Lost Scripts' Shapes Window (**New** BETA 3) for Moho 14.1 Pro

[Rai López]

• 

ls_shapes_window_v0.3.0-beta3_20240209-0054.zip (Windows & Moho 14.1+ Pro ONLY)

Release Notes:

- New Features:

• New Modes/Helpers! -> Mainly focused on dealing with coloring. The new menu allow you direct interaction with Select Shape tool and, among others, provide new ways of recoloring thanks to Mike Kelley kindly allowed me to include his "mk_adjust_colors" functionalities . Oh, and this could change, but to actually see these controls make sure you have a Swatch visible!
• STYLE Mode -> It's fully functional now. There you can inspect, delete, create, modify (to a certain extent) or just get them handy for quick apply.
• Some (Limited) Brushes Support -> I couldn't do it as I would have liked due to some unexpected limitations, but there it is even if it's only to allow to see if a shape has a brush applied...
• Item Preview Improvements -> Fills are showed again, plus some issues having to do with this and keyframe deletion should have been solved as well.
• Enter Key (FINALLY) Confirms Renaming -> I think I found a way that seems to allow it. Available, but still under observation, though... UPDATE: It seems the patch prevents you from entering special characters. Oh, well...
• Swap Buttons -> For quick Fill/Stroke colors and Style 1/2 swapping.
• Tool Palette's Button Allows Closing -> That way you can open the window, do your thing, and quickly close it if no further needed all by a shortcut (thanks Daxel for the request!). Of course, Show In "Tools" Palette option must be checked for the shortcut to work.
• *More* Live/Scrollable (kind of) Swatches! (Under Development) -> Choose any of the factory swatch or create your own ones in Moho, if a Pose/Morph named "SLIDER" is found it will allow certain kind of (limited ) interaction. Please, don't expect them to be very precise in terms of color theory either... they are more intended to provide a quick way of first rough coloring. The included factory swatches are placed under "Custom Content Folder\Scripts\ScriptResources\ls_shapes_window\Swatches", but PLEASE, is advisable you place your own ones (or copy it for reference) in "Custom Content Folder\Swatches" instead.
• General Menu's "Beginner's Mode" Change -> It allows you now to disable certain tooltips that may be useful at the beginning but annoying in the end...
• And I think that's all? -> But there are of course other improvements, although not all the ones I would have liked to do...

• And some screen recordings related to the new features and improvements. First one, the window can be now more interactive and precise. Click over a shape's fill to get the controls ready for modifying its fill, the same applies to stroke (if any) and shape effect's handles, which now can be adjusted numerically and, therefore, more precisely:
  
  

• More direct Style picking and modification:
  
  

• Recolor in action, concretely HSB (Hue, Saturation, Brightness) in this case, but there is also a RGB mode. Both, allows quick recoloring/randomization over all OR selected shapes in a layer, the idea is it can work over several layers as well, but for now:
  
  

• Some of the new scrollable Swatches:
  
  

- Some Known Issues (Priority Ordered):

• [v] Recolor (RGB) incorrectly handles the alpha value -> FIXED in v3.0.1
• [v] Recolor (RGB/HSB) modes don't take into account strokes -> FIXED (as option) in v3.0.1
• [x] Use enter to confirm remane fix prevents you from entering special characters, and it's also likely the cause of a weird caret and Backspace behavior -> TBC
• [x] Swatch rectangle can appear blank upon opening? -> TBO
• [x] Plus the still unsolved ones listed below -> And, probably, some new others that I'll be adding as they arise or come to mind...

Please, as usual (until I have a better system for it, someday ) don't hesitate to provide any feedback you could consider opportune or report any issue/s you may find here. It make use of lots of tricks that seems to work, on Windows at least, but one never know... Well, thanks!


...

• 

ls_shapes_window_v0.2.1-beta2_20240106-1805.zip (Windows & Moho 14.1+ Pro ONLY)

Release Notes:

- New "General Menu" options:

• Open On Startup -> If checked, the window will appear upon opening the first document (intended to work in partnership with next option).
• Show In "Tools" Palette (Experimental) -> Show/Hide the button in toolbar, so you have a chance of can save some space as more of these kind of windows arrive... If hidden, go to "Scripts -> Lost Scripts - Shapes Window" to open. It kind of cheats Moho, but works perfectly fine here; any issue, please report!
• Use Large Buttons -> Just that, same buttons but with larger clickable area (with the advantage of increasing Swatches and shape preview area a little bit too).

