Hi,
first I want to let you know that Krita is a very good Software and I like it to use it on Windows PC.
I use krita in following ways:
Drawing a “master peace” which I want to store under a filename on the disc, e.g. venecia.kra
Drawing poses (e.g. minute or 30 second poses available on e.g. YouTube Channel)
Doodling for warmup before drawing or some sketches come in mind or trying out some new motives before you make a master piece
Drawing poses and Doodling I do not want to save under a specific filename, especially for the 30 second poses I do not have the time to save each pose under a certain filename, e.g. pose_siting_women_20201904.kra or for doodling I do not have an idea for the filename.
Real sketchbooks has the advantage that you can notice a date before you start drawing and than you draw directly on paper and if the next pose or doodling idea comes you can turn over to the next page.
Therefore my proposal is to have a save function or save mode where the page is automatically saved with timestamp if you press a button “turn over” or “next page” to archive your poses or other types of sketches . Perhaps you can enter a tag or project name like drawing man poses or “horse sketches for project xy”
It is like a function you would normal find in a journal software. But I do missing this in drawing applications. because sometimes I want to archive my poses or sketching idea without a filename.
I hope I have explained that clear enough. Please feel free to ask.
Best regards
John
File -> Save Incremental Version would do a bit of that for you. It saves an index numbered copy of the current state of your document.
(Then it would be up to you to change the name of the saved file to something meaningful for you.)
I’m now writing a plugin that will help with life drawing lessons, but (1) I’m not sure if I’m gonna finish it, since that’s coding in my free time, (2) it’s not related to saving, it will have a timer and a set of images (images the user needs to provide on their own) that are shown on the screen and then when the time is up, that layer is hidden and locker and a new layer comes up together with a new image. But afterwards you’ll need to save it yourself. (I can think of a way to make it easier though )
Hi, I thinks it need not to have a timer. A simple next page button or shortcut to start the script would be enough. Often you have time enough to press a button because there is a timer in the video or the models need some seconds for the next pose. Time enough to press a button or make a new layer, but not to close the drawing, make a new one and give a new filename.
My workaround. I make a new layer (while making the other layer unvisble). But thats not so nice, to have a “next page” functions with automatic save function.
This would have the advantage that it makes no difference if you doodlesketches or draw poses.
It’s a wonderful idea actually, and it kind of seems to be doable with python scripting, which is really good.
What would be needed is a very simple docker with buttons like: ‘previous’, ‘next’, ‘add new’.
Creating documents is quite easy - it’s in krita manuals first scripting example, though document size would have to be taken from active document (quite easy), and first layers would have to be done manually with scripting (shouldn’t be that bad).
Krita separates open documents and views, so it shouldn’t be that bad to have only one view, and replace document in it with actions of next and previous buttons (as long as during creation they would have names with appended 1, 2, 3 and so on).
The thing that would probably cause the most trouble is saving and opening those sequences of documents. I guess the easiest way to save, would be to have multiple .kra files for each page. Guess it’s then possible to save all of them at once with names like: name1, name2… and have a separate ‘open’ button for opening all of them as documents, showing only the latest? This doesn’t sound that good. It would be awesome to have a separate file format for sequence of krita documents that could be saved and loaded, but it sounds hard.
The workaround, without any dealing with documents and their saving and opening is just a docker that with buttons ‘previous’ and ‘next’, would just do what you do autonomously - switch to next layer and toggle visibility of both of them.
But this idea of connected documents, with separate layers stacks each, that can be easily switched with buttons is just super nice.
I was thinking, maybe it would be possible to use different frames in Animation Timeline on the same layer in the same document as different pages? Just an idea.
It’s a very good idea. I forgot we have the animations in krita
Edit: though then you need to have the same layers structure in every page - can’t really delete any of them, or change the order. But it’s certainly a better idea than this layer switcher
Ok, I believe I have an idea how to do it quite easily (hopefully) in just one document, with different multiple layers for each page.
