diff --git a/user_manual/getting_started/basic_concepts.rst b/user_manual/getting_started/basic_concepts.rst --- a/user_manual/getting_started/basic_concepts.rst +++ b/user_manual/getting_started/basic_concepts.rst @@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ - Tokiedian - AnetK - JakeD + - Yuri Chornoivan :license: GNU free documentation license 1.3 or later. .. index:: Basic Concepts, Color, Tools, View, Window, Filters, Transform, Grid, Guides, Layers, Masks, Vector @@ -21,23 +22,21 @@ If this is your first foray into digital painting, this page should give you a brief introduction to the basic but important concepts required for getting started with digital painting in Krita. -This page is very long because it tries to cover all the important things you should know Krita is capable of, and Krita is really powerful. So this page can also be considered a guide through Krita's most important functionality. Hopefully, it will help you grasp what buttons are for, even if you don't know the exact purpose of them. +Although very lengthy, this page tries to give a brief overview of some of the krita's most important functionality; it tries to help you grasp the functions of various menu and buttons in Krita without going into minute details. .. contents:: Raster and Vector ----------------- -Even though Krita is primarily a raster based application, it has some vector editing capabilities as well. If you are new to Digital painting medium, it is necessary that you know the concepts of raster and Vector. +Even though Krita is regarded primarily a raster based application, it has some vector editing capabilities as well. If you are new to digital painting medium, it is necessary that you first get yourself acquainted with the concepts of raster and :ref:`Vector ` based images. -In digital imaging, a pixel (Picture Element) is a basic and lowest element of an Image. It is basically a grid of points each displaying specific color. Raster editing is manipulating and editing these pixels. For example when you take a 1-pixel brush which is colored black and painting on the white canvas in Krita you are actually changing the color of the pixel beneath your brush from white to black. When you zoom in and see a brush stroke you can notice many small squares with colors, these squares are called pixels. +In digital imaging, a pixel (Picture Element) is a basic and lowest element of an Image. It is basically a grid of points each displaying specific color. Raster editing is manipulating and editing these pixels. For example when you take a 1-pixel brush which is colored black and painting on the white canvas in Krita you are actually changing the color of the pixel beneath your brush from white to black. When you zoom in and see a brush stroke, you can notice many small squares with colors, these squares are called pixels. .. image:: /images/en/Pixels-brushstroke.png :align: center -In contrast, vector graphic work is based on mathematical expressions. They are independent of the pixel. For example, when you draw a rectangle on a vector layer in Krita you are actually drawing paths passing through points called nodes which are located on specific coordinates on the 'x' and 'y' axes. When you re-size or move these points the computer calculates and redraws the path and displays the newly formed shape to you. Hence you can re-size the vector shape to any extent without any loss in quality. - -In Krita, everything which is not on a vector layer is raster based. +In contrast to raster images, vector graphic images are based on mathematical expressions. They are independent of the pixels. For example, when you draw a rectangle on a :ref:`vector layer ` in Krita you are actually drawing paths passing through points that are called nodes, which are located on specific coordinates on the 'x' and 'y' axes. When you re-size or move these points the computer calculates and redraws the path and displays the newly formed shape to you. Hence you can re-size the vector shape to any extent without any loss in quality. In Krita, everything which is not on a vector layer is raster based. Images, Views and Windows ------------------------- @@ -49,30 +48,31 @@ The most important one is the **Image**. -This is an individual copy of the image you opened or made via the file dialog, and where you edit your file. Krita can allow you to open the file as a new copy via the :guilabel:`File` menu, or to save it as a new file, or make an incremental save. An image contains layers, a color space, a canvas size and metadata such as creator, data created, and DPI. Krita can open multiple images at once, you can switch between them via the :guilabel:`Window` menu. +This is an individual copy of the image that you can open or create via the file dialog. Krita allows you to open the file as a new copy via the :guilabel:`File` menu, or to save it as a new file, or make an incremental copy. + +An image contains data regarding layers, color space of image and layers, canvas size and metadata such as creator, date created and DPI et cetera. Krita can open multiple images at once, you can switch between them via the :guilabel:`Window` menu. Because the image is a working