Sure, that would help a lot! Basically, for this fund raiser we need the widest audience of artists who would like to use Krita and see it improve. Anythng that spreads the word around the world, especially if it reaches people who aren't yet aware of the existence of open source art software, is going to be a tremendous help.

Tutorials is a great way to promote Krita. I have recorded several sessions in the past, and prepare some more now to upload on youtube.
If someone has the time, little videos focusing on specific tasks, like brush creation, using ruler assistants, ui costumization etc. would be great.

Charblaze wrote:

odysseus-art wrote:Maybe we do not yet have a major breakthrough like this in Krita's features. However, defining better where this is heading and what we want to do with this software will be crucial. For example, an implementation of Verve's amazing organic paints would be a serious card for Krita. Serious enough to be considered by a wider audience.

I agree but it wouldn't work well with Krita. Verve can afford it's amazing organic paints by disregarding pretty much everything else. In Krita you would probably end up with an unpolished feature that doesn't really stand out, unless you drop the development of everything else. There aren't enough resources to do a totally new, highly polished, killer feature and develop other areas. It's smarter to polish and fix what's already there, and add features that work well and complement existing ones (so the end results is much more than the sum of the parts), as Krita devs are already doing.

I am absolutely with you in this one. For my work it will be enough to have the existing features fully functional - transform tool, fix the jaggy quality of the brush strokes, better layer handling and some improvements in the color panels.
Krita is already a very good alternative to painter, which still has terrible vector tools and several unresolved issues since version 1. It does not yet substitute basic functions that are very easily done in photoshop, but it is going there.

Verve came out as an idea to expand the field, and maybe bring more resources on board: maybe the developer would be interested to contribute, for example. Of course it is up to Krita's developers to judge the difficulty of such a task.

What I would also like is for someone to step and maintain a sort of directory of tutorials, videos and so on krita.org. We have the resources page, but it could be much better -- and I cannot keep that up all by myself, I need help.

What would that involve? I am willing to help with this one, but my web design knowledge is very limited.

odysseus-art wrote:What would that involve? I am willing to help with this one, but my web design knowledge is very limited.

You don't typically need web design skills. Krita.org uses a content managing system, called Joomla, which makes updating the website as easy as updating your status on facebook.
The reason that Boudewijn wants to delegate it is simply a matter of time-shortage. No time to find Krita tutorials, no time to check if they are already on the website, no time to make the links, no time to check if any links are dead, and probably not the brain-power to make sure that the english written is coherent.

Thanks TheraHedwig,

If this is the case, I am up to maintain the tutorial section - except if someone is better suited for the job!

It definitely is the case... I am trying to combine coding, maintainership, fund raising, day job, gsoc wrangling and more... And that is just not sustainable... I do need help.

Another thing I need help with is website redesign: krita.org is a mess again and the layout is badly broken...

Why don't you make a separate thread called "Help Boudewijn maintain Krita.org"?
Seriously...

Yes, I will do that -- create a thread asking for help with the website.

Tomorrow Sven and I will go to Voerde to meet up with Björn to do some interview stuff for the fund raiser video.

From the discussion here and on #krita, I've got a pretty good idea for making a plan consisting of several topic, every topic about half a month of work (1250). I'll be writing on that plan in the train to Voerde, since that's 2.5 hours anyway...

As noted above, we want to reach artists, so perks that consist of artwork in one way or another probably won't do a lot and might not be worth the effort.

As for reaching out, once we've got something up, I'll push and poke everyone to make sure the news reaches websites outside the free software community.

More plans on Sunday.

Sven and me had an awesome session with Bjoern doing talking heads video stuff for the promo video... Bjoern is going to cut and paste that together with existing videos and artwork into something really engaging. If Dmitry can find someone to record him introducing himself, that will be included, too!

I've decided to cut up the sponsored topics into 24 topics: 12 for Dmitry, 12 for Sven, making the total fund raiser effort 30.000 euros (which is a lot, but it's only, for example, 5 euros per Steam voter...). We'll first fund Dmitry, then Sven -- since this effort started with funding Dmitry. But Sven just finished his thesis, and he _has_ ten years of experience working on Krita, so the opportunity is to good to pass up!

For the financial side, it seems after discussion on #krita, that Paypal offers a nice and suitable widget, which means we won't have to give money to Indiegogo, Kickstarter or Pledgie, which is always nice.

