How do I increase the render size, but not the line width?

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 6:10 am

Anime Studio has this feature where, if you change the render width and height in the Project Settings dialog, it automatically resizes all of your line widths. This is the behavior you would want in most cases, but not always. Anyone know if there's a way to turn it off?

Thanks

marcotronic · Post by **marcotronic** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 6:56 am

well I guess that´s not possible as the line width settings are relative values, not absolute ones. There is no option of setting the line width to absolute pixels...

Marco

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:06 am

marcotronic wrote:well I guess that´s not possible as the line width settings are relative values, not absolute ones. There is no option of setting the line width to absolute pixels...

Marco

Are you sure about this? My understanding is that the line width is in pixels. That's why the program has to explicitly change all of the line widths by the same factor as you change the output render size. Otherwise the line widths relative to the rendered frame size would change.

marcotronic · Post by **marcotronic** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 7:16 am

Hi,

yes, sorry - you are absolutely right - you actually set pixel values for the line width and the program automatically sizes them up when you resize the output render size... I mixed up something... Sorry again.

Marco

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 8:01 am

Read this:
http://www.lostmarble.com/moho/manual/layerwnd.html
and search for Layer Settings -> Scale compensation.
-G

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:14 am

Genete wrote:Read this:
http://www.lostmarble.com/moho/manual/layerwnd.html
and search for Layer Settings -> Scale compensation.
-G

Hi Genete,

I don't think this is a scale compensation issue either. I have scale compensation turned off on all my layers, but that doesn't stop Anime Studio from resizing the line widths. Let me be clear that this only happens when I change the width and height fields in the "project settings", and not when I scale points or layers. Is there some global option I need to uncheck?

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:35 am

I don't remember any option to avoid that. It is also done with other shape and layer effects that change its values depending on the size of the project due that they are based on the pixel values.

The main problem is that the native feature for Anime Studio (it comes from Moho) consist in that if you change the output resolution it would not change the relative size of the shapes to the final render output, so they maintain their scale relative to the scale of the layer. It means that the program should change the values of the line widths if you want to maintain the proper proportion of the line withd to the new render output dimensions due that the line width have not scale compensation like for shapes.
Imagine this situation: I have a shape of dimension L and an outline of a 1% of L. If I change the render output dimension I want the shape to have the same proportions in relation to the rendered output. Also its outline thickness... so if the thikness have a pixel based value, then the program need to change it.

Really it could be a cool feature that the line width were based on a % of the render maximum length and not to fixed pixels. Heyvern have asked for that feature in the future version mumber 6 thread at Feature request forum.

Anyway it is something to discuss.
-G

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:10 pm

OK, thanks for your help. It's actually really annoying that you can't change the render size setting without affecting the shapes. Heyvern's idea of being able to specify the width of lines as an absolute or relative value is a much better solution. The other problem is that there's no easy way to change the widths back, because you can't select multiple shapes at once. I guess I need to look at writing a script to undo the effect on the line widths.

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:19 pm

Reverse the line width can be done if you use applied styles on your shapes instead of individual line width. Just reverse the style and all the affected shapes would reverse its line width also.
Even I wonder if AS change style's line width if you change its render output size... Mmmm I have to check it.
-G

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:38 pm

I'll save you the trouble by telling you that AS does change the width of styles as well. I often have 20 or more styles in an anime file, so it's still a pain to revert all of those widths back as well, especially if you just want to see what it looks like at a different resolution.

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 4:04 pm

so it's still a pain to revert all of those widths back as well, especially if you just want to see what it looks like at a different resolution.

But if you change the resolution back it changes the line widths. Changing the resolution SHOULD change the line width in my opinion because you don't want the line widths to change from rendering DVD quality and web output.

I've been thinking of a script solution for a global stroke weight. If you scale a layer and scale compensation is on then the stroke changes. I'm hoping that I might be able to calculate a consistent weight based on the style setting and layer scaling. Not sure how to deal with camera zoom though. It could get VERY complicated.

But then of course there are TWO line width settings... the "variable" line width applied to the mesh and the "static" line width for the style.

That is another issue entirely because those two settings do not work together. Changing the style line width has no effect on the variable mesh line width. That is very annoying. I think the mesh line width should be a "percentage" of the style rather than an exact value as it is now.

Using the mesh line width tool is like having a different type of scale compensation for those points that are set.

-vern

Rudiger · Post by **Rudiger** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 4:25 pm

Changing the resolution SHOULD change the line width in my opinion because you don't want the line widths to change from rendering DVD quality and web output.

I agree that this is what you would want most of the time. However, I have a case at the moment where I want absolute line widths irrespective of the output resolution. All I would want to see is a check box in the project settings dialog to say don't alter line widths, which could be ignored 90% of the time.

On your other points, I agree that it would be good for the mesh line width and style line width to combine better.