copy of the image on the hard drive, you can do a lot of little saving tricks with it: New Makes a new image. When you press :menuselection:`Save`, you make a new file on the hard drive. Open Makes an internal copy of an existing image. When you press :menuselection:`Save`, you will overwrite the original existing image with your working copy. -Open existing Document as Untitled Document +Open the existing Document as Untitled Document Similar to :menuselection:`Open`, however, :menuselection:`Save` will request you to specify a saving location: you're making a new copy. This is similar to :menuselection:`Import` in other programs. Create Copy From Current Image Similar to :menuselection:`Open existing Document as Untitled Document` but with the currently selected image. Save incremental Allows you to quickly make a snapshot of the current image by making a new file with a version number added to it. -These options are great for people doing production work, who need to switch between files quickly or have backup files in case they do something extreme. Krita also has a file backup system in the form of auto-saves and back files and crash recovery. You can configure these in the general settings. +These options are great for people doing production work, who need to switch between files quickly or have backup files in case they do something extreme. Krita also has a file backup system in the form of auto-saves, backup files and crash recovery. You can configure the option for these features in the general settings. You view the image via a **View**. View ~~~~ -A view is a window onto your image. Krita allows you to have multiple views, and you can manipulate the view to zoom, rotate and mirror and modify the color of the way you see an image without editing the image itself. This is very useful for artists, as changing the way they view the image is a common way to diagnose mistakes, like skewing to one side. Mirroring with :kbd:`M` makes such skewing easy to identify. - +A view is a window onto your image. Krita allows you to have multiple views, and you can manipulate the view to zoom, rotate and mirror and modify the color of the way you see an image without editing the image itself. This is very useful for artists, as changing the way they view the image is a common way to diagnose some common mistakes, like a drawing which is skewed towards one side. Mirroring with :kbd:`M` makes such skewing easy to identify. If you have trouble drawing certain curves you will enjoy using rotation for drawing, and of course, there is zooming in and out for precision and rough work. @@ -86,21 +86,21 @@ Dockers ~~~~~~~ -Dockers are little subwindows in :ref:`Krita's interface `. They contain useful tools, like the color selector, layer stack, tool options etc. +Dockers are little subwindows in :ref:`Krita's interface `. They contain useful tools, like the color selector, layer stack, tool options, et cetera. .. image:: /images/en/Dockers.png :align: center -The image above shows some of the dockers in Krita +The image above shows some of the dockers in Krita. All the views and the dockers are held inside **Windows** Window ~~~~~~ If you've used a computer before, you know what windows are: They are big containers for your computer programs. -Krita allows you to have multiple windows via :menuselection:`Window --> New Window`. You can then drag this to another monitor for multi-monitor use. +Krita allows you to have multiple windows via :menuselection:`Window --> New Window`. You can then drag this to another monitor for multi-monitor use. The image below shows an example of multiple windows in Krita. @@ -115,34 +115,34 @@ .. image:: /images/en/Canvas-krita.png :align: center -When you save the painting as jpg, png etc or take a print out of the painting, only the content inside this area is taken into consideration. Anything beyond it is ignored. Krita does store information beyond this area, you just won't be able to see it. +When you save the painting as jpg, png et cetera or take a print out of the painting, only the content inside this area is taken into consideration. Anything beyond it is ignored. Krita does store information beyond this area, you just won't be able to see it. This data is stored in the **Layers**. Layers and Compositing ---------------------- Like a landscape painter will first paint the sky and then the furthest away elements before slowly working his way to the foreground elements, computers will do the same with all the things you tell them to draw. So, if you tell them to draw a circle after a square on the same spot, the circle will always be drawn later. This is called the **Drawing Order**. -The layer stack is a way for you to separate elements of a drawing and manipulate the drawing order by showing you which layers are drawn when, and allowing you to change the order they are drawn in, and all sorts of other effects. This is called **Compositing**. +The layer stack is a way for you to separate elements of a drawing and manipulate the drawing order by showing you which layers are drawn when and allowing you to change the order they are drawn in and also apple all sorts of other effects. This is called **Compositing**. This allows you to have line art above the colors, or trees before the mountains, and edit each without affecting the other. -Krita has many layer-types, each doing a slightly different thing: +Krita has many layer-types, each layer type is unique and has its own usecase: :ref:`paint_layers` - Also known as raster layers, and the most common layer type, you will be painting on these. + These are raster layers, and the most common and default layer type in Krita, you will be painting on these. :ref:`vector_layers` This is a layer type on which you draw vector graphics. Vector graphics are typically more simple than raster graphics and with the benefit that you can deform them with less blurriness. :ref:`group_layers` These allow you to group several layers via drag and drop, so you can organize, move, apply masks and perform other actions on them together. :ref:`clone_layers` These are copies of the layer you selected when making them. They get updated automatically when changing the original. :ref:`file_layers` - These refer to an outside existing image, and update as soon as the outside image updates. Useful for logos and emblems that change a lot. + These refer to an existing image outside of Krita and update as soon as the outside image updates. Useful for logos and emblems that change a lot. :ref:`fill_layers` These layers are filled with something that Krita can make up on the fly, like colors or patterns. :ref:`filter_layers` - Adding a filter in the layer-stack. We discuss these later on. + These layer type help us to apply some filters which will affect a composite image made from all the layers beneath them. You can manipulate the content of the layers with **Tools**. @@ -152,35 +152,35 @@ Tools help you manipulate the image data. The most common one is of course, the freehand brush, which is the default when you open Krita. There are roughly five types of tools in Krita: Paint Tools - These are tools for painting on paint layers. They describe shapes, like rectangles, circles and straight lines, but also freehand paths. These shapes then get used by the Brush engines to make shapes and drawing effects. + These are tools for painting on paint layers. They describe shapes, like rectangles, circles and straight lines, but also freehand paths. These shapes then get used by the Brush engines to make shapes and drawing effects. Vector Tools - This is the upper row of tools, which are used to edit vectors. Interestingly enough, all paint tools except the freehand brush allow you to draw shapes on the vector layers. These don't get a brush engine effect applied to them, though. + This is the upper row of tools, which are used to edit vectors. Interestingly enough, all paint tools except the freehand brush allow you to draw shapes on the vector layers. The resulting object won't use the brush preset for outline unlike the ones made with paint tools on normal layer. Selection Tools - Selections allow you to edit a very specific area of the layer you are working on without affecting the others. The selection tools allow you modify the current selection. This is not unlike using masking-fluids in traditional painting, but whereas using masking fluids and film is often messy and delicate, selections are far easier to use. + Selections allow you to edit a very specific area of the layer you are working on without affecting the others. The selection tools allow you to draw or modify the current selection. This is like using masking-fluids in traditional painting method, but whereas using masking fluids and film is often messy and delicate, selections are far easier to use. Guide Tools These are tools like grids and assistants. Transform Tools - These are tools that allow you to transform your image. More on that later. + These are tools that allow you to transform your layer or object on the canvas. -All tools can be found in the toolbox, and information can be found in the tools section of the manual. +All tools can be found in the toolbox, and information about individual tools can be found in the :ref:`tools ` section of the manual. Brush Engines ------------- -Brush engines, like mentioned before, take a path and tablet information and add effects to it, making a stroke. +Brush engines, as mentioned before, take a path and tablet information and add effects to it, making a stroke. -Engine is a term programmers use to describe a complex interacting set of code that is the core for a certain functionality, and is highly configurable. In short, like the engine of your car drives your car, and the type of engine and its configuration affects how you use your car, the brush engine drives the look and feel of the brush, and different brush engines have different results. +Engine is a term Krita developers use to describe a complex interacting set of code, that is the core for certain functionality and is highly configurable. In short, like the engine of your car drives your car, and the type of engine and its configuration affects how you use your car, the brush engine drives the look and feel of the brush, and different brush engines have different results. Krita has :ref:`a LOT of different brush engines `, all with different