New to Anime Studio, struggling with Freehand, possible Help

tongue_twister · Post by **tongue_twister** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:36 pm

There are some subtle aspects to working in Freehand that might be of Help to others who are new. I read the posts of those having trouble with filling and creating shapes, as I was hitting this problem too. I did not really see too easily that I still had open curves. Something that might help a lot: Use the Scale Points tool on your curve, so that youy can enlarge it enough so that you see the problem. As I was drawing, the points that I thought were touching really were not, but it was difficult to see this until I scaled up in size.
I see that a book on Anime Studio is coming out next month. This area I mention here has been the biggest trouble for me, perhaps for others. Maybe this hint (Scaling Points) can be added.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 3:40 pm

Have you tried to set the option "Auto close" checked on?
-G

tongue_twister · Post by **tongue_twister** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 4:52 pm

Thanks for bringing that up. That was the answer I saw to some other user posts about problems they were having, but setting "Auto Close" ON is not the best solution for me. If you have it on, every single stroke gets closed, and what you are drawing is not what you get. I want to join my own strokes and close the shape I am making, just like using pen and ink. So, when I think I am joining two lines, often I am not on target (just a tad off) and the lines did not join. By Scaling Up I can see that. My strokes are not trying to draw a closed shape in one, continuous stroke, but rather I am building up a drawing line-by-line.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 7:47 pm

Hmm...

Sounds like someone should add a "radius of influence" for the freehand tool. Something to change how close you need to be to the last point to close the shape.

Or better yet a key modifier. Hold down say the shift or control to force the shape to close.

-vern

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Sat Oct 20, 2007 9:31 pm

I'm using freehand tool from fazek and it has also autoweld option. I don't remember if original one have it also, but fazek's one works so good to join strokes together without the autoclose option checked.
Check out fazek replacements tools at Scripting area. They're sticky.
-G

tongue_twister · Post by **tongue_twister** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 12:47 am

Thanks to both of you. I will take a look and comment back.

tongue_twister · Post by **tongue_twister** » Sun Oct 21, 2007 11:07 pm

I've been experimenting part of the day with the Freehand Tool. The problems that happen are when two segments look like they connect, but for some reason AS5 does not really see think they are connected. The values of Pixel Tolerance (Freehand Options) from small to large do not seem to make much of a difference. In short: when two segments come together using Freehand, they may appear on the screen to be connected; but often AS5 does not see that. Easy to fix now that I know where to look. I am using a Wacom table and the mouse, and the same issues seem to be there for either drawing device.

I will take a look at fazek's freehand tool that you mention next.