- New Features:

• Mode Switcher -> Allows to to switch between SHAPE and STYLE mode (where you can now do basic style management) at any time.
• Item Preview (Under Development) -> The currently selected shape is showed here for more quick/direct selection feedback.
• Multi-Renaming -> You can quickly rename more than one shape (or style) at a time (thanks to Maarten's request).
• Shape Visibility Button -> Gives you individual control over hidden shapes, which will be marked with an * in palette.
• Checker Selection -> Does the same than Style Window checkbox.
• "Style 1" & "Style 2" Selectors -> Does the same than Style Window ones.
• Live (kind of) Swatches! (Under Development) -> Choose any of the factory swatch or create your own ones in Moho, if a Pose/Morph named "SLIDER" is found it will allow certain kind of (limited ) interaction. Please, don't expect them to be very precise in terms of color theory either... they are more intended to provide a quick way of first rough coloring. The included factory swatches are placed under "Custom Content Folder\Scripts\ScriptResources\ls_shapes_window\Swatches", but PLEASE, is advisable you place your own ones (or copy it for reference) in "Custom Content Folder\Swatches" instead.
• New UI -> The script has now its own resources, so everything looks more homogeneous and fitted.
• Plus -> Much more improvements and additions...

• And a screen recording of the window in action and the suggested swatches (though colors don't looks great in GIFs) usage and possible types:
  
  

- Some Known Issues (Priority Ordered):

• [x] The window always opens/reopens at the center of the screen -> WON'T FIX (Moho's API limitation)
• [x] Swatches' slider shows slightly offset respect to cursor while dragging -> TBC
• [x] Custom Swatches and Use Selection entries does nothing for now... -> TODO/TBC
• [v] Style creation is not yet possible -> DONE in v3.0
• [v] Paste button stopped working as expected at some point -> FIXED in v0.2.1
• [v] Open at Startup and window size problem -> FIXED in v0.2.1 (Kinda dirtily, but enough for now?)
• [v] If open by Open at Startup, there may be then unwanted beeps upon frame change until reopen -> FIXED in v0.2.1
• [v] Freehand/Eraser "Alt+LMB" width resizing doesn't work as expected if Points-Based Selection option is checked -> FIXED (I think) in v0.2.1
• [v] Delete key doesn't act over selected keyframes while the window is open -> FIXED in v0.2.1
• [v] Swatch frame can appear empty if the window is open by Open at Startup -> FIXED in v0.2.2
• [?] I'll go adding more of them as they arise or come to mind...

...


ls_shapes_window_v0.1.0-beta_20231020-1717.zip (Windows & Moho 14 ONLY)

Release Notes:

- Menu options (They could change, but as a quick reference of some of its current features):

• Points-Based Selection (Experimental) -> It allows a more bidirectional interaction but it can affect performance... Basically if you select all the points that conforms a shape, the shape/s gets also selected, thus you can work with it in palette.
• Ignore Non-Regular Vector Layers -> If checked, Mesh Warp kind of layers' shapes are ignored (Curver and Auto-triangulated Warp Mesh layers are always ignored anyway).
• Link To Style Window -> Uncheck this can improve performance, but then Style window won't be in perfect sync with the Shapes Window...
• Advanced (Create) -> Just Hide or Show shape creation related widgets if unneeded or for saving vertical space.
• Half Dimensions -> If checked, the window will open arround half of current viewport height.
• Show Infobar -> Infobar provides some info you may find useful while working with shapes, but uncheck it if you wanted to save some more vertical space...

- Main Features:

• Well, the name should say it all, but...
  
  

• The idea behind this project, apart from experimenting with all this Moho 14 new modeless windows possibilities, was mainly allow to know what's going on in vector layers at a glance, specially when "Liquid Shapes" (best feature ever ) comes into play. To probe a point:
  
  

Although I've ended up adding some more things and it has taken more time than expected, but there it is for anyone that want to give it a whirl. Please, take into account it's BETA (plus Windows only tested) and there may be issues, so install it at your own risk and all that... If you found one, please, let me know bellow and I'll be glad to look at it as soon as possible. That's the main reason to publish it like this for now, instead of maybe in a more "official" way, but it seems that what I had planed instead, involving the due repository with its bug tracker and such, is also going to take (much) more time than the expected...

The overall design of the window is what it is because, don't ask me why, I also wanted to test how far I could go by only using already installed Moho resources. Regarding performance, well I've tried to do my best, but I'm sure there is room for improvements on that area... Apart from that, I've ended up adding more and more buttons and features that I thought could come in handy, but for their icons (and with the little help of tooltips) they should be self-explanatory, or I hope so . Cheers!


P.S. Some more demonstration gifs...

• Shape selection/creation no matter the active tool:
  
  

• Switching projects, open, closing, etc. shouldn't be a problem:
  
  

• And the different view modes:
  
  

[Greenlaw]

This looks fantastic Rai!

I can see this being very useful for more complicated Liquid Shapes setups (which I just happen to be getting into now.)

Will download and try it out this weekend.

[Rai López]

I can see this being very useful for more complicated Liquid Shapes setups (which I just happen to be getting into now.)

Will download and try it out this weekend.