effects. .. figure:: /images/en/Krita_example_differentbrushengines.png :align: center - **Left:** pixel brush, **Center:** color smudge brush, **Right:** sketch brush + **Left:** pixel brush, **Center:** color smudge brush, **Right:** sket ceterah brush -For example, the pixel-brush engine is simple and allows you to do most of your basic work, but if you do a lot of painting, the color smudge brush engine might be more useful. Even though it's slower to use than the Pixel Brush engine, its mixing of colors allows you to work faster. +For example, the pixel-brush engine is simple and allows you to do most of your basic work, but if you do a lot of painting, the color smudge brush engine might be more useful. Even though it's slower to use than the Pixel Brush engine, its mixing of colors allows you to work faster when you need to blend and mix colors. -If you want something totally different from that, the sketch brush engine helps with making messy lines, and the shape brush engine allows you to make big flats quickly. There are a lot of cool effects inside Krita's brush engines, so try them all out, and be sure to check the chapters on each. +If you want something totally different from that, the sket ceterah brush engine helps with making messy lines, and the shape brush engine allows you to make big flats quickly. There are a lot of cool effects inside Krita's brush engines, so try them all out, and be sure to check the chapters on each. You can configure these effects via the Brush Settings drop-down, which can be quickly accessed via :kbd:`F5`. These configurations can then be saved into presets, which you can quickly access with :kbd:`F6` or the Brush Presets docker. @@ -194,7 +194,7 @@ .. figure:: /images/en/Krita_basics_primaries.png :align: center - Subtractive CMY colors on the left and additive RGB colors on the right. This difference means that printers benefit from color conversion before printing + Subtractive CMY colors on the left and additive RGB colors on the right. This difference means that printers benefit from color conversion before printing When painting traditionally, we use pigments which also absorb the right light-waves for the color we want it to have, but the more pigments you combine, the more light is absorbed, leading to a kind of murky black. This is why we call the mixing of paints **subtractive**, as it subtracts light the more pigments you put together. Because of that, in traditional pigment mixing, our most efficient primaries are three fairly light colors: Cyan blue and Magenta red and Yellow (CMY). @@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ Transparency is stored in the same way as colors, meaning that it's also a channel. We usually call this channel the **alpha channel** or **alpha** for short. The reason behind this is that the letter 'α' is used to represent it in programming. -Some older programs don't always have transparency by default. Krita is the opposite: it doesn't understand images that don't track transparency, and will always add a transparency channel to images. When a given pixel is completely transparent on all layers, Krita will instead show a checkerboard pattern, like the rose image to the left. +Some older programs don't always have transparency by default. Krita is the opposite: it doesn't understand images that don't track transparency, and will always add a transparency channel to images. When a given pixel is completely transparent on all layers, Krita will instead show a checkerboard pattern, like the rose image shown above. Blending modes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@ -248,16 +248,16 @@ Masks are a type of sub-effect applied to a layer, usually driven by a grayscale image. -The primary types of mask are :ref:`transparency_masks`, which allow you to use a grayscale image to determine the transparency, where black makes everything transparent and white makes the pixel fully opaque. +The primary types of mask are :ref:`transparency_masks`, which allow you to use a grayscale image to determine transparency, where black makes everything transparent and white makes the pixel fully opaque. You can paint on masks with any of the brushes, or convert a normal paint-layer to a mask. The big benefit of masks is that you can make things transparent without removing the underlying pixels. Furthermore, you can use masks to reveal or hide a whole group layer at once! For example, we have a white ghost lady here: .. image:: /images/en/Krita_ghostlady_1.png :align: center -But you can't really tell whether she's a ghost lady or just really really white. If only we could give the idea that she floats... +But you can't really tell whether she's a ghost lady or just really really white. If only we could give the idea that she floats. We right-click the layer and add a transparency mask. Then, we select that mask and draw with a black and white linear gradient so that the black is below. .. image:: /images/en/Krita_ghostlady_2.png @@ -288,7 +288,7 @@ Different filter brushes being used on different parts of the image. -Krita has many more filters available: read about them :ref:`here `. +Krita has many more filters available: you can read about