One thing I’ve noticed about Pencil2D is that it has the old-school 3D-esque shaded feel and look to it, instead of everything being flat. Here’s my question for the community. Should the devs redesign the style to be minimalist like everything else in this world or keep it 2010-style esque?
0 voters
Admittedly, I don’t think the design of the software matters as much in the long run; Here’s what it would look like (A very lazy mockup, but close enough): (Or something even more simple)
Dang, you just did that today?
Yes. I whipped it up quickly
I dislike flat design with all my heart and overall think it goes against all sensible design and usability guidelines that has been used and respected for years before we went into the “everything has to look different or flat and pretty”
We have a proposal for more stylistic icons awaiting approval but they’re not minimalistic.
Just because most takes the minimalistic approach, does not mean we have to follow it.
But you’re free to have your own opinion of course 
As long as the software is functional and has an accessible UI (which Pencil2D does), then it’s fine by me. A new look is always pretty awesome, like when I updated my LMMS, but, “I don’t think the design of the software matters as much in the long run.” With LMMS these were the changes
from this:
to this:
This was the inspiration for my mockup; Whichever of these styles you like better, is the one you may prefer for Pencil 2D (unless you don’t have a preference, like me).
I don’t have the hatred for flat design that @MrStevns seems to have, but I don’t think they are the best for Pencil2D either. Flat designs are sometimes associated with “simplicity”, and while Pencil2D has been build to be simple to be relatively simple to use, I would argue there is a big difference between “simplicity of design” and “simplicity of use”. The “3D-esque shading” is detail which in my opinion when properly used can provide more information to the user and make it easier for the user to interpret the symbols and understand intuitively how to use the program. This is especially important for our goals of accessibility, as objects may look different in different parts of the world and symbols may be interpreted differently by different people and between cultures. The more information you give someone, the less room for ambiguity. The flip side is that if it’s too complex it can become difficult to understand again, and perhaps even distracting. I think the current tool icons strike a pretty good balance, but there are certainly icons elsewhere that could use improvement (the duplicate keyframe button being perhaps one of my biggest pet peeves design-wise).
The proposal referred to earlier is here in case you want to take a look at it. However, there is still lots of work to be done on it and the original contributor seems to have lost interest in it. I’m not a fan of the more cartoonish look it has currently, and I am not optimistic that it will ever get to a finished enough state for full inclusion into Pencil2D, but perhaps at least parts of it will be used.
I like minimal design for the most part. Not the ‘pringles can’, but I enjoy most simplified designs. Plus, this very website is minimalist, flat buttons and the like. I like its interface. I kinda don’t care about the icon itself, it’s pretty good already but I would like to see the proposals.
You seemed to do the “dark mode” route which is what I wasn’t talking about
Eh… I like the design and HUD or whatever you wanna call it for Pencil2D already cuz it’s simple. You press ‘b’ on your keyboard and you get a brush. You start drawing. You duplicate or add. It’s so simple. As for other programs like Krita and Opentoonz, you get bombarded with options and clicks and buttons, everything is gray and black like Photoshop. On Pencil2D, you get enough options to make a sophisticated and awesome animation, without slowing down your machine (I run a basic laptop.) Wouldn’t say the simplified or dynamic design has anything to do with it.
Yea I saw the proposals for the most part and my only problem is, is that the designs look kinda fat. Like they’re too wide. It’s odd
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