Off-screen drawing and alias (alpha)
Updated: 03/25/2025
This page contains statements regarding the alpha version.
This section describes the [Off-screen drawing] and [Alias] functions.
| Off-screen drawing (1) Conventional (2) Off-screen drawing | Alias |
 |  |
Off-screen drawing
About off-screen drawing
Off-screen drawing is the ability to draw multiple objects in memory and then transfer them to the canvas.
Via in-memory drawing, the following expressions are possible.
- After multiple objects are drawn, the overall opacity can be changed.
- After multiple objects are drawn, all the objects can be clipped.
- After multiple objects are drawn, Multiply Color or Screen Color is applied to all the objects.
- After multiple objects are drawn, the blend mode can be applied to all the objects.
Target objects
Off-screen drawing is set on an object-by-object basis.
The following two types of objects can be set.
- Part(s)
- Alias
How to use
Enabling off-screen drawing for parts draws in memory the objects in the part.
Enabling off-screen drawing for aliases draws in memory the referenced object of the alias.
When the alias references a part, if the part’s off-screen drawing is enabled, the content to be transferred to the canvas is drawn in memory; if off-screen drawing is disabled, the objects in the part are drawn in memory.
Whenever off-screen drawing is enabled for parts, the draw order group is enabled.
The draw order group cannot be changed while off-screen drawing is enabled.
Setup method
How to set up off-screen drawing:
Settings are made in the inspector palette.
- Select the “part” or “alias” for which you wish to make settings.
- Select the [Off-screen drawing] (1) checkbox in the inspector palette.
- Items below [Off-screen drawing] (2) will be enabled, allowing each setting to be changed.
- At the same time, the [Grouping] (3) checkbox is automatically selected.
| Part (off-screen drawing disabled) | Part (off-screen drawing enabled) |
|---|---|
 |  |
Icon for off-screen drawing:
The icon of the grouped off-screen drawing parts will change to the following icon.
Inspector configuration
The inspector palette for each object is shown below.
| Number | Item | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Off-screen drawing | When this checkbox is selected, off-screen drawing is enabled. Once it is enabled, items 2 and beyond can be changed. Also, the [Grouping] checkbox is automatically selected. |
| 2 | Clipping ID | Specify the clipping ID. Used when a drawing in memory is transferred to the canvas. Only the IDs of the drawable objects can be specified. IDs for parts and aliases cannot be specified. |
| 3 | Invert Mask | If checked, mask inversion is applied. |
| 4 | Opacity | Change opacity. Used when a drawing in memory is transferred to the canvas. |
| 5 | Multiply Color | Change the color for multiplication composition. Used when a drawing in memory is transferred to the canvas. |
| 6 | Screen Color | Change the color of the screen composition. Used when a drawing in memory is transferred to the canvas. |
| 7 | Color Blend | Change the RGB composition method. Used when a drawing in memory is transferred to the canvas. |
| 8 | Alpha Blend | Change the alpha composition method. Used when a drawing in memory is transferred to the canvas. |
Parameter support
Off-screen drawing is also available for parameters.
You can set keys in parameters for the following settings.
- Opacity
- Multiply Color
- Screen Color
Precautions
Off-screen drawing does not support PSD import/export.
Settings such as the Photoshop group’s rendering mode and opacity are ignored when imported into the Editor. Also, off-screen drawing settings on the Editor side are not applied to the Photoshop groups.
Alias
About aliases
An alias is a function that references a drawable object or part and redraws the referenced object in the draw order of the alias.
It is intended to be used when you want to use a certain ArtMesh as a separate mask as well.
The following example of use illustrates how to use an alias to achieve an expression in which the model’s eyes are visible through its bangs.
Example of Use
If you want to make eyes visible through bangs:
With the model shown below, one way to achieve the expression of the eyes being visible through the bangs is to create translucent eyes, place them in the foremost plane, and then clip with the bangs.
With conventional Cubism, trying to achieve this requires two ArtMeshes, one for normal eyes and one for translucent eyes.
Illustration of the draw order with an alias:
The figure below shows the objects needed to achieve the expression of the eyes being visible through the bangs, arranged in draw order.
Translucent eyes are placed in front of the bangs, and an alias is used here.
The alias in the figure below references the ArtMesh for the eyes behind the bangs, and redraws the referenced ArtMesh in the draw order of the alias.
Aliases have an off-screen drawing feature, which is used to reduce opacity.
 | (1) Alias (2) The ArtMesh that the alias refers to |
Composite result:
The translucent eyes placed in front of the bangs are composited with the bangs using the off-screen drawing feature, with Alpha Blend in blend mode set to Atop.
