Kickstarter for Krita: new features for Krita 2.9
More than three weeks ago, the Crete project launched a fundraising campaign for Crete 2.9 on Kickstarter. For all participants in the process, this was the first experience in organizing such things, and the developers faced many difficulties on the way: from trying to shoot a promotional video with the participation of three people living in different parts of Europe, to defending against trolls in "profile" forums. Despite this, the campaign can already be considered successful: at the moment, the project has collected the minimum necessary amount for release 2.9 to take place. Contributions made during the remaining five days will only determine if the project will achieve the first stretch goal and how many new features will be added.
However, the news flow somehow lost the news that in the process of Crete it acquired functions that artists have long been waiting for: quick editing of selections and convenient line art. In this article, I would like to talk about these innovations.
The developers finally took care of the convenience of the artists. Often, the process of creating an image consists of the following steps:
1) Create a sketch with a rough brush
2) Gently stroke the outline of the image with a thin but rigid brush.
3) Fill the color of the received areas.
Illustration by Wolthera van Hövell tot Westerflier
To facilitate the second stage, a new type of line smoothing has been added: “Delay stabilizer”. It allows you to draw lines smoothly and at the same time control the parameters of the brush: pressing force, rotation, etc. Yes, in Crete, even before that, there was a balanced smoothing of lines, but the new method works in a completely different way. The video by Pavel Geraskin best demonstrates how this function works:
(many may notice similarities with similar Blender and zBrush tools)
Moreover, the developers have finally redone the straight line drawing tool. Now he not only has a preview of the drawn line and is accessible by pressing the 'V' key, but also allows you to control the force of pressing while holding the pen along the line. This is the main difference from the functionality offered in MyPaint. Video Timothee Giet:
It so happened that all the selections in Crete are just nodes of the layer tree. Each selection is a node "Selection Mask" (Selection Mask). Each mask defines the selected area when editing the parent node and all its descendants. Such a mask can be edited not only with special tools, on it you can draw with ordinary brushes, filter, fill with fills and gradients. The code base for this functionality has existed for a long time, but it was not very convenient to use it: global selections were not available in the form of masks and it was impossible to quickly transfer them to isolated mode.
Now these problems are resolved. When the “Show Global Selection Masks” option is enabled, the global selection mask will be shown in the layer tree and it can be edited using any available means.
In addition, you can now hold down the Alt key, click on any layer, and Crete will enter the mode of isolated layer editing. This mode is available for all types of layers, including global selections.
These innovations are just the beginning of those goodies that are planned for Crete 2.9. By the end of the year, developers will implement from 12 to 24 new features! Now you can try out the new functionality by downloading packages for Windows or installing Krita Lime under Linux.
However, the news flow somehow lost the news that in the process of Crete it acquired functions that artists have long been waiting for: quick editing of selections and convenient line art. In this article, I would like to talk about these innovations.
Line art - pen stabilization with a delay
The developers finally took care of the convenience of the artists. Often, the process of creating an image consists of the following steps:
1) Create a sketch with a rough brush
2) Gently stroke the outline of the image with a thin but rigid brush.
3) Fill the color of the received areas.
Illustration by Wolthera van Hövell tot Westerflier
To facilitate the second stage, a new type of line smoothing has been added: “Delay stabilizer”. It allows you to draw lines smoothly and at the same time control the parameters of the brush: pressing force, rotation, etc. Yes, in Crete, even before that, there was a balanced smoothing of lines, but the new method works in a completely different way. The video by Pavel Geraskin best demonstrates how this function works:
(many may notice similarities with similar Blender and zBrush tools)
Straight lines
Moreover, the developers have finally redone the straight line drawing tool. Now he not only has a preview of the drawn line and is accessible by pressing the 'V' key, but also allows you to control the force of pressing while holding the pen along the line. This is the main difference from the functionality offered in MyPaint. Video Timothee Giet:
Quick editing of masks and selections, isolated mode with Alt
It so happened that all the selections in Crete are just nodes of the layer tree. Each selection is a node "Selection Mask" (Selection Mask). Each mask defines the selected area when editing the parent node and all its descendants. Such a mask can be edited not only with special tools, on it you can draw with ordinary brushes, filter, fill with fills and gradients. The code base for this functionality has existed for a long time, but it was not very convenient to use it: global selections were not available in the form of masks and it was impossible to quickly transfer them to isolated mode.
Now these problems are resolved. When the “Show Global Selection Masks” option is enabled, the global selection mask will be shown in the layer tree and it can be edited using any available means.
In addition, you can now hold down the Alt key, click on any layer, and Crete will enter the mode of isolated layer editing. This mode is available for all types of layers, including global selections.
Instead of a conclusion
These innovations are just the beginning of those goodies that are planned for Crete 2.9. By the end of the year, developers will implement from 12 to 24 new features! Now you can try out the new functionality by downloading packages for Windows or installing Krita Lime under Linux.