Hello, I am currently creating a TBS tutorial for newbies. One of the things that strikes me as cumbersome is individually renaming the elements. Sure, it’s not that big of a deal, but many programs allow you to select and rename things, add a prefix or whatever, quickly and easily.
Also, during the creation process it sure would be nice to click the “new element” button and have a prefix assigned if desired, and a space to choose a name. It’s not like we’re just creating stuff at random and deciding what to call it later, if I’m making a human character say- I’ll go jo_torso, jo_hips, jo_ L_arm, etc. if there’s a need to create a new part for the same character, the prefix should remain the same i.e. jo_hat_bird. It wouldn’t seem that hard to implement.
Speaking of simple to implement, if a grid is available for drawing why not have a grid or at least a few vertical lines to easily confirm the hierarchy of your puppet? A visible column that shows what is a “sister” to other elements would be very welcome.
I know these things aren’t related to the actual functions of the program; however, as I approach my third week of making my tutorial I’m beginning to realize that some of the people I’m trying to teach will quickly become impatient and even give up. Presumably, the idea behind TBS is to get non professionals interested in animation. If this is so, it must evolve more user-friendly features. And, if more advanced versions of Toonboom have these features, why not TBS?