The translucent eyes placed in front of the bangs and the eyes behind the bangs refer to the same form, so simply form-editing the eyes behind the bangs will result in the same form for the translucent eyes.
Precautions
Aliases only redraw the referenced object in a different draw order and do not change its position. For this reason, aliases cannot be used to duplicate an object that performs the same movement and place it in a different position.
Creation method
Creation of aliases:
Aliases are created in the Parts palette.
- Select the object to which the alias will refer and press the “Create Alias” button at the bottom of the Parts palette.
- The [Alias] will be placed on top of the target object.
| 1: Select “EyeL.” | 2: Create “EyeL alias.” |
|---|---|
 |  |
Alias icon:
The icon of objects with aliases changes to that shown below.
Adjustment in off-screen drawing:
Once the alias is created, the effects are added in [Off-screen drawing].
When the created alias is selected, the inspector palette has a checkbox for [Off-screen drawing].
If this checkbox is selected, the [Off-screen drawing] items can be changed.
Creation example:
Setting the opacity of [Off-screen drawing] in the inspector palette will result in the following appearance.
Target objects
There are two types of objects for which aliases can be created.
- Drawable objects (ArtMesh, ArtPath)
- Part(s)
If a part is an alias, the objects in the part are drawn according to the draw order in the part.
Drawing of an alias that references a part is not interrupted by drawing of objects outside the part.
Inspector configuration
The inspector palette displays the following items when an alias is selected.
| Number | Item | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name | You can change the name of the alias. Japanese can also be used. |
| 2 | ID | Change IDs. Only single-byte alphanumeric characters and _ (underscore symbol) characters can be used. |
| 3 | Part(s) | Change the part to which it belongs. [Root Part] indicates that it does not belong to any part. |
| 4 | Reference | Change the ID of the drawable object or part that the alias refers to. You cannot enter IDs for objects that do not exist in the model. If the referenced object is deleted, the alias will be in the no-reference state and this setting will be empty. |
| 5 | Draw order | Change the order in which the alias is drawn. Drag within the text box to change the value. You can enter a numeric value directly or specify increments of 10 or 100 from the pop-up menu that appears when you click the [•] button to the right. Alternatively, it can be changed by dragging on the draw order edit bar to the left of the View area. |
| 6 | Off-screen drawing | When this checkbox is selected, off-screen drawing is enabled. See “Off-screen drawing” for more information on off-screen drawing. |
When alias references are invalid
Aliases can cause circular references due to the mechanism by which parts can be referenced.
For example, if an alias that references a part is placed inside that part, as shown in the figure below, the structure will result in an infinite drawing loop.
In such a structure, to avoid an infinite drawing loop, the alias will not be drawn a second time or later and will be displayed in the Parts palette or inspector palette in a manner that indicates that the alias is in an invalid state.
| Error indication on Parts palette | Error indication on inspector palette |
|---|---|
 |  |
Also, aliases are operationally restricted so that they cannot be created without a reference, but they can lose references when the referenced object is deleted, for example.
In this case, too, alias drawing is skipped so that the drawing does not stop due to drawing errors, and the Parts palette and inspector palette indicate the invalid state in the same way as in the circular reference mentioned above.
Restrictions
The alpha version describes some unimplemented features, known defects, and other items of concern that should be specifically noted.
Normally, these limitations will be dealt with when upgrading from the alpha version, but this is not guaranteed.
Off-screen drawing
Performance:
Off-screen drawing is a slightly high-load mechanism because it draws objects in memory before transferring them.
Therefore, heavy use may affect performance and result in insufficient FPS.
Currently, this feature is not limited, but we will consider whether to do so in the future as a performance guideline.
In conjunction with this, we are also continuing to optimize this feature.
Export Files for Embedded Use:
The alpha version does not support exporting files for embedded use.
Enabling off-screen drawing results in a slight shift in drawing:
We have confirmed a bug in which when off-screen drawing is enabled, the drawing is slightly shifted from the position before the setting change.
This defect will be corrected before the full version is released.
Alias
Export Files for Embedded Use:
The alpha version does not support exporting files for embedded use.
CSV Export/Import:
The alpha version does not support CSV import/export of aliases. This will be addressed in the full version.
Undo/Redo cannot be performed for some properties of aliases:
We have confirmed a bug that prevents the use of the Undo/Redo command for alias Opacity, Multiply Color, and Screen Color.
This defect will be corrected before the full version is released.