Feature requests

[Victor Ingrassia]

Hi John,

I can't seem to find the most recent forum post asking for feature requests, etc. So I am using a new post to do so.  Most of these relate to my process primarily making animations. It's kind of a long list... gathered over many months. Thanks. ~victor

• Have source movie frame # and/or timeline frame # visible in Operations tool bar when in full screen mode

• Add an option for Onion Skin % slider control visible in operations toolbar when in Full Screen mode (or regular mode for that matter)

• Renaming or editing a favorites preset would also edit or rename the original it points to. (or should the favs not be, in effect, aliases?)

• Add ability to drag /rearrange fav icons within the favs bar or delete icons from favs bar

• Add "Open Recent Session" item to file menu

• Fav in use gets a highlighted outline in the favs bar

• Restore (as in pre SA4) the ability to use keystrokes to open various windows (source area, paseq, editor, layers, etc)

• Allow longer file names in SA movie output.  It seems that long filenames with a .mov suffix seem to get truncated by SA.  Turning a long name like "MyTotallyAmazingAnimationWithALongName.mov" into "MyTotallyAmazingAnimatio#163648", even though, after SA creates the mov file with the truncated name, I could then rename the QT file with the original full name and QT accepts its length.  You may ask, "WhyTheHellWouldYouGiveYourFileSuchAnInsanelyLongName? Well, typically when I am rendering out a mov file I give it a name which starts with the name of the source movie I am using, followed by an underscore, followed by the name of the paseq I am using and ends with ".mov".  So sometimes this can create a pretty long name.  This helps me because the name contains most of the info I would need to recreate the movie were I to forget how I created a particular look.  So my folders are filled with hundreds of mov files with these crazy names.

• It would be nice if "Recent" presets could remember recents from before SA was launched (maybe coupled with a preference to set how long a memory SA should have) and the ability to erase the recent list at will.

Thanks

[Francis Stellitano]

Yes, that way it tell you where you need to check next. After recurrent attempts, the user would be learning as they go. Maybe that should be an enable/disable option since the learning process would obviate its use.

Thanks John.

[Tony Bouttell]

I cant see this request here but it must exist somewhere, so I'll second it.

I'd like to be able to save a PASeq in the PASeq panel just by pressing a "save" button or a "save as" button. Having to right click the icon and export the PASeq to, in my case, the same location I am editing, is time consuming.

[John Dalton Synthetik Software]

If you option click the current preset icon in the preset browser it will update the current preset with any editing changes you made.

[Dennis Miller]

I'd really like SA to start up with the last preset  and the last operation currently loaded. I never use the Default Paint presets so that doesn;t have any value for me. I very often work on the same material for days at a time, however, so it would be a very big time saver to have a session open exactly as it was when I quit. I am aware of Session presets, but this behavior should be the default, in my opinion.

[Chris Northcross]

Have you tried recording your window layouts?  I make use of all four and whichever one I worked in last is the layout I'm greeted with when I boot Studio Artist back up.

[Dennis Miller]

But you don;t retain the currently used preset when you restart, do you? I would like the last-used preset to reload upon start up. Would also like the last Op I used (MSG or whatever) to auto load when I start - basically, I am far more likely to continue working on a project when I start a session than to be starting from scratch. Opening to the Paint Synth Default preset list is 100% of the time not where I need to be.

[Chris Northcross]

Ah, gotcha.  No, it doesn't retain the currently used preset on restart.  I can think of two workarounds that might help get you closer to where you want to be.

The first is saving your brush in one of the patch memories before you save out.  That way, recalling it is as simple as playing back that memory.  

(The paint patch memories are accessible under Edit -> Paint Synthesizer -> and then choose one of the four Patch Memories to record your paint patch in.

The second is to create a custom folder that loads as your default folder.  I believe that the top folder in the Preset -> Paint directory loads in as the default directory collection.  If you create a folder with a name that sets it at the top of the directory (something with symbols works) that folder will load up as your default collection.  Then its a matter of saving your paint presets to that folder.  If you name them chronologically, the last brush you work on should load in as your default brush the next time SA loads.

I believe that the top folder in the 

I believe the top folder in the paint pres

[Dennis Miller]

Thanks Chris. Those are nice workarounds, but what could be easier (for the user) than simply having the last used preset loaded at startup - does anyone use the General bank in the Default collection? That would never be the right choice for me.

D,

[John Dalton Synthetik Software]

You can personalize your preset folder so that the collection-category-preset of your choice comes up as the startup default. Just modify the naming appropriately so that what you want comes up first alphabetically. We encourage people to customize their factory preset organization to match their own personal workflow.

...

I'll look into adding a preference option to have the last collection-category-preset load at startup for the future.

[Dennis Miller]

That would change my method of working/exporting - I create new presets nearly every session and organize them in many ways - brush type, date, project name, etc., each of which might have a different (new) folder.

As a moving target, it would just be a ton easier to restart where I left off.

D.

[Chris Northcross]

I don't know if this counts as feature, but I'd like to see similar parameter settings organized more predictably.

e.g.. in brush size modulation, I expect the texture energy parameter setting to be followed by inv texture energy.  It's currently found under the Device Channel parameter settings.  Similar thing occurs in the auto pressure settings.

In Orient Modulation, texture energy doesn't appear at all.  Just inv texture energy.

I was doing the Simple Vector Paint Strategy tutorial and one of the steps was to set the brush modulation to inv texture energy.  Up until that point I didn't know that there was an inv texture energy setting.  I experiment with texture energy a bunch but because it was located much further down the list, it never registered on my radar.

Thanks!

[Chris Northcross]

Oh, thought I'd share this...I love the functionality that the macros provide but I didn't use them all that frequently.  When working on one monitor I don't like giving the help window the screen real estate it needs to be useful and thus I tend to forget about it.

I started to capture some of the macro settings as favorites that I can then call up very quickly using favorites bar.  I'd love to see something like this included in future versions of SA.