Clean Up with TVPaint

Someone asked about how to get "smooth" clean up lines using an application like TVPaint .  I answered with a little tutorial made from a quick rough sketch of a cartoony cat's head .  This was done on the Cintiq tablet .

I usually start with a "rough" blue pencil from the Sketch Panel , then on a new layer I ink the clean up lines in black . I make sure to take advantage of the rotating "virtual animation disc" in TVPaint to rotate the drawing to the best angle for laying down the clean up lines smoothly and  I use the zoom-in control to get closer in on the part of the drawing I am working on. (see the second image) . 





Finish the black line clean up over top of the blue line underdrawing:




Then drop out the blue line to leave just the clean black lines.




You then have the option of coloring some of the lines a different color from black if you want to by using the Add function in the pen tool . Then add fill color. I've done this one in black & white because it felt sort of like a 30's character with the dot eyes and the pie-cut highlights in the eyes . Not the greatest drawing in the world , but it gives you the idea of what can be accomplished in terms of "smooth" line quality .

Comments

[Piotr]

i'll have to check this program out, looks great!!

[Alan Cook]

Wow, looks pretty great!

I'll have to check out TV Paint as well!

[Alan Cook]

Hey Dave, I'm trying out the demo for TV Paint and can't seem the get the blue pencil to respond like You've got it here. What kind of customizations do you apply to the brush?

[Cooner]

Whoah, that's awesome.

Although I've only played with one for a few minutes once, I'd hazard a guess that having a Cintique makes cleanup a lot easier. I find that trying to clean up on a regular Wacom tablet is difficult. No matter how fine tuned your eye-hand coordination, it's hard to keep that cleanup line from straying just a fraction of an inch from the guideline ...

[David N]

Alan Cook: I emailed you something about the pencil customization. Let me know if that works for you .
Definitely check out the user forum at http://www.tvpaint.com
if you have more questions about customizing the tools.

-------

Cooner: Yes and no about the Cintiq making the clean up easier. There are some oddities about the calibration of the stylus on the Cintiq that take some getting used to when doing fine line clean up. The further out from the center of the tablet the more the accuracy of the calibration falls off . So, drawing in the center of the tablet the stylus tip and the cursor line up precisely , but then as you move out towards the edges a bit of a gap appears between the tip of the stylus and the cursor (crosshairs). Also the more the Cintiq is rotated from the centerered position the more the calibration will start to drift so it's just a bit "off" . I still use the rotation on the Cintiq for some things, but when doing precise clean up I prefer to use the rotating work space ("virtual disc") in TVPaint or the similar type of rotation that is in SketchBook Pro or ArtRage 2 . It rotates the drawing to a comfortable angle to draw the clean up lines, instead of rotating the physical tablet . The tablet stays completely centered and on-calibration. Does that make sense ? Anyone who has used a Cintiq for any length of time will probably know what I'm talking about , the slight drift in the calibration . It takes some getting used to; it can be overcome as one gets used to it and compensates for the calibration being slightly off around the edges or when the tablet is rotated . Hopefully the next generation of Cintiqs will have solved this entirely. I'm told that the earlier generation of Cintiqs (the 15" and the 18" tablets) were even worse in terms of the little "gap" between the stylus tip and the actual cursor on screen centered over the line being drawn.

The nice thing about the rotating work space/virtual disc in TVPaint is that it makes using TVPaint with a regular Wacom Intous or Graphire tablet viable . One can rotate the drawing and get that smooth clean up line at a comfortable angle using the rotation feature in the program.

[Cooner]

Thanks for the response, David! That's interesting about the calibration on the Cintiq ... it will be awhile before I can afford one but I'll have to read up on that.

Yeah, I know what you mean about virtual rotation, I used it in ArtRage all the time. I even linked it to one of the buttons on my Intuos pen so I can rotate the canvas to my heart's content without having to remove the stylus from the tablet and go fumbling for a keystroke or something. :)

[kevin barber]

Super interesting. I'm sue you know , but Painter has a rotating paper function as well.

[Mark Borok]

I've used Painter and Manga Studio, both of which have the rotating workspace feature, but somehow my cleanup/inking lines still never come out right. They tend to look like I was holding the stylus with my fist. Maybe it's my technique or lack of practice, I don't know. Do you usually draw each line with one fluid motion, or several strokes? How about drawing closed shapes? I always get into trouble joining the ends of the line together (I don't use a Cintiq, so maybe it's the problem with precision using my tablet).

[FERCHO]

y ES NECESARIO UTILIZAR LA TABLETA GRÁFICA?
gIVE ME THE LINK FOR DOWNLOAD THESE PROGRAM
YOU HAVE THE SERIAL TO SOMETHIG

mE PARECE GENIAL VOY A VER SI LO PUEDO INSTALAR UN SALUDO CHAO

[DTN]

Hello, FERCHO,

"y ES NECESARIO UTILIZAR LA TABLETA GRÁFICA?"

Yes. It is necessary to draw in TVPaint using a Wacom graphics tablet, either a Intous Tablet or a Cintiq Tablet . Cintiq is best in my opinion (however, Cintiq is more expensive than the Intous tablet.)

I believe it is also possible to use the Wacom Graphire Tablet or the Wacom Bamboo Tablet, but the Intous or Cintiq are more sensitive and offer more options.

"GIVE ME THE LINK FOR DOWNLOAD THESE PROGRAM YOU HAVE THE SERIAL TO SOMETHIG."

You may download a Free trial demo version of TVPaint at this Link:

tinyurl.com/2qoz25

or just go to

www.tvpaint.com

On the TVPaint discussion forums there is a Spanish Community / Comunidad Española
section.

See here for TVPaint Comunidad Española --

www.tvpaint.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

[Guilherme]

Hey! You have a good design and also cleaned-up lines.

Congrats!