Brush stroke beginning fades

[slowtiger]

I've noticed that each time I draw a stroke with the freehand tool and a brush is selected for the stroke, the beginning of that stroke starts transparent. While that looks nice in itself, I'd like to have control over this:

- can I get Moho to start a brush stroke at 100% (right now the workaround seems to be to delete the first point)?
- can I get Moho to fade out a stroke aas well?

I've found no settings for this and nothing in the manual/tutorial.

(The Point colour tool mislead me to believe that a stroke can now have a different colour at each point, but that doesn't seem to be the case - right?)

[Greenlaw]

Under the Freehand Options panel, there is a button for Fade Start. The icon looks like a gradient. Could that be on?

There is a second button to fade the end of the stroke.

Almost OT: Weird...in checking this, I found I have lost all pressure on my Wacom. It was working fine the other day.

[synthsin75]

(The Point colour tool mislead me to believe that a stroke can now have a different colour at each point, but that doesn't seem to be the case - right?)

It can do different colors at each point. Are you selecting individual points to edit or your display setting not showing it? I'm not sure what else could be wrong.

[Greenlaw]

Almost OT: Weird...in checking this, I found I have lost all pressure on my Wacom. It was working fine the other day.

Ah! Somehow, my Windows Ink got switched off. I haven't touched my Wacom settings in ages, so I'm not sure how this happened. Anyway, solved!

[slowtiger]

Thx, I got a bit further. I was following the Manual and Tutorial pages, which are a bit confusing on this topic.

1. In the Manual, "Freehand" shows an old version of the freehand settings panel. This should be updated and explained.

2. In the Tutorial, "Point Colors" only explains how to create a fill with several colors.

I was able to give points in a stroke different colors now, which showed up in the render correctly, but in exchange the project view only shows the stroke in the color of the fill, but not the stroke color.

(You may notice that I have no paid jobs right now, so I can experiment thoroughly. The result might be overproduced, but in order to test what I have in mind I have to go the full monty.)

[Greenlaw]

Thx, I got a bit further. I was following the Manual and Tutorial pages, which are a bit confusing on this topic.

Yeah, I'm not sure the manual is fully up to date for 14.4 yet, and it's still a little hard to search for specific topics. (Really wish there was a deeper Search or at least an Index with links.)

However, almost every new feature is covered very well in recent videos at the Moho Animation Software channel. Definitely worth watching.

After my latest tutorial video is uploaded (probably tomorrow; see link below), I'm switching to a shorter format for a while, which will include quick-tips videos about new features.

[slowtiger]

I have trouble following videos, they're generally too slow, but too fast in the details, I can't really see what's being clicked on the screen, and anything spoken is less effective than a text I can read. I know how much work it is to write a decent manual (been there), but I still prefer it ver anything else.

(One of my most cherished possessions is a Freehand 4.0 manual - now that's a good one. Not only it does the usual "we have to cover every menu enttry", it also starts with a good handful of well-defined everyday problems and gives a workflow in one page. Sadly, I've never encountered a manual for whatever software which holds to that standard.)

[synthsin75]

2. In the Tutorial, "Point Colors" only explains how to create a fill with several colors.

I was able to give points in a stroke different colors now, which showed up in the render correctly, but in exchange the project view only shows the stroke in the color of the fill, but not the stroke color.

Color points on a fill shape also show on the stroke?
As far as I know, it's only meant to work on one or the other, not both.