Author Topic: Artstudio Pro 1.2.1 - ipad user feedback  (Read 3398 times)

RHiNO

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Artstudio Pro 1.2.1 - ipad user feedback
on: April 17, 2018, 06:53:19 PM
Hello,

First of all, congratulations, Artstudio Pro is super cool and the ability to import abr and tpl brushes is awesome, your brush engine is very good, a step forward in the ipad!

Are you open to some small UI suggestions to improve the workflow on ipad?

1 - Implement customizable gestures (like the radial gestures from procreate) so we can change tools, execute actions (like flipping the image), or even change brushes without the need to click buttons on the interface. A radial menu with 6 slots where we can put our tools can be awesome

2 - Related to 1: implement a gesture to switch the color to transparent and back to actual color (like the letter C in clip studio paint) so we can "erase" with current brush without the need to change to eraser tool. EX: swipe down with one finger to change color to transparent, swipe down with one finger again to revert to previous color. This "transparent color" is unbelievable useful to sculpt shapes fast. Sketchbook recently implement a "transparent color" but in a annoying way, we need to "swipe" from a fixed position on the ipad (top bottom). It's way better if we can "swipe" anywhere on screen, like we do in procreate, no reason at all to fix this gesture to a position

3 - If you implement some customizable gestures using 3 fingers like 3 fingers swipe up, 3 fingers swipe down, 3 fingers swipe left and 3 fingers swipe right, we can work even smoother too,  let us customize what to put in these ("flip canvas" with a "3 fingers swipe right" gesture is an example)

4 - What about a "4 fingers tap" to enter/exit full screen mode?

5 - Quick pinch gestures to "fit image" and "return to previous zoom level/rotation" can be useful too (similar to procreate), it's way more fast than clicking, or double clicking icons (not to mention the usability in fullscreen mode). The less we click icons, the better - more focus on drawing and painting :)

6 - The icon to disable/enable the "pen only operation" is very close to the "full screen" icon. I guess the majority of users of apple pencil will switch to "pen only" and never again disable this option, I believe this switch belongs to the preferences window, not a permanent icon in a place where we can misclick and activate back the "finger paint" and do unintended brush marks. Or maybe we simply can get an option to disable this UI icon in the preferences?

7 - In Clip Studio Paint we have a "1-bit mode" that fully ignores semi transparent pixels, super useful for crisp outlines with zero antialiasing. A layer option to enable something similar in Artstudio Pro would be awesome for comics, manga inkers and precise outline work for print in general. Also, antialised shapes are annoying to fill later and can generate fringes - besides, the app allow us to work at very high res, we can work without antialising easily if we want. As a small bonus, pixel art dudes will love the total crispness too ;)

8 - Give us an option in preferences to disable the snaps while we zoom/rotate. The snaps are very constant and because of that the movement of the canvas looks unnecessarily wonky and laggy (Although is not laggy, the snaps simply interrupt the smoothness). Your engine is super fast but these agressive and disruptive snaps makes the canvas jump too much, is really distracting and we don't need this kind of snaps/precision everytime

9 - Give us an option to disable the rotation/zoom level popup info. When we are planning and "searching for shapes" we don't need these distractions or technical info

10 - Allow us to customize the icons present in the fullscreen mode (including icons for menu entries like "file-save" and specific favorite presets to instant access, not the star icon to open the panel and then choose one favorite - thats 2 clicks instead of one :) A tiny, customizable text below the icon can help us to identify the icon - the top bar will need to be a tiny bit taller to acommodate the text, but this is for a good reason. Give us vertical separator lines and spaces too, so we can create our super cool custom toolboxes :)

11 - Give us an option to always enter the app in fullscreen mode. After we customize our workspace with icons and tools, the fullscreen mode can be our "main interface" - As an example: Some tools related to photo editing have little use for comic makers and they will not put them in the fullscreen interface, 90% of the time they will use the custom fullscreen UI. We need a "back to documents" icon in fullscreen too. In short, your "full UI" have the potential to be our playground to create our personal custom workspace if you manage to make the UI elastic enough ;)

12 - We need a color wheel option, not only the "color square". The wheel have some obvious advantages

13 - Give us an option to see the color strip while we are in the fullscreen mode

14 - Give us an option to see a compact color wheel always on the screen, this is very important. The "pick color from canvas" is no substitute because when someone is planning or experimenting with colors in preliminary phases of a painting, the ability to try new colors can be crucial

15 - A fixed - compact - layer popup can be useful when we are dealing with complex drawings with many layers. Sketchbook pro solves this beautifully. With a click we switch from color strip to layers and they are always on screen

16 - The app always open in the "main worspace window". Give us an option to open it always at the "documents view". I understand you are simulating the desktop behaviour of opening the app with no file open, but it's strange to not have a "file - open", when we have a "file - close" in the menus. To open a file, we need to go back to documents (pressing"<"). I can imagine new users scratching theirs heads until they figure this out. If we open the app with a screen full of icons and menus and everything is ghosted because there is no file opened, I guess it's better (on the ipad) to simply open the documents view instead and press the "+" to create a new file, paste an image from clipboard etc or choose a file. Not much reason to show the full UI when there is no file open. Closing all files opened should land us automatically in the document viewer too I guess

17 - Give us an option to not see the "undo" text below the strip bar (and no undo/redo text in full screen). The "two finger tap to undo" and "three finger tap to redo" is almost the norm right now, that's what the majority of users expect, buttons to activate undo/redo can be optionally disabled for those who prefer gestures and a cleaner workspace (also, more space to custom icons in fullscreen mode and more colors in the color strip)

18 - "Flip horizontal" on a 4kx4k canvas with two layers takes about 2 seconds on a ipad 12.9 2017 model MPLJ2CL/A. Each layer I add with plenty of color add about one second at this resolution, meaning a file with 5 4kx4k layers takes about 5 or 6 seconds to do a "flip horizontal". I know this is a massive data operation but other apps don't take that long (maybe they "fake it" by not really flipping the canvas, they only "render" it "reverted"? They "flip the canvas for real" only when we export? I don't know - just a guess :) Anyway, I guess the flip canvas workflow is something that will improve in the future since it's one of those quality of life core features?

19 - Speaking of layers, I guess we need a "automatic special background color layer" so we don't need to always create that "white+transparent" background that actually creates 2 layers, one beeing fully white to serve as a background to hide the checkerboard. I guess a "special" bottom layer (like the one in procreate) can solve this better and allow us to change the background color faster without the need to color fill the layer manually (no to mention: one less layer to manage)

20 - I believe the menu "Artstudio" and all these entries not related to drawing can be moved to "documents" screen, and the "preferences" can go to "edit". One less menu and more space for custom icons at the top bar if you implement them ;). I understand the "name of the program on the left menu" is a mac thing, but I rather put more of my own icons on the top bar if I have to choose :D

Ok, let me stop at 20, nice round number :D

Again, thank you for this great app, really impressive results. I am really enjoying it o/
Last Edit: April 18, 2018, 03:54:45 AM by RHiNO