TupiTube Documentation

Tupi user interface (UI) was designed as a toolbox full of compartments. Every compartment is focused on an specific task, providing an intuitive and simple set of controls and tools. Now, let's take a ride for the different components of the interface, so you can get acquainted with Tupi's resources.

Note: As Tupi is a project in continuous development. it's likely that some options and components of the interface change often. Therefore, much of the information in this manual is subject to correction in the future.

The following picture shows a regular session of Tupi:

;#; Fig 4. Tupi's GUI ;#;

Now let's take a look at its main components:

;#; Fig 5. Diagram of Tupi's Components ;#;

1. Top Menu: It's the conventional menu located at the top of most desktop programs. It contains the general options of the software grouped by categories (File, Edit, Import, Window, Modules and Help).

;#; Fig 6. Top Menu ;#;

2. Top Toolbar: It's composed by the basic actions related to any Tupi project: Create, Open, Save, Save as, and Close current project.

;#; Fig 7. Top Toolbar ;#;

3. Workspace: It's the main application area where you design, create and visualize your animation projects. The workspace contains three modules separated by tabs:

;#; Fig 8. Workspace Tabs ;#;

• Animation Module: This module contains the canvas where you illustrate every frame of your animation project. Think of it as an embedded vector graphics editor with onion skin support and other handy tools.
• Player Module: This is a video player that allows you to preview your animation project anytime along your creation process.
• News Module: This is a complementary module that serves all the latest news about the project. Additionally, it informs you when a new version of Tupi has been released.

4. Left Toolbar: This component contains three expandable panels related to Animation module's features, specifically those related to the illustration process:

;#; Fig 9. Left Toolbar ;#;

• Color Palette: This panel contains the resources related to color management. From this resource, you can set the color of the brush for all the drawing tools, including the color of your scene background.
• Pen Properties: This panel contains all the settings related to the pen brush. Features like size and texture of the brush can be set from here.
• Objects Library: This panel contains the library manager for all the visual/audio objects of your animation projects. From here, you can import external items like images (JPG, PNG, GIF and SVG files) directly to the workspace.

5. Right Toolbar: This component contains two expandable panels related to the animation process, but focused on frames and scenes management:

;#; Fig 10. Right Toolbar ;#;

• Scenes Manager: this button displays a panel that allows the administration of the scenes that make up an animation. Still do not know what a scene? Do not worry, we'll discuss it later.
• Exposure Sheet: this button enable a panel that displays the “Exposure Sheet” of each scene. Although it sounds complex, this “sheet” is in fact, a list of frames which you will illustrate for your animation. Through this component, you can manage layers and frames in your project. Do you know what a layer is? Here is a simple definition: imagine you take a bit of red paint and cover a sheet of paper with the color and let dry, then apply green on the same page, wait a while and then apply blue. Although in the end, your paper will look like the last color you used, you really know that there are other colors below. Think of each of these colors, such as layers, ie, levels of paint define yourself on a frame. Layers are very useful to achieve some kind of effects and techniques you will discover with practice.
• Help Manual: This button displays the manual you're viewing right now.

6. Bottom Bar: on this region you will find a button, the option activated in this panel is Timeline. This tool, is used by many programs and stands as a standard method for keyframing and layering, it allows you to manage layers and frames, as well as a way to develop the pieces of your animation in real time.

;#; Fig 11. Bottom Sidebar ;#;

7. Properties Panel: This zone is created according to each of the different tools found on the sidebars or at the bottom of the workspace. Although the initial image (Fig. <b># 5</b>), the panel appears on the right side of the interface, depending on where you find the button you choose, you may receive it in the left side or even at the bottom. If you go back to click on the button initially selected, then the properties panel is closed.

8. Status Bar: located at the bottom of the program, this bar is currently only serving to deploy the coordinates (x, y) where is the mouse cursor as it moves over the “Workspace”in the Animation Module.

;#; Fig 12. Status Bar ;#;

;#; Back to Basic Manual ;#;