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Streamliningthe Interface for 2D Paint in AliasStudio
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Posted August 15, 2008, 1:09 pm by , david bentley

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FULL ALIAS INTERFACE.

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 Definitions, tool names, menus, panels.
It’s far too cluttered to paint w ith all these floating pallets using up valuable screen space.

CLEANED UP INTERFACE.

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 A customized paint shelf, the layer editor, and a few options in the w indow panel.
All menus or pallets can be toggled on and off w ith customizable hotkeys or marking menus.

2D WORKFLOW.

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 Toggles betw een modes in AliasStudio. Separate marking menus, shelves, and control panel. Dafault hotkey for
paint mode is "CTRL+2".

GENERAL PREFERENCES.

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 Located under: File Menu > Preferences > General Preferences (option box).

PAINT WACOM SETTINGS TO BE CUSTOMIZED.

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 Start > Programs > Wacom Tablet > Wacom Tablet Properties.

PAINT SHELF.

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 Place all the brushes and tools that you might use w hen sketching or painting. Drag icons from the pallet or menus
using the middle mouse button to the shelf.

Make multiple tabs for different paint w orkflow s. Even save out different shelves.

Drop dow n tools. Mmb drag and drop icons.

HOTKEYS.
Located under: File Menu > Preferences > Interface > Hotkeys/Menus

All paint tools can be hot keyed. It is important to only hotkey the tools that w ill be used regularly and that w ill cut
dow n on using the interface.

Key hotkeys to create:
Color grabber (eye dropper)
Full screen
Toggle shelf
Toggle layer editor
Transform layer
Invert mask
Toggle symmetry
Toggle edge/center curve snap
Control panel toggle

Useful un­editable hotkeys:
Hotbox (Navigation, brush options) – space bar
Curve snap ­ ctrl+alt+brush stroke
Marking menus ­ Ctrl+shift+mouse buttons

FULL SCREEN.

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 Located under: File Menu > Layouts > Full screen (option box).

MARKING MENUS.

Located under File Menu > Preferences > Interface > Marking menus. Customizable. Mmb

IMPORTANT INTERFACE ITEMS TO KNOW ABOUT...

CONTROL PANEL. (File Menu > Window s > Control Panel)

Paint mode.
Hot sw ap different tool shelves (I have different brush shelves for different w orkflow s) Information on picked
shapes, curves, or surfaces.
Display (a w ay to easily toggle on and off the control vertices of curves)
Transparency (w ith a slider the transparency of curves, surfaces, poly meshes, canvases and reference files
can be tuned)
Brush options (a basic editor for the current selected tool. This can be brushes or tools)
Auto shape (w hen creating curves auto­shape converts them into fills, strokes, or both automatically)

BRUSH EDITOR. (Double click any paintbrush)

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 Simple brushes as w ell as complex texture brushes can be created and captured w ith­in the editor. Once a new
brush has been added to your paint shelf...Re­save the shelf or you w ill lose the new brush w hen you exit.

SHAPE EDITOR.

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 Shapes are like Illustrator draw ings. They are curved based draw ings that update w hen the curve is manipulated.
They can be solid filled color, strokes along a curve, or ramps and texture fills and combinations of both.

CANVAS LAYER EDITOR.

Menus (full of tools; merge, invert, etc...all can be hot keyed).

Active layer information (name, transparency and layer filters...i.e. multiply, blend).
2D paint layers (the active layer is blue. Paint layers can be of 2 types; painted or shapes (curve based).
Associated masks show a chain icon in the box).
Mask layers (global masks. They can be painted or shapes (curve based)...stencils are another type of masking).
Shortcuts (icons for creating, duplicating, clearing and deleting layers).

HOT BOX. (Spacebar)

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 Zoom and pan navigation.
Brush controls to interactively change the size, aspect, rotation, and opacity of a brush. Brush modes (every
brush can paint, erase, hide, show , etc...).
Quick keys to reset a brush, toggle betw een last brush used, color editor, rotate canvas, unconstrained brush
strokes, constrained straight line strokes, constrained curves and circle strokes.

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