Layer usuability idea

[Mr YouP]

Thomas Zander a écrit :

>On Sunday 06 November 2005 21:10, you wrote:
>  
>
>>On Sunday 06 November 2005 14:12, Mr YouP wrote:
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>>
>>>It's about layers, when I'm painting on an image I very often paint
>>>on the "bad" layer (mean I though I was on a layer and actually I'm
>>>painting on the one just next to).
>>>      
>>>
>
>  
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>>Basically, what you need is a visual cue that you're on the layer you
>>intend. [...]
>>I think you're definitely onto something. Maybe our resident 
>>interaction guy has an idea? CC'd to him.
>>    
>>
>
>I know the problem; there are a number of interaction problems with layers 
>in krita currently. They have been noted and we intend to fix several of 
>them in a future rewrite of the layers panel.
>The major problems I detected were;
>a) layer selection.  Which layer to start drawing on.
>b) feedback for 'current layer'.
>c) picking a color and other such interactions are a bit weird with 
>layers, they require a more complex mental model.
>
>In short; It should be easy to figure out what a layer represents. Which 
>pixels, basically.  This is too hard currently.
>
>With the new layer dialog I forsee we will have nice previews of the 
>contents of the layer and that should make (a) a lot easier already. But 
>it is no substitute for a full-screen 'preview'.
>  
>
Previews is fine but not enough because they are often too small. 
Another idea for that is to display the selected layer line "bigger" 
than other. I'm thinking about the adept (see 
http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=470&slide=29 ) 
way of display more information for selected line. We should have a 
bigger preview and some complementaries informations (such as what is 
locked, mask, etc...) than for other layers.

>I'm dreaming of a fast way to display the clipmask for a layer in an 
>overlay.
>ok, I'll rephrase this technical term with an example;
>Imagine the user moving his mouse over a preview area in the layers 
>control.  As soon as the mouse enters a preview it will update the main 
>area to paint a fully red area on top of the full image. But only the 
>parts where at least some pixels of the layer are visible will be 
>painted.   So; it is a fully red area to display the effective pixels of 
>a layer.
>  
>
Actually, it seems to be very close to what I was thinking of, hide (or 
fade/colorize/wathever) other layers than the current one.

>Moving the mouse off of the preview square will make the image return to 
>normal.
>  
>
The idea of mouseover the preview seems to be fine, but I think this 
should be  :
- unactivable (unless the operation is time transparent)
- activable by another way (switch button/shortcut...) in order to be 
able to paint with this kind of display activated (this implies of 
course using semi-transparent/xor color and should be a second time step)

>Notice that its still needed to add features like doing a ctrl-click to 
>select the layer the pixel being clicked is in.
>  
>
Well, I prefer the photoshop approch, meaning CTRL+right clic give a 
choice of all layers that are "under" the clicked pixel
(but it's maybe matter of taste, and honestly, I never use this feature)

Wathever, all what I read on this message sound really good :)

Regards.