Curly Lines plugin: updated to v1.1a (19th Nov 2012)

[davidf]

One suggestion - how about using tabs for the settings ? ( ie Colours, Start Point, Number of Lines, Styles, Twist , Recentre)

It would reduce the size of the UI considerably and make it more user friendly.

At the moment I'm using a thing called IndirectUI which provides GUI controls specifically for PDN ... it gives you limited control over the interface, though. I don't think it includes support for tabs (anyone know different?).

Edit: looks like midora beat me to the answer while I was writing this!

Edited November 12, 2012 by davidf

[Pixey]

Thank you for explaining @Davidf - perhaps I'll try a plug-in in my next lifetime!

Here's my attempt ..... the combinations, I can see, are endless.

[Ego Eram Reputo]

At the moment I'm using a thing called IndirectUI which provides GUI controls specifically for PDN ... it gives you limited control over the interface, though. I don't think it includes support for tabs (anyone know different?).

I'm sure Indirect UI and CodeLab don't support tabs, so Midora is correct in that it takes a custom Winform to use them.

The question of plugin UI tabs has been raised before. I'm a supporter of the idea if it means taming a dialog that is longer than my screen!

[Goonfella]

Oh well never mind then. Thanks for explaining.

[davidf]

OK, figured out how to do coloring by width instead of length -- this is a preview of what it will look like. (The new version of the plugin isn't ready to upload yet, though).

[midora]

I love this kind of mathematics.

Simple but with great effects

[Red ochre]

Hello David,

Those are impressive initial results for the shading across the line width!

Particularly the first example, which hopefully indicates that when lines cross over each other, the lines should appear to be one on top the other - (something which is currently difficult to do if shading the 'object' created by the effect).

It would be ideal if you can keep the existing length-wise shading and have a slider to blend these colors with the new cross-wise shading.

So, 'start' and 'end' colors from the UI colorwheels and 'edge' and 'middle' colors from the Primary and Secondary colors - with a slider to blend the two different patterns. The advantage of the Primary & Secondary colors is that the transparency can be selected before running the plug-in. This (hopefully), would allow blending of edge color or middle color or both edge & middle colors with the existing length-wise color shading. I hope that made sense.

Absolutely no time pressure! - I think we're all very grateful for this excellent plug-in as is.

I know there can be a lot of work and headaches involved in a supposedly 'simple' change!

Thank you for the time and expertise you have put into this.

[davidf]

Those are impressive initial results for the shading across the line width!

Particularly the first example, which hopefully indicates that when lines cross over each other, the lines should appear to be one on top the other - (something which is currently difficult to do if shading the 'object' created by the effect).

Yes, the lines are drawn in (random) "depth" order. When the order wasn't random, overlapping radial lines looked wrong (each line was above the next one, if you can picture that ...)

It would be ideal if you can keep the existing length-wise shading and have a slider to blend these colors with the new cross-wise shading.

So, 'start' and 'end' colors from the UI colorwheels and 'edge' and 'middle' colors from the Primary and Secondary colors - with a slider to blend the two different patterns. The advantage of the Primary & Secondary colors is that the transparency can be selected before running the plug-in. This (hopefully), would allow blending of edge color or middle color or both edge & middle colors with the existing length-wise color shading. I hope that made sense.

That's kind of awkward with the way things are designed at the moment, but you can get a similar effect by drawing the same set of curves (using the same "Randomization code") on two different layers and then either using layer opacity or an interesting blend mode ... here is the kind of thing I get (layer 1 and layer 2 are the original two images, with layer 1 on the bottom):

I think I like "darken" the best. "Lighten" does something interesting with the center lines -- they spread out a bit ...

Edited November 14, 2012 by davidf

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I love this plugin, it's so much fun to fiddle with! The documentation is thorough and an excellent addition. With it I'd quickly be lost in the UI

I think this is worthy of being stickied. Well done davidf. (all these forum icons & I can't find a sticky one - have a trophy instead)

Being able to save and restore a set of parameters via XML sounds like a good idea.

Yes please!

ps I made a tadpole!

[davidf]

I love this plugin, it's so much fun to fiddle with! The documentation is thorough and an excellent addition. With it I'd quickly be lost in the UI

I think this is worthy of being stickied. Well done davidf. (all these forum icons & I can't find a sticky one - have a trophy instead)

Thanks! (And to everyone else for their feedback, too).

Hope the "known bug" with wide lines isn't too annoying & doesn't come up too often ...

ps I made a tadpole!

Pic? (I'm fond of tadpoles! But not if you don't want to ...)

Edited November 14, 2012 by davidf

[Ego Eram Reputo]

I was just playing around...

[dug]

Excellent plug-in,well deserved sticky.Thank you so much for sharing,this is amazing. Cheers .

[davidf]

Curly Lines has just been updated to version 1.1 ... here are the new features:

1) The dialog is now resizeable (using midora's code snippet).

2) There is a new color mode called "First to second color -- across width". I posted a preview of this; here it is again:

3) There is a new "transparency" slider.

One possible use for this is to combine several modified versions of the same set of lines (using the same "randomization code" each time). The example below does this three times, once with color mode "first to second color", once with mode "first to second color -- across width", and once with a much smaller width to create the middle part of the leaves.

