Dynamic PASeq's in SA4?

[John H.]

I have been getting a better understanding of SA3.5 lately and my head starts to wander towards SA4 and a possible feature that might be there, that is dynamic interaction with a PASeq. Here is the preamble. I have often returned to the default PASeq AutoPaint1 found in the front page of SA3.5. Working through it and doing some tweaks here and there I have been able to gain lots of knowledge about the workings of SA3.5, region selecting and IP OPs. If anyone has dissected the Smart contrast, you will notice that it generates a region from the image, then paint is applied into the region. Regions are a wonderful way to apply paint and then manipulate it with another IP OP as is done in this little PASeq. A variation I use is to simplify the image and then select a colour to base a region upon, or B&W the simplified image and use a threshold to generate a blocky region. Other ways are available to get regions, including dynamic region building. This is all well and good when working in a single image and stepping manually through a PASeq so that many different regions could be generated simply by altering the threshold of the B&W simplified images. But, what if there was a pause feature in PASeq's in SA4? So, the PASeq trundles merrily along then hits a pause and the cursor becomes a selector. This selector could allow me to select a colour from the canvas that would then be placed or used somewhere to allow the PASeq to continue with a dynamic entry by me. So for instance, I simplify an image to 12 colours into layer 2. I place a pause feature into the PASeq which then switches to layer 2 and if I desire turns current layer only on, and a dynamic picker allows me to select one of the simplified colours. I could place that colour into memory or use it in the next action of the PASeq as a reference to say build a region to allow for Auto Painting to carry on. Heck, maybe even allow me to do a manual region select then continue the PASeq from there. And no stopping there, multiple Pauses could allow for many variations of Dynamic entry. This way I could build a PASeq that generates a style that suits my liking and I can apply that to many different images, but not have to stop the running of the PASeq. As I think of the potential of this there would be lots of access points within SA that could be attached to a dynamic pointer that allows for a fun experience. I know that all this can be done now but it is strictly a manual process of starts and stops and flipping through lots of menus. A dynamic pause could take me to a specific entry point that would then simply continue the PASeq once I hit the accept button. And I suppose that the answer is that this is already there in SA3.5, I just haven't tripped over it yet. Thanks in advance for comments, information.

[Synthetik]

There's nothing availble now that manually stops a PASeq when it gets to a specific step. (Other than sequential keyframe recording, but that stops for every manually drawn paint step, not at a specified step.)

You could manually run a PASeq step by step by clicking on the keyframe calls in order. This would let you do manual color selections after specific steps. You could then run the continue command to continue the PASeq if you then wanted the rest of it to play out automatically.

I'll think about what you're asking for. Are there other uses for this or is it really about manually selecting a color?

[John H.]

I knew it was already there in SA3.5 and found it in IP OP Selective Colour Matte - source - colour memory 1.
What you describe as a way to implement my idea is basically what I have been doing as well as turning History record on and off and switching between History palette and PASeq palette. This all works fine but requires a little bit of switching, stopping and starting.

So I am still thinking that I would like you to consider a pause implementation as, i don't know, an IP OP that could be placed into a History or PA sequence that would allow me to then manually adjust the previously run step by undo, then go to the editor window and make my adjustment.

As a direct example with Selective colour matte, I could place the pause right after this step in a PASeq, let it run and when it hit the pause command then I can undo and manually select my colour memory 1, or what ever I want to adjust, then continue the PASeq. When the pause was activated, It might be nice to allow me to enter some kind of note that would be displayed on the screen as to what actions I was anticipating to redo so that when I ran the PASeq at a later time I would be reminded why i placed the pause at that location. An option to continue the sequence might be "continue and skip pause" or "continue with pause" so that I could check that what I adjusted was to my liking. The pause could also allow me to create a manual region select if placed in the appropriate spot in the sequence.

This request stems from laziness on my part. I get a PASeq set up nicely and then experiment with it on either the same image at different resolutions or different images to see what happens. A lot of times minor tweaks improve the different images and the laziness creeps in when I start splitting a PASeq into multiple shorter units or recording parts to the history palette so that I can make those tweaks at specific spots in the run.

So if you feel inclined, please consider the option if you and others think that it might be a useful implementation.

Thanks John D. I am really starting to get into this powerful little monster you have created. The learning curve climb is really paying off for me now.