New docker with just two buttons (‘previous’ and ‘next/new’). You just draw as you would normally do, not caring about having multiple layers. Then you want to go to next sketchbook page. Once you click ‘next/new’ button, or hit a keyboard shortcut, all the unlocked layers goes into one quick group called ‘Page 1’. The group gets invisible, locked and compressed. New group ‘Page 2’ is created with blank new layer in it, set as active one. When you have multiple pages created, hitting buttons just navigates you trough those pages groups - all the inactive are simply hidden, locked and compressed, while active one is visible, unlocked, extended, with top element set as active layer.
You can set some layers as locked to prevent them from being in any of the groups - those would be your custom background, same for each page. Everything saved neatly in one document.
I’ll try to do it when I have some spare time. Last time I had some problems with layers-related actions in python, but I hope I’ll manage to handle it this time. Can’t promise you anything but will try
Ok, I have a first working version of the extension
No GUI yet, as I never really wrote anything in Qt before - I know there is a krita tutorial for that, so having a docker with three buttons shouldn’t be that hard to do. I just don’t use dockers too often, so I didn’t have enough motivation to do it yet
There are three actions for creating a page, going to next and previous one. Default shortcuts: ctrl+home, ctrl+PgUp, ctrl+PgDown. They can also be accesses going to Tools > Scripts.
Things that need improvement:
No docker
You need to create the first page before drawing, or move the layers manually to the Page - I didn’t manage to move existing layers so far
No script can be used when active node is a group - I noticed it with my other script, and I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do with it.
As ‘while’ loop seems to be broken I had to make the constraint of amount of pages: 20 at the moment, but can be easily changed.
Anyway, I’ll probably have to check on my own if this solution is as convenient as it seemed. I also encourage others to try and use it
Please make sure to include it on the Resource Page after you’re finished. If anyone is reading it and they have a working plugin, even for something small, please do make sure of it as well. It’s enough to just add a title, a link and a line of description so the user knows what they’re downloading. (I always forget to say that and now we have a lot of plugins floating everywhere and difficult to find ) (@Kapyia@Grum999@EyeOdin@nolanfa (spritesheet) @scottyp (animator reference) and @Delta and others I didn’t find, that’s for you as well
If anyone has trouble following the instruction or doesn’t want to create a new account if they don’t have a KDE Identity, please just write it to me or maybe add the comment to that thread I linked: (1) title, (2) short description (I know other plugins on the page don’t have them, but I want them to ), and (3) link.
Sure, I can add it once I finish it
How about adding brush bundles there? Apart from download link it’s needed to add a cover - I guess I can’t do it so easily using this edit button?
Sketchbook pages can now be managed both with keyboard shortcuts, and with a docker, that should pop up when you install the extension.
'New page" action always creates a new group with one blank layer on it - I’ve decided to leave it as it is, as I suppose it could be frustrating if all your layers went into a new page automatically, which was my original idea. But if you forget to create a page before starting to draw, you can still easily move them to the page.
I hope this satisfies your feature request (though it’s quite different than what you originally requested, but I guess it serves the purpose of starting a new blank page and having them saved fast).
I’ll add this to the resources page, after I test it for a while. I’ll try not to forget about it
First: Many thanks for your help and time, but I think this is unique feature for krita.
Do you have a link to a step by step installation docu?
Than I will test it and give you feedback
Yes, as I red your request once again, it’s something a bit different. Your post just gave me this idea, and it’s something that can be useful in my workflow
Could you be a bit more precise how your document should be changed and what do you want to have on your hard drive when you press the shortcut for “new page”?
You want to have a new .kra or .png file in once specified folder, with no prompt window (name of the file is a time stamp)? And the document should stay as it is, or should be replaced with a new document?
In .zip I’m giving, is a .pdf with installation guide. If it’s not clear you can ask here
You should (also) be able to install it using Tools -> Script -> Install Python plugin (or something similar). It will ask for a .zip file, the exact same that you got a link to above. So you just need to download it and then use that feature to load it, and then restart Krita and it’ll be available.
(I haven’t tested it on this specific plugin, but it should work).
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