4) There is another new color mode called "emboss", as well as an "emboss angle" control near the bottom of the dialog (just above "Recenter"). I think it looks best with a very light and a very dark color with similar hues.

With a low "smoothness" you get a crumply effect (which surprised me!), as in the left image below.

(At the moment, "Flat" endpoints aren't handled perfectly -- they should really be triangular wedges, not round looking. See the inside endpoints of the left image to see what I mean).

5) For convience, there is a "Swap colors" checkbox to swap the first and second color.

6) There is a checkbox labelled "Start radial direction is random" (below the "identical lines" checkbox). Normally when radial lines are being drawn, the first line is from the start to the end point. If this box is checked, the first line is in a random direction instead (the end point just controls the radius).

An example of where this might be useful is when you are drawing one line at a time using "Ctrl-F" (repeat the last effect).

If this checkbox doesn't make sense, just ignore it.

I'd love to see any new pics!

Edited November 19, 2012 by davidf

[Ego Eram Reputo]

You might want to check the version you uploaded. I'm not seeing the changes?

[davidf]

You might want to check the version you uploaded. I'm not seeing the changes?

Hmm ... not sure what's happening. It seems fine when I download it ("CurlyLines1.1.zip").

The .zip file should be 19206 bytes (the old one was 17596 bytes), and the .dll 44544 bytes (vs 40448 bytes) ...

Anyone else having a problem? The easiest way to check if you have the new version is the existence of a "Swap colors" checkbox just after "Second color".

Edited November 19, 2012 by davidf

[pyrochild]

I'm seeing the new one.

EER, did you try clearing your cache?

[yellowman]

I am seeing the new one also, most of the changes are in the upper dropdown menu that deals with colors.

Davidf, I have some suggestions:

-The plugin starts with just a small point in the center, it would be good if you replace it with a shape like a leaf or any colored curly line, to be visible on all background colors

- I believe it is possible to combine the Start Point, End Point, Recenter, X -adjustment, Y-adjustment and rotate with with one or 2 functions only, I really don't know how, but I feel it is doable, to reduce the UI size

-The window is stretchable to the sides, I am not sure if it is possible to make the lower slides and functions to jump on top to be side by side when you stretch the window to a certain width.

Just throwing some ideas, not sure if they could be implement

Thanks,

BTY, the additions to the new version are awesome.

Edited November 19, 2012 by yellowman

[Goonfella]

Thanks for the excellent update. I agree with Yellowman though about the starting point. When I first used the plug in I was not sure if it was actually working . Obviously once I started playing with the settings I knew it was but some people might get a little confused and end up deleting it thinking the worst.

[davidf]

Davidf, I have some suggestions:

-The plugin starts with just a small point in the center, it would be good if you replace it with a shape like a leaf or any colored curly line, to be visible on all background colors

Done -- two people's votes is enough to convince me! It now draws an initial line from the center to a point half way down the image.

The new version of the plugin is 1.1a.

- I believe it is possible to combine the Start Point, End Point, Recenter, X -adjustment, Y-adjustment and rotate with with one or 2 functions only, I really don't know how, but I feel it is doable, to reduce the UI size

It started off with just the Start Point and End Point, but I found it very useful to have the other controls as well -- just a matter of personal preference. They're deliberately at the bottom so they don't get in the way of the other controls (and you need to scroll to the end to get to "Reseed", "OK" and "Cancel" anyway).

-The window is stretchable to the sides, I am not sure if it is possible to make the lower slides and functions to jump on top to be side by side when you stretch the window to a certain width.

I am using "IndirectUI", which is provided as a way of making consistent GUIs for Paint.net plugins -- it limits what the GUI can look like, though, so the controls must be vertical like that.

BTY, the additions to the new version are awesome.

Thanks!

Edited November 19, 2012 by davidf

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Strange. I was 100% sure I also had 1.1 with the larger file size. I even checked, deleted the old one and downloaded it again. Odd.

[davidf]

Strange. I was 100% sure I also had 1.1 with the larger file size. I even checked, deleted the old one and downloaded it again. Odd.

No problem!

(I'd still love to see any new pics from people! I'm interested in uses other people have for this plugin).

Edited November 19, 2012 by davidf

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Any progress on the load/save XML idea? It would be a cool way for users to swap settings...

[davidf]

Any progress on the load/save XML idea? It would be a cool way for users to swap settings...

I do love the idea, but there is no way to implement it using IndirectUI.

Rick Brewster said that something like this may (or may not) be included in a future version of Paint.net:

http://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?/topic/25597-indirectui-setting-of-controls-assigned-to-properties/

[Ego Eram Reputo]

Port it to Visual Studio? There is a checkbox in CodeLab to 'view source' when you build the effect. Using this you can cut & paste your code into a new Visual Studio project.

(You'd also get the option to use a WinForm with .... Tabs!)

[davidf]

Port it to Visual Studio? There is a checkbox in CodeLab to 'view source' when you build the effect. Using this you can cut & paste your code into a new Visual Studio project.

(You'd also get the option to use a WinForm with .... Tabs!)

It's in Visual Studio at the moment (since it needs to do some things in OnSetRenderInfo(), which you can't do using CodeLab), it just uses IndirectUI because Rick Brewster strongly suggests doing that ...