psmith wrote:2) Can Bones be attached to manipulate Grease Pencil strokes and fills?
Yes, all the bone tools. IK, and blender's animation tools are applicable to GP layers. Each layer can be attached to a bone. Download the orange guy sample file, which demonstrates this.
Psmith wrote:3) What form of "distortion" is available for Grease Pencil strokes and fills?
This is the fun stuff: in addition to what is possible with bones and their possible deformations (like the bendy bones that is also an upcoming feature), all of Blender's regular transformation tools are usable, proportional editing is available (the strength and area of the effect), Bend, Mirror, Shear, and To Sphere functions can be applied, and strokes can be sculpted (see below).
Sculpting can be performed on just a single layer, or a selection of layers - up to the user!
The really cool thing is that all these techniques can be combined - check out the above example where I deformed the poor guy's head - the actual bone animation (including the deformations performed through bones) is RETAINED while I deform the layers on a per frame basis! How impressive is that! AND these deformations can be performed in 3d space - allowing for bulging effects, or 3d twisting. or pseudo-3d toon characters.
Psmith wrote:4) "Time-Lapse Demonstration" without narration or notation is not what new users need (existing Youtube videos) - are there any step-by-step instructions available anywhere?
As explained above, this is not yet released. Now that GP V2 merged with the main branch Mr. Lara mentioned on his facebook page that he will create mini-tutorials.
Psmith wrote:5) Is there a specific Grease Pencil 2 Layout, pre-made, available that is optimized for only Grease Pencil 2 usage? (Hiding all unnecessary Tools and Panels)?
You've hit a sore point that I find the single-most frustrating thing about Blender's GUI (otherwise I really like the GUI for the most part): panels in the tool panel (N) and the properties panel (T) CANNOT be hidden (nor can we hide specific panels in the general properties panels).
I would love an option that allows the user to hide and display certain panels depending on the workspace. Sadly, the only way to hide these panels is by Python scripting. I am thinking about writing a small script which will hide all non-related panels for 2d animation, and a function that restores the panels.
Psmith wrote:Since the guy who has programmed most of the powerful features for Grease Pencil 2 is primarily occupied with architecture and plug-ins and demos of architectural functionality that can be added to Blender - how committed is he to the Grease Pencil for Animation project?
Grease Pencil is a very important part of Blender now. No-one at the Blender Foundation is going to allow this unique 2d animation inside a 3d app to die off. And that guy is not the only developer. I think his job is done for now (all the GP V2 goals were met). Now we wait for the arrival of the GP Tools Addon - which ought to be released at the same time as Blender 2.8, if you ask me.
As for how committed anyone is: that would be pure conjecture and guesswork. Anything could happen. Same holds true for commercial software. Life and the universe cannot be controlled by us.
Psmith wrote: Are there others helping to develop this?
As far as I am aware, three people are directly involved. See
https://vimeo.com/channels/greasepencil
Psmith wrote:
Is there an estimated date for merging Grease Pencil 2 into the main branch of Blender?
Already happened a week ago on Friday the 5th of August. That is why I posted those links to the new builds of Blender.
By the way, the performance of Blender playing these animations is excellent - everything animates in real-time, with multiple viewports and cameras open. On top of this the animation can be rendered with Freestyle, which means the animation can be rendered in multiple 2d line styles and graphic styles.