Current version: 1.4.8 (Updated 13 July 2024) (Works for Blender 4.2 and below. Currently being updated to 4.3)
This Blender add-on adds groups functionality 📂🎉 (and more things❗) to Blender’s -awesome- Grease Pencil!
It’s meant to make working with the Grease Pencil a more pleasant (and organized!) experience and to perform redundant tasks more quickly.
Moreover, it also provides some new features that make drawing with Grease Pencil a MUCH better experience (in my humble opinion).
Features:
Group support 📂: Create groups to better organize your drawings and classify them with colors.
Designed to be comfortable to use 👌: As the first user of this addon, I utilize it daily. Whenever I think, 'hey, this could be better if we could do X,' I make that change happen! Whether X is big or small, I tackle it because I'm downright stubborn. (I'm also 100% open to listening to your ideas 💡).
Fully customizable UI: Add what you use the most, get rid of what you don't to declutter the work space and suit it to your needs.
Improved* solo modes for visibility 👀 and lock 🔐 states: In my humble opinion, the solo mode for locking the layers is SUPER useful for editing the drawing both in Edit and in Sculpt Mode, but also for moving keyframes in the dopesheet (to filter the layers/groups you want to move, ignoring the rest). I use it A LOT:
*I said improved since the original visibility solo from Blender doesn't "remind" what layers you had hidden and visible when you exit the solo mode. So if you had a layer hidden, the changes are lost. This doesn't happen with Grease Pencil Groups++'s solo modes 💪
Furthermore, it gives you the option to choose between 2 types of solo modes; Hide and Opacity.
Opacity visibility solo mode: the active layer/group shows its original opacity while the rest is faded. Useful when you have to work focusing in a specific thing while having a context of the overall drawing.
Even though my favourite is the solo lock 🔒; it makes editing the drawing, arranging its frames, weight painting, etc. MUCH better!Each solo mode provides 3 different algorithms to decide what you want to be soloing; solo only the selected, the selected + its siblings, or the top folder.
Very useful to cover any kind of scenerio and needs you may have.
New Operators and shortcuts to make the workflow faster: Simple things like switching to the last brush, switching to a secondary color, alternate between eraser and brush, fast esculpting, fast picking colors directly from mouse, etc. My favourite is being able to sample the colour below the cursor:And my next favourite would be the ability to directy select all content in a layer/group. Makes editing each individual part of your drawing very easy! And also helps with weight painting a lot!
Tip💡: You can SHIFT/ALT + Click to add/remove to selection to combine. PS: Sorry, the drawings are becoming kinda creepy 🎃
Customizable GreasePencil behaviour: Added different tweaks, like the option to keep the same vertex colour when changing between brushes (originally, each brush had its own color). This add-on gives the option to handle that if you want.
New features like inherit alpha, which make a layer to automatically be masked by its siblings, allowing a much faster painting/shading.
When the alpha icon is active, the layer will be masked to its siblings opacity, so its ensured it stay inside the bounds 🎉
This is a feature inspired Krita that I LOVE! I find it super useful.
There are more things, but I recomend to read the manual 📘 to learn more:
I made (and I’m making!) this addon for my daily use to simplify my life a bit, and I’m continously adding every improvement and idea I can think of, since I use it a lot and I want it to be the best thing possible, so its ensured to have the maximum quality!
I tried to add (and I will continue to add) every feature that I personally miss in the Grease Pencil.
🐺 If you have an idea or something that you think will be cool/useful to be implemented, I’m -super- open to listen to your ideas!
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoy it and is useful for you as it is for me 🍀.
PS: Supporting it by its fair/suggested amount (or closer) will make you receive a little gift from me via email! 🎁 (Is related to Grease Pencil)
I'll start to write here some of the most recent additions! (check the full changelog in 'changelog' page):
Whats new in version (1.4.8) (Updated 13 July 2024)?
✅ Added the possibility to animate groups' properties!
Whats new in version (1.4.7) (Updated 27 April 2024)?
✅ Added new options for customizing the UI!
Whats new in version (1.4.6) (Updated 19 April 2024)?
✅ Option to automatically check new versions for the addon without having to manually check this page!
Whats new in version (1.4.5) (Updated 16 April 2024)?
✅ New operator to move/copy a layer/group to a new Grease Pencil Object
🐛 Fixed a bug in a report message.