Non-Destructive Editing/Smart Objects Support
Operating System: Any
Description of the feature
Commercial graphics editors, likes Photoshop, allow applying filters in chain, without modifying original image copy. They also allow using original image as a source for several layers, automatically propagating all-changes from original image to its filtered copies.
Use cases
- Any relatively complex editing can be greatly simplified by non-destructive editing. For example, you want to create a tileset for your video game. You take 3 photos, grass, mud and water. Grass transitions to mud, and mud to water. You use filters to generate these transitions. Now you find that some of the photos palette don't really match your art style, so you manipulate original photos or just replace them, and the dependent transitions are autoupdated, without tedious reapplying filters manually.
- The same transition tiles layers can be arranged into a preview scene, like in tiled map editor, allowing artist to immediately sees how they look ingame.
- Many PSD files use smart objects, and to import them properly you need non-destructive editing support in GIMP.
Edited by Nikita Sadkov