Drawing

It is now possible to add horizontal and vertical guides to the Stage View and the Camera View. Alignment guides can be used with the Layer Transform tool as well as various drawing tools such as the Select, Contour Editor, Perspective, Brush, Pencil, Rectangle, Ellipse and Line tools, to help you position elements and draw along their axes.

To use alignment guides, you can add the Alignment Guides toolbar to your workspace. To do this, do one of the following:

• Right-click on any toolbar and select Alignment Guides.
• In the top menu, select Window > Toolbar > Alignment Guides.

You can also add alignment guides by selecting View > Alignment Guides from the top menu.

You can manipulate alignment guides using the Layer Transform or the Select tool. You can make your drawing tool snap to alignment guides by clicking on the Snapping button in the Tool Properties view and, in the pop-up menu, select Snap to Alignment Guides.

For more information, see About Alignment Guides.

The brush presets for the Brush tool have been updated.

• Solid vector brushes are now sorted in order of size, from 5 to 25.

  

• Fine Pencil, Tilting Pencil and Chisel Tip brushes have been added.

  

• Charcoal has been updated, and its alternative, Charcoal Pencil, has been replaced with Dark Charcoal.

  

The new pen stabilizer can help you draw smooth, stable lines by stabilizing your drawing strokes as you draw, without having to smooth them afterwards. It works by letting you draw a stroke without generating a line immediately. Once your stroke reaches a certain length, it starts generating a line that trails behind your mouse cursor or tablet pen. By trailing behind, it can smooth out the flaws in your drawing gesture and generate a smooth stroke.

There are two different stabilizing method methods:

• Average: Storyboard Pro calculates the average direction of all of your mouse or pen gestures between the end of the actual drawing stroke and the current position of your mouse cursor or pen tip, and extends the stroke in this average direction, effectively evening out jitter and rounding sharp turns.

  

• Pulled String: When you start drawing a stroke, Storyboard Pro positions the drawing tool where your stroke starts. As you move the mouse or tablet pen, the drawing tool remains in that position, but a "string" appears, linking your drawing tool to your mouse cursor or pen tip.

  

  This string has a certain maximum length. Once that length is reached, the string pulls the drawing tool in the direction of your mouse cursor or tablet pen.

  

The distance between your mouse cursor or tablet pen and the stroke can be customized.

This feature can be enabled by adding the Pen Settings toolbar to your workspace, and selecting either Average or Pulled String in the toolbar's drop-down menu—see About Pen Stabilization.

If you have a tablet and pen that support reading the tilt angle of your pen, you can configure the Brush tool to use this information and draw with a tilted tip. A tilted tip is stretched or projected at the angle in which you tilt your tablet pen, simulating the effect of drawing with a tilted pencil or felt pen.

This feature can be used by adjusting the Pen Tilt Sensitivity parameter in the Brush Properties dialog—see Creating a Solid Brush, Configuring a Textured Brush Tip and Brush Tool Properties.

If you have a tablet and pen that support reading the rotation angle of your pen, you can configure the Brush tool to use this information to rotate your brush tip based on how you rotate your tablet pen.

This featured can be used by enabling the Use Pen Rotation property in the Brush Properties dialog—see Creating a Solid Brush, Configuring a Textured Brush Tip and Brush Tool Properties.

Storyboard Pro now allows you to configure the curve by which it processes the amount of pressure you put on your pen tablet to calculate the thickness, flow or opacity of your brush or pencil lines.

The Pen Pressure Feel dialog can be accessed by adding the Pen Settings toolbar to your workspace, then clicking on the Pen Pressure Feel button. For more information, see About Pen Pressure Curve Customization and Pen Pressure Feel Dialog Box.

The Select and Cutter tools now have an Easy Drag mode. When enabled, you can click anywhere inside the selection control box to drag the selection. By default, you have to click inside the artwork, which may be difficult when manipulating line art.

To enable Easy Drag mode, click on the Easy Drag button in the Tool Properties view.

In the Tool Properties view, if you set the selection mode for the current tool to either Lasso or Marquee, the mode will be automatically saved in your preferences and will persist after you close and relaunch Storyboard Pro.

NOTE The selection mode can be set when using the Transform, Select, Cutter,  Contour Editor, Pencil Editor, Perspective or Envelope tools. Setting the selection mode for any of these tools will change the selection mode for all of these tools.

The Eraser and now has a Tip Style option in the Tool Properties view. This option allows you to select which style of tips should the extremities of pencil lines be left with when you erase a part of them.