them :ref:`here `. :ref:`filter_brush_engine` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@ -306,17 +306,17 @@ Masks, on the other hand, can affect one single layer and are driven by a grayscale image. They will also affect all layers in a group, much like a transparency mask. -We can use these filters to make our ghost lady look even more ethereal, by selecting the ghost lady's layer, and then creating a clone layer. We then right click and add a filter mask and use gaussian blur set to 10 or so pixels. The clone layer is then put behind the original layer, and set to the blending mode '**Color Dodge**', giving her a definite spooky glow. You can keep on painting on the original layer and everything will get updated automatically! +We can use these filters to make our ghost lady look even more ethereal, by selecting the ghost lady's layer, and then creating a clone layer. We then right click and add a filter mask and use gaussian blur set to 10 or so pixels. The clone layer is then put behind the original layer, and set to the blending mode '**Color Dodge**', giving her a definite spooky glow. You can keep on painting on the original layer and everything will get updated automatically! .. image:: /images/en/Krita_ghostlady_3.png :align: center -Layer Effects or Layer Styles are :program:`Photoshop's` unique brand of Filter Masks that are a little faster than regular masks, but not as versatile. They are available by right clicking a layer and selecting 'layer style'. +Layer Effects or Layer Styles are filterm masks popularised by :program:`Photoshop's` that are a little faster than regular masks, but not as versatile. They are available by right clicking a layer and selecting 'layer style'. Transformations --------------- -**Transformations** are kind of like filters, in that these are operations done on the pixels of an image. We have a regular image and layer wide transformations in the image and layer top menus, so that you may resize, flip and rotate the whole image. +**Transformations** are kind of like filters, in that these are operations done on the pixels of an image. We have a regular image and layer wide transformations in the image and layer top menus, so that you may resize, flip and rotate the whole image. We also have the :ref:`crop_tool`, which only affects the canvas size, and the :ref:`move_tool` which only moves a given layer. However, if you want more control, Krita offers a :ref:`transform_tool`. @@ -341,35 +341,35 @@ :ref:`transformation_masks` ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Like filters, transforms can be applied as a non-destructive operation that is part of the layer stack. Unlike filter and transparency masks however, transform masks can't be driven by a grayscale image, for technical reasons. +Like filters, transforms can be applied as a non-destructive operation that is part of the layer stack. Unlike filter and transparency masks however, transform masks can't be driven by a grayscale image, for technical reasons. You can use transform masks to deform clone and file layers as well. :ref:`animation` ---------------- .. image:: /images/en/Introduction_to_animation_walkcycle_02.gif :align: center -In 3.0, Krita got raster animation support. You can use the timeline, animation and onionskin dockers, plus Krita's amazing variety of brushes to do raster based animations, export those, and then turn them into movies or gifs. +From version 3.0 onwards, Krita got raster animation support. You can use the timeline, animation and onionskin dockers, plus Krita's amazing variety of brushes to do raster based animations, export those, and then turn them into movies or gifs. Assistants, Grids and Guides ---------------------------- -With all this technical stuff, you might forget that Krita is a painting program. Like how an illustrator in real life can have all sorts of equipment to make drawing easier, Krita also offers a variety of tools: +With all this technical stuff, you might forget that Krita is a painting program. Like how when working with traditional medium, as an illustrator we can have all sorts of equipment to make drawing easier, Krita also offers a variety of tools: .. figure:: /images/en/Krita_basic_assistants.png :align: center Krita's vanishing point assistants in action :ref:`grids_and_guides_docker` - Very straightforward guiding tool which shows grids or guiding lines that can be configured. + A very straightforward guiding tool which shows grids or guiding lines that can be configured. :ref:`snapping` You can snap to all sorts of things. Grids, guides, extensions, orthogonals, image centers and bounding boxes. :ref:`painting_with_assistants` Because you can hardly put a ruler against your tablet to help you draw, the assistants are there to help you draw concentric circles, perspectives, parallel lines and other easily forgotten but tricky to draw details. Krita allows you to snap to these via the tool options as well. -These guides are saved into Krita's native format, which means you can pick up your work easily afterwards. +These guides are saved into Krita's native format, which means you can pick up your work easily afterward. Customization -------------