Oh -- and I still need help with making the fund raiser page! I've got some draft texts, but we're not there yet.

I'd like some input on the priority of the topic list.

1. Cage Transform
2. Liquify
3. Perspective transform
4. Anti-aliasing (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333172)
5. Transform selections instead of selected pixels
6. adaptive transform/resynthesize
7. HDR color selectors
8. Transform Mask/Layer (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332054)
9. Thin Line Quality
10. Editable File Layer
11. Color correction on the GPU
12. Fill non-closed areas with the fill tool
13. PSD filter improvements: implement Layer Styles
14. Vector object scaling and resolution (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330636)
15. Add images to the experiment brush (from svg or pdf)
16. Make selections out of vector shapes (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332389)
17. Blur Brush improvements (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333227)
18. Cutout filter (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333168)
19. Make the transform tool transform assistants
20. Improve the overview docker to add zoom, rotate and pan
21. resource packs and resource managger
22. Goodies and gimmes I
1. mask preview
2. isolate mask
23. Goodies and Gimmes II
1. split alpha (more general, finish the split and reassemble plugin I started)
2. locking or lazy updating of asjustment layer
24. Goodies and Gimmes III
1. improved png compression
2. lazy mouse for straight lines (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=331344)
25. MVC

Hm... I think it's best to order the list in use-cases:

*) Concept artists - Artist which are buzy with the design and feel of images. (Emphasize on rough idea creation and not finished products)
-Cage transform(for rough manipulation)
-Perspective transform
-Tranforms selections
-Transform mask/layer
-Editable file layer(example, you have a character sheet. You take one view and put it into a file-layer and have the character sheet reference it. You make another character sheet, and reference that one view that has been referenced in the first file-layer. Going back and making changes in the first character-sheet will allow editing that one view as well, and have everything up-to-date!)
-Color correction on the GPU(Speedboost)
-Fill non-closed areas with the fill tool
-PSD filter improvements: implement Layer Styles
-Add images to the experiment brush (from svg or pdf)
-MVC
-Improve the overview docker to add zoom, rotate and pan
-resource packs and resource managger
-Make the transform tool transform assistants
-Cutout filter
-Blur Brush improvements

*) 2d Production artists - Artists which are buzy with the actual production of images, eg. comic book artists, illustrators or advertisement artists.
-Liquify
-Perspective transform
-Anti-aliasing
-Transform selections
-Transform mask/layer
-Thin line quality
-Editable file layer
-Color correction on the GPU(Speedboost)
-Fill non-closed areas with the fill tool
-PSD filter improvements: implement Layer Styles
-MVC
-Goodies and gimmes I
-Improve the overview docker to add zoom, rotate and pan
-resource packs and resource manager
-Goodies and Gimmes II
-Goodies and Gimmes III
-Make the transform tool transform assistants
-Blur Brush improvements
-Make selections out of vector shapes
-Vector object scaling and resolution

*) Texture artists.
-Cage transform(for adjusting a piece of texture to fit neatly alongside the UVs.)
-Anti-aliasing
-Transform selections
-Adaptive transform
-HDR colour selectors
-Transform mask/layer
-Thin line quality
-Editable file layer
-Color correction on the GPU(Speedboost)
-PSD filter improvements: implement Layer Styles
-Goodies and gimmes I
-MVC
-resource packs and resource manager
-Goodies and Gimmes II
-Goodies and Gimmes III
-Make the transform tool transform assistants
-Blur Brush improvements
-Make selections out of vector shapes
-Vector object scaling and resolution

*) Image manipulators
-Cage transform
-Perspective transform
-Transform selections
-Adaptive transform
-HDR colour selectors
-Transform mask/layer
-Editable file layer
-Color correction on the GPU(Speedboost)
-PSD filter improvements: implement Layer Styles
-Goodies and gimmes I
-MVC
-resource packs and resource managger
-Goodies and Gimmes II
-Goodies and Gimmes III
-Blur Brush improvements
-Make selections out of vector shapes

I have a train-trip with internet tomorrow, so if you could send me the draft-texts per e-mail I can read them and give feedback?

