PAP Animators Community

[Jakob Frandsen]

Plastic Animation Paper 4.0 goes beta on Windows and Linux!


After a very long and thorough alpha testing period, we're proudly announcing the release of PAP 4.0 beta to our forum visitors!

PAP 4.0 is a huge improvement over the popular PAP 3.2. New editions and policies are in place as well as a new pricing scheme. Also, lots of new features have been added! In short, the professional edition is EUR695 and now supports zooming, panning, and rotating the sheet. Also, a free range of resolutions are supported, even 2K! There's a new look, a new keying system, lasso tool, and lots more. Download right now and see for yourself!

Where do I get it???

Download PAP 4.0 beta for Windows here:
http://www.plasticanimationpaper.dk/files/pap_v4_0beta.exe

Download PAP 4.0 beta for Linux here:
http://www.plasticanimationpaper.dk/files/linux/pap4_0beta.tar.bz2

Can I buy it now?

Yes, you can. Although it's a beta release, we feel quite comfortable about the stability and quality. If you purchase now, you're obviously getting a free upgrade to the final PAP 4.0 when it comes out (real soon now!)

What about the MacOS X version??

There's an early test version, and we hope to release an alpha version soon.

More details

Getting into more detail, PAP:Shareware, PAP:Broadcast, and PAP:Film no longer exist with PAP 4.0. Instead, we're presenting three new editions, all working out of the same install, making upgrading easy.

- PAP:Free: This edition is completely free, works end-to-end, saves, and never expires. It's just about the equivalent of PAP:Shareware 3.2.

- PAP:Home: Price: EUR149, although we're starting out with an offer of EUR99!! This is intended for the enthusiastic home user of PAP. It's got the blue pen, cutouts including a lasso tool, clones, advanced light setup screen, and lots more. It's more or less the equivalent of PAP:Broadcast 3.1 (or PAP:Broadcast 3.2 without the layers).

- PAP:Pro: Price: EUR695. Our top of the line product. It's got the brand new zoom tool, a new keyframing system, layers, and customizable resolutions. You know you want to try this out now, right?

Referral system

We've introduced a referral system, in which a PAP:Home license holder may get a free upgrade to PAP:Home+ (which will include real zoom functionality into PAP:Home) if he/she pursuades someone else to purchase a PAP 4.0 license. This is all explained to you once you purchase PAP:Home. And there's more - but you'll see..

Upgrades

If you're a PAP:Home license holder, you may upgrade to PAP:Pro at any time for the difference in price. PAP 3.2 license holders may upgrade to PAP:Pro for an upgrade fee of EUR200.


Known bugs

Yes, this is a beta version of PAP 4.0, so there are known bugs! Even so, we would like to hear from you if you're having trouble with anything..

Important known bugs are:

- Maximizing window will not make it get "stuck" and will not use full screen capability.
- Window can only be resized when on the main PAP screen.
- There may be update refresh problems with resolutions having odd widths.
- There are trouble with empty thumbnails in the layers view
- A bit of optimizing needed.

Please report bugs!
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Jakob Frandsen

[Jakob Frandsen]

Quick tutorial for New features in Plastic Animation Paper 4.0 beta

Zoom/rotate/pan feature

Start PAP:Pro. Press and hold down the 'Z' key. Under your pen/mouse, you will see this:



The hand in the middle is the pan area. Tap and drag the pen/mouse to reposition the sheet. The circle around the hand is the rotate area. Drag the green ball around to rotate sheet. Note that along the outer edge, the ball can snap into 0, 90, 180, and 270 degree angles. Pressing "0 degrees" above the circle is a quick way to bring the rotation back to normal. The circle in the upper right corner is the "reset" function. It resets the sheet to x1 zoom, 0 degree angle, and goes to the middle of the sheet. The small circles to the lower left are zooming presets. x1/2, x1, x2, x4, and x8 speak for themselves, and the star means "zoom out far enough for me to see the whole sheet with the current window size". The "arrow-shaped" + and - functions are for changing the zoom factor by dragging them left/right.

Release the Z key when you're done.


The New Size function

Use the function icon that looks like this to set a new sheet size:



You will then see the following popup. If you're running PAP:Free or PAP:Home, some options will be greyed out and are thus not accessible. Only PAP:Pro can use resolutions higher than PAL (720 x 576).



Using this popup, you can resize a current animation or just start over with a new sheet size.


New Keying System

In PAP:Pro, there's a new keyframe system. Press 'k' to toggle key on/off on the current frame. Press Shift-k to toggle key stepping mode. In key stepping mode, arrows keys will step only between keyframes - no matter if they are clones or not.

When you set a key, a small "key" symbol is shown on the frame in the X-strip.


Lots more...

There's lots more, for instance:

- The GUI and buttons have gotten a revamp for a better overall user experience.
- Lasso tool for easier cutouts.
- Freely resizable window.
- Possible to set negative sound offset.
- etc..
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Jakob Frandsen

[bobtronic]

this is great news, I always held off to buy PAP because of some nasty limitations in the sharware edition but the new Home edition looks like a winner. thanks, will check the beta

regards,
Bob

[steveblake]

Congratulations on this new Zoom/Rotate/Pan feature!!

Very nice.
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regards,
Steve Blake
www.mrblake.com