After an hour or so playing around like a child with the new toy he's been waiting on since the last Christmas I've got mixed feelings. I really like some of the changes and new features yet at the same time the whole thing feels much more clumsy and harder to use.
Take the "Paint Dynamics" for example: to change the curve of the pressure-dependent size dynamic you must locate the Tool Options window, click on the Dynamics icon which will then bring up a quick menu containing the Dynamics presets, click on another Dynamics icon, this time small and right down the bottom, then the "Paint Dynamics" window will appear, you can then either double click on an entry to edit it (keeping in mind it will edit that entry for all brushes which use it) or click on the "Create new dynamics" button which will bring up the old "Brush Dynamics" menu that used to rest in the Tool Options window, you must then click on Size-Pressure to enable pressure dependent size and then near the top you must click on the drop down menu with "Mapping matrix" written on it and select size. Sorry that sentence was getting far too long, ran out of breath. Next you must manipulate the curve to produce the results you want, also keeping in mind that it doesn't tell you anything, which axis is pressure and which is size? Up, down, left, right? Sorry, that's as confusing and time consuming as the process I just described, a picture might convey things better:
That's simple enough, right? But what are we comparing it to? What I just described is basically the same thing as the "Power" slider in Gimp Painter - oops, I just gave away the end of this story didn't I.
Let's take a look at that same process in Gimp Painter:
I don't want to end on that note of course, I'm very grateful to everyone who contributes to Gimp, I love the program, but the new interface needs a lot of streamlining.
Well... People were asking for more powerful dynamics... They got it. It also got more complex. Thats inevitable. dynamics in 2.7 let you do things that 2.6(and painter that is forked from it) cant. Curve is much more flexible than "power" slider. you can do mappings that are bell shaped for example.
ReplyDeleteAs to your diagram, there is a duplicate button on the dynamics dock. you dont have to start with an empty one, if you want to edit.
Thanks for pointing out the axis labeling issue with the curves dialog. I will try to amend that.