Krita useable for Blender movies

[enki]

My suggestions for UI/features improvements :

1.Improve stamp-based brushes :
Why :
- Because they are the fastest brush type.
- they are easy to tweak.
- they makes migration from others apps easier (as artists will want to 
keep brushes they used for years).
What is missing :
- Predefined Brushes should be resizable (in pixels).
- Resurrect the Custom Brush dialog : The user should be able to select 
a part of the image and add it to Predefined Brushes. He should also be 
able to organize, delete, load and save brush dabs easily [1].
- Photoshop brush import (there is a dolphin plugin that shows .abr 
brush previews, maybe it could be useful ?[2]).

2.Improve basic tools/features :
- Display a gradient preset that use foreground/background, and 
foreground/alpha=0.
- Make it easier to create new gradients (ideally it would use the same 
docker than vector gradients).
- Allow to move selections.
- Improve the transform tool (when you drawn something bad, the 
transform tool is often the last solution before redrawing everything).
- Remember the position when pasting (paste in place?). Useful when you 
want to copy a part of the image without losing the old data.
- Remove the "hidden" layer property change from the undo stack (if you 
just want to compare a new version to an old version, you will have to 
undo several times).

3.Faster workflow:
- Modifier key need to be used more :
   * for selection tools : to switch easily between 
add/replace/intersect modes.
   * for paint tools : pan, color pick, change the brush diameter.
- Features that are tools in other apps are composite mode or paintops 
in Krita[3]. We should make sure that it is as easy and as fast to 
select them than in others apps. For example, if I want to erase with 
the current brush:
   *in krita I must click the mode combobox, go down in the drop down 
menu, and select "Erase" (3 clicks).
   *in photoshop, I would just click the erase tool or hit the "e" key.
   I suggest to make it possible to assign a shortcut to composite modes.
- use more sliders in brush settings.
- remove a selection by a single click outside the selection.

4.Backward compatibility:
- With brush presets, the user will expect than his brush work the same 
between two versions. If it's not garanteed, the brush engine should be 
labeled as experimental or unstable.

5. better koffice integration:
-Use the same dockers for flake and pixel tool when possible : gradient 
creation, color selector...

6.learning curve :
- show units in spinbox and curve widgets.
- show help about tool and paintops in the status bar.
- rename some features with better names (scale to new size -> scale 
image, etc..).
- add a search input box. It would highlight every menu items or docker 
that contain the text.
- write documentation about the Krita "spirit" (why the line tool is a 
tool, what is the difference between a generator and a filter, etc...and 
why it is better :) )

7.stylus/tablet pc :
- With a stylus, it's hard to click, but easy to drag&drop. We could 
keep existing widgets, but add a feature that increment or decrement the 
value depending on how much the button is dragged.

8.to gain space :
- replace radio buttons by combo box.
- replace some label+checkbox by button+icons.
- use icons instead of label in docker tabs, don't display two labels 
when docker are tabbed (take a look at Gimp's dockers).
- make dockers reduce into a pop-up-button (good for tablet PC users, or 
to use krita as sketch app).
- make item of the Brush and Stuff toolbar a docker. (that allows users 
to remove the toolbar completely, and make the brush dialog contextual 
to the tool like other features).

voila, that's all :p

[1]In the long run, maybe a "resource manager" would be a good idea. It 
would be used to organize everything : brush presets, gradients, 
patterns, colors palettes, curve presets, vector shapes, filter effects, 
text styles... Koffice-wide.
[2]http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/GimpBrushThumbs?content=107128
[3]blur, desaturate = filter paintop, dodge/burn tool = dodge/Burn 
composite mode, eraser tool = eraser mode, duplicate tool = duplicate 
paintop, ...