Great list. TheraHedwig, good idea to group them like this. However, each artist has a more or less unique approach and their own workflow, so there can be much argument over the priorities for each "artist group". For example, the brush stroke quality or the functionality of the transform tool are equally important for each of these groups. Perhaps it is a good idea to group the functions instead, like this:


BRUSH:
9. Thin Line Quality
2. lazy mouse for straight lines (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=331344)
15. Add images to the experiment brush (from svg or pdf)
17. Blur Brush improvements (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333227)

TRANSFORM TOOL:
1. Cage Transform
3. Perspective transform
5. Transform selections instead of selected pixels
6. adaptive transform/resynthesize
8. Transform Mask/Layer (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332054)
4. Anti-aliasing (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333172)
19. Make the transform tool transform assistants

LAYERS:
10. Editable File Layer
13. PSD filter improvements: implement Layer Styles
2. locking or lazy updating of asjustment layer
1. mask preview
2. isolate mask

OVERAL FUNCTIONS:
12. Fill non-closed areas with the fill tool
7. HDR color selectors
11. Color correction on the GPU

FILTERS:
2. Liquify
18. Cutout filter (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333168)
1. split alpha (more general, finish the split and reassemble plugin I started)

VECTOR:
14. Vector object scaling and resolution (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=330636)
16. Make selections out of vector shapes (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=332389)

OVERAL FUNCTIONS:
20. Improve the overview docker to add zoom, rotate and pan
21. resource packs and resource manager
1. improved png compression
25. MVC
22. Goodies and gimmes I
23. Goodies and Gimmes II
24. Goodies and Gimmes III


_______________________________


As soon as we agree on the grouping, a poll in the forum would be nice

TheraHedwig wrote:Hm... I think it's best to order the list in use-cases:

Good point -- though that means overlap, which means it might best be done in the blurb.

TheraHedwig wrote:I have a train-trip with internet tomorrow, so if you could send me the draft-texts per e-mail I can read them and give feedback?

I'll send it now, sorry for looking at the forum so late.

boudewijn wrote:For the financial side, it seems after discussion on #krita, that Paypal offers a nice and suitable widget, which means we won't have to give money to Indiegogo, Kickstarter or Pledgie, which is always nice.

But those sites have a community used to donate. In other words you get money both from Krita and Kistarter/Indiegogo/whatever community. It's still worth to get in contact with those sites and ask their support team for an estimate of how much you can raise (yes, they can give you a rough estimate). If they say that for Krita reaching and surpassing 30k€ is very likely, going with them may be better for the added revenue out-weighting the costs.

boudewijn wrote:I'd like some input on the priority of the topic list.

One of the perks for donating could be voting features priority. They could vote the list, development area (brush engine, layers, etc.), or the devs choose each time 2-3 features/issues and donors vote what should tackled on first.

Anyway I believe any issue and bug pertaining the core painting system should be worked alongside new features development. I'm talking about issues like:
* Thin Line Quality
* Blur Brush improvements (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=333227)
* Correct brush spacing when rotation is enabled (https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=329026)

A little off the topic from video and current fundraising , yet I thought I'd share some ideas on gathering some extra income,,

1. sponsored ads.
Fire Alpaca uses clickable ads during beginning of loading program that link to an art college, Finding good sponsors could be challenging I suppose.

2. partnerships with Image Services.
Perhaps partnership with online print on demand services like, cafepress, Kablam, or integration features for online freelancing sites where working artist do contract work, etc. could generate extra income if partner is willing to pay for each upload to site via Krita direct upload to site.

3. freelance working artist features.
Integrate features into Krita to allow quick use of paypal for contract art jobs and transactions ,
tools for organizing client information. chat features and messaging for clients to comment on artwork.
Perhaps having a feature that records artwork creation time and calculates artist hourly rates or contract rates and calculates a small percentage fee for Krita or Donation Option if desired.
This would be handy for an Artist who does paid commission work for clients on sites such as DeviantArt. and forums etc.
Clients could see work they are paying for.
plus could provide a more steady income for both artist and Krita Developers.

4. (Shamelessly Cute donation pop up.)
Another possible way to generate some income is to create a smaller monthly goal graph pop-up that shows when krita loads, showing smaller goals, breaking up monetary needs into smaller segments to make in appear less imposing to individual donors.
graph could show Krita Mascot in various moods depending on amount of money donated,
lets face it who could refuse feeding the Krita Mascot lol. helps humanize the donation process and make it fun.

plus acts as a reminder that Krita is maintained by hardworking developers.