Offscreen drawing / Alias (alpha)
Updated: 03/25/2025
This page contains statements regarding the alpha version.
This section describes the offscreen drawing and Alias functions.
| Offscreen drawing (1) Conventional (2) Offscreen drawing | Alias |
 |  |
Offscreen drawing
About offscreen drawing
Offscreen drawing is a feature that allows multiple objects to be drawn once in memory and then transferred to the canvas.
Via in-memory drawing, the following expressions are possible.
- After drawing multiple objects, change the opacity of the whole.
- Clipping the entire object after drawing multiple objects.
- After drawing multiple objects, apply multiply or screen colors to the entire object.
- After drawing multiple objects, apply blend mode to the entire object.
Object
Offscreen drawing is set on an object-by-object basis.
The following two objects can be set
- Part
- Alias
How to use
Enabling offscreen drawing for a part draws the objects in the part in memory.
Enabling offscreen drawing of aliases draws the referenced object of the alias in memory.
If the alias references a part, then if the part’s offscreen 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 offscreen drawing is enabled for a part, the drawing order group is enabled. The drawing order group cannot be changed while offscreen drawing is enabled.
Setup Method
How to set up offscreen drawing:
Settings are made in the inspector palette.
- select the “part” or “alias” for which you wish to make settings.
- Check offscreen drawing in the inspector palette.
- The items below offscreen drawing (②) will be enabled and each setting can be changed.
- At the same time, Grouping is automatically checked.
| Part (offscreen drawing disabled) | Part (offscreen drawing enabled) |
|---|---|
 |  |
Icons for offscreen drawing:
The grouped offscreen drawing parts will change to the following icons
Inspector Configuration
The inspector palette for each object is shown below.
| Number | Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Offscreen drawing | When checked, off-screen drawing is enabled. Once offscreen drawing is enabled, items 2 and beyond can be changed. Also, grouping is automatically checked. |
| 2 | Clipping ID | Specify the clip ID. Used to transfer a drawing in memory to canvas. Only the ID of the drawing object can be specified. IDs for parts and aliases cannot be specified. |
| 3 | Reverse mask | If checked, mask inversion is applied. |
| 4 | Opacity | Changes opacity. Used to transfer a drawing in memory to canvas. |
| 5 | Multiply Color | Changes the color for multiply composite. Used to transfer a drawing in memory to canvas. |
| 6 | Screen Color | Changes the color of the screen composite. Used to transfer a drawing in memory to canvas. |
| 7 | Color blend | Change the RGB composition method. Used to transfer a drawing in memory to canvas. |
| ８ | Alpha Blend | Change the alpha composition method. Used to transfer a drawing in memory to canvas. |
Parameter
Offscreen drawing is also available for parameters.
You can key in parameters for the following settings
- Opacity
- Multiply Color
- Screen Color
Notes
Offscreen drawing does not support PSD import/export.
Settings such as the Photoshop group’s drawing mode and opacity are ignored when imported into the editor. Also, offscreen drawing settings on the editor side are not reflected in the photoshop group.
Alias
About Alias
An alias is a function that references a drawing object or part and redraws the referenced object in the drawing order of the alias.
It is intended to be used when you want to use a certain ArtMesh as a separate mask as well.
As an example of use, the following illustrates how to use aliasing to achieve a transparent expression of eyes in the forelock.
Usage Example
If you want your eyes to show through your bangs:
In the model below, to make the eyes transparent through the bangs, translucent eyes can be created, placed in the foremost plane, and clipped by the bangs.
With conventional Cubism, trying to achieve this requires two art meshes, one for normal eyes and one for translucent eyes.
Illustration of drawing order with aliases:
The figure below shows the objects needed to achieve the expression of eyes through bangs, arranged in drawing order.
Translucent eyes are to be placed in front of the bangs, and aliasing is used here.