That's the (main) idea, Dennis! The more complex Liquid Shapes, the more useful it should be on that matter, plus (in my experience at least) as soon as you start getting used with this way of "see" shape ordering, the list's little Liquid marks, interactions and all that, the overall understanding of what's going on becomes very quick not having to go selecting or doing anything else. Of course, take care of go naming shapes also help... but that's something I've always liked (and advice) to do anyway.

Well thank you, I hope it works well (or as well as possible, taking into account there is a lot involved and I'm the only one having tested it till now ), and let me know whatever you consider opportune!

[hayasidist]

Looks very interesting and super-useful

I've grabbed this release but it may be a week or so before I can get to it in earnest -- school vacation time here in (my corner of) the UK and so it's family week...

[synthsin75]

Wow, that looks amazing, Rai?
Awesome work!

[Greenlaw]

...take care of go naming shapes also help... but that's something I've always liked (and advice) to do anyway.

I've always been good about naming Bones, Actions, and Styles in Moho, but I never bothered with naming Shapes. Looks like it's time to start doing this!

Thanks for the tip, Rai. I will let you know how your Shapes Window works for me.

[synthsin75]

I've always been good about naming Bones, Actions, and Styles in Moho, but I never bothered with naming Shapes. Looks like it's time to start doing this!

Just enable the preference to auto-name new shapes. Won't help on already existing shapes though.

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for the tip! Will try it out.

[Greenlaw]

Oh, I already have that enabled.

I guess I meant that I never give shapes a descriptive name like I do with Bones, Actions, etc. It's not normally necessary but I can see it being helpful with messy Liquid Shapes setups.

[Rai López]

Yes, specially now with Liquid Shapes I consider descriptive names almost crucial, at least under more complex scenarios, since e.g. I found myself frequently unfolding the Style window's Shapes menu for consulting ordering when it was not clear by only looking at viewport That's one reason of why properly named shapes has been always important for me and I guess I just got used to it...

Well, thanks guys for the kind words! Lets see how it behaves under different setups and "pressure". I always hoped that if even in my old laptop it has kind of acceptable performance (with reasonable number of shapes at least), out there it only could work quicker, but even though... Of course, not everything is performance, and stability is one point I'd like to know more about, cause there are so much things to manage and take into account for the mere fact this windows can be always open, that you never know if you could have oversight something... But of course I hope not

[SimplSam]

That is a very Next-Level dialog. Tried it briefly on a Win & Mac and it appears to work as consistently on Mac as it does on Windows (with color icons).

I didn't initially get how to actuate the Options - as I was hitting the hamburger symbol in the title. Maybe the down arrow should be a hamburger instead, as the hamburger is also misplaced on the Mac.

I also like the whole "About" set of dialogs.

Mac


Acks

[Rai López]

Woah! That's great to know, Sam! Thanks for your words too and for taking the time of testing it in both systems, sincerely I kind of expected UI issues (among others) not having had the opportunity of testing it on MacOS at all, but quite the contrary I think I kinda like it? I mean, those emojis looks cool and symbols seem to render quite better, plus, the LM_Divider doesn't seem to have any padding , just like I always have wanted they were! (Or at least it was optional).

A pity the little detail of the hamburger icon, tho... I put it precisely there because it served both as a window icon representing "stacked shapes" and the menu indicator just bellow, all taking the minimum space... I guess it was simply too good to be true and hence that horrible displacement (yikes!). But good to know, of course, since even if didn't I finally find a good enough solution, at least I can try to make it some pixels taller for MacOS, which hope somehow help...

I also like the whole "About" set of dialogs.

Happy to hear that cause those kind of things is what I think I enjoy more coding after all, haha... Cheers!

[570295535]

I tried, and it was awesome, but it should remember the window coordinates before each close, so it can recover the next time it opens.

[Rai López]

Thank you! And of course... But, sadly, there is no way to get control over dialogs positioning by means of Moho's scripting current capabilities, for now at least. So the only way I'm aware, I think thanks to a synthsin75 advice somewhere, would be by using some kind of external tool to somehow "interfere" upon opening/reopening and do the job like AutoHotkey, which with I've already done some achievements, but it has the inconvenient of not working as cleanly (or not as cleanly as I'd like at least ) as a native way would do, as well as it definitely wouldn't work on MacOS. But I admit it's exiting when you get some results, so we'll see where this all ends up...

[Daxel]

I just tried this today and wow. It's my favourite panel now. I just feel so much more in control with it open. It doesn't matter if I'm animating, ilustrating, rigging... I just love to have a clear picture of what shapes are in the layer, something so basic but so elemental to Moho. At the end Moho is basically a shape editor.

Hoping this inspires Moho devs to include it in the near future, as an optional part of the style panel or as an independent panel.

So far everything worked correctly except that after naming a shape, pressing enter doesn't confirm the editing (I can still select another shape and the editing will be confirmed). And the panel position memory that as I read is not possible yet (I hope Moho adds that soon too).