Option to Display key commands on screen when used

Boldline

I was inspired by a great comment @Victor-Vector made in @Devil-Dinosaur 's awesome perspective tutorial about finding a way to display on-screen in real time, the keyboard commands he was using in his video.

@Victor-Vector said in Perspective tricks in VectorStyler:

If you have the ability in future videos to show your keyboard commands that would be very handy for the viewer,

What if this feature was added to VS directly? It would be a great option for new users wanting to reinforce their understanding of the keyboard shortcuts because they pop up each time one is used - but it also helps someone in the teacher role - watching their students' steps to see what they are doing. It makes it easier when doing videos for bug reports, creating videos that ask the forum their questions and for creating tutorials. There are a lot of practical uses for this feature. The groundwork for it is already in VS because we can turn on popups for information and we use it automatically when using the keyboard numbers to set the opacity - the new opacity amount pops up temporarily.

If someone wants to record a video tutorial or show a bug issue or just reinforce the key commands to themselves, they turn the feature on and can turn it off later when done.

I think this could eventually be tied in with the ability to record the VS screen similar to what programs like Procreate and Clip Studio pro do currently. (I believe they record each step in the process for a time-lapse result at the end.)

To me, this topic is related to finding ways to easily market VS material to the world - the more we can smooth out that process, the better the results. The key commands popping up on screen in real time is one step that makes creating and understanding while consuming VS content easier. being able to save out clips using the history panel at some point in the future would be another....

VectorStyler

@Boldline I think the model for this would be similar to how Undo / Redo notifications are displayed at the center of the view.

Yes, this could be done, maybe add the action name next to the shortcut ?

Subpath

@Boldline

Nice Idea

Subpath

@vectoradmin

Would it be possible for the place where the key commands are located to be freely positionable?

Boldline

@Subpath thanks! it was a group effort!

VectorStyler

@Subpath How would that placing happen from the users point of view?

Subpath

@vectoradmin

I don't know what would be possible in VS.
But in "Keypress-osd" (Win only) I can move the text field freely.
Video: see here

In VS maybe a few positions ?

VectorStyler

@Subpath @Boldline And another question: how long it would be shown on screen? In VS, the Undo/Redo info popup fades away in a short time.

Subpath

@vectoradmin

I did a test, and as you can see in the recording. Both messages are
displayed almost at the same time.

So I think the way the undo messages are displayed now would fit.

Recording: Messages

I would say that the function to display keys in VS can be a simple one.
If users want to have more advanced options they should use a tool like
"keypress-osd" (win) or "KeyCastr with the Svelte visualizer" (mac, as @b77 has mentioned).

Boldline

@vectoradmin
I agree it does not need to be as advanced as the two dedicated programs mentioned earlier in the thread
That said, if it's not too complicated to do a little more than the basics, I think that should be considered.
checking out the two programs, there are some great control features I'm sure people would like.
For example, being able to change the color of the text background and the mouse click indicator- even tying their color to the layer color is interesting.
The ability to customize the length of time the displayed shortcut is on screen, the size of the displayed text, etc.

https://github.com/keycastr/keycastr/blob/main/assets/mouse-click-visualizer.gif