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Digital Painting - Brush Opacity Pressure


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Hello Affinity,

 

I'm so glad to see an app like this in the marketplace. However, I can't