The alias in the figure below references the art mesh for the eyes behind the bangs, and redraws the referenced art mesh in the order in which the alias is drawn. Alias have an Offscreen drawing feature, which is used to reduce opacity
 | (1) Alias (2) The art mesh that the alias refers to |
Synthesis Results:
The translucent eyes placed in front of the bangs are composited with the bangs using the Offscreen drawing feature, with the alpha blend in blend mode set to Atop.
The translucent eyes placed in front of the fringe and the eyes behind the fringe refer to the same form, so simply form-editing the eyes behind the fringe will result in the same form for the translucent eyes.
Notes
Alias only redraw the referenced object in a different drawing order and do not change its position. For this reason, it cannot be used to duplicate an object that performs the same movement and place it in a different position.
How to create
Creation of alias:
Alias 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 “left eye.” | 2: Creation of “left eye alias |
|---|---|
 |  |
Alias icon:
Alias objects change to the following icons
Adjustment in Offscreen drawing:
Once the alias is created, the effect is added in Offscreen drawing
When the created alias is selected, the Inspector palette has a checkbox for Offscreen drawing.
If checked, the Offscreen drawing item can be changed.
Creation Example:
The opacity of the Offscreen drawing in the Inspector palette will have the following appearance.
Object
There are two objects for which aliases can be created
- Drawing objects (art mesh, art path)
- Part
If the part is an alias, the objects in the part are drawn according to the drawing order in the part.
While drawing an alias that references a part, objects outside the part are not interrupted and drawn.
Inspector Configuration
The following is what the inspector palette will look like when an alias is selected.
| Number | Item | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name | You can change the name of the alias. Japanese is also available. |
| 2 | ID | Change ID. Only single-byte alphanumeric characters and _ (underscore) characters can be used. |
| 3 | Part | Change the part to which it belongs. [Root Part] does not belong to any part. |
| 4 | referent | Changes the ID of the drawing 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 | Changes the order in which aliases are drawn. Drag within the text box to change the value. You can enter a numerical value directly or specify 10 or 100 increments from the pop-up that appears when you click on the […] button to the right. Alternatively, it can be changed by dragging on the drawing order edit bar to the left of the view area. |
| 6 | Offscreen drawing | When checked, off-screen drawing is enabled. See offscreen drawing for more information on offscreen drawing. |
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 within that part, as shown in the following figure, the structure will result in an infinite drawing loop.
In such a structure, to avoid an infinite loop of drawing, the alias will not be drawn a second time or later, and will be displayed in the parts palette or inspector palette to indicate that it is in an invalid state.
| Error indication in the parts palette | Error indication in inspect palette |
|---|---|
 |  |
Also, aliases are operationally restricted so that they cannot be created without a reference, but they can become unreferenced by deleting the referenced object, for example.
In this case, too, alias drawing is skipped so that the drawing does not stop due to drawing errors, and the part palette and inspector palette display the invalid state in the same way as in the previous circular reference.
Restrictions
This alpha version describes some unimplemented features, known defects, and other items of concern that should be specifically noted.
Normally, the restrictions will be lifted by upgrading the alpha version, but this is not guaranteed.
Offscreen drawing
performance:
Offscreen drawing is a slightly more demanding mechanism because it is drawn in memory and then transcribed.
Therefore, heavy use may affect performance and result in insufficient FPS.
Currently, we do not have a limit, but will consider whether to set one in the future as a performance guideline.
In conjunction with this, we will also proceed with optimization.
Export For Runtime:
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 that when off-screen drawing is enabled, the drawing is slightly shifted compared to before the change.
This defect will be corrected before the production version.
Alias
Export For Runtime:
The alpha version does not support exporting files for embedded use.
CSV import/export:
The alpha version does not support CSV import/export of aliases.
This will be addressed in the product version.
Some properties of alias cannot be Undo/Redo:
We have confirmed a bug that prevents Undo/Redo for Alias opacity, multiply color, and screen color.
This defect will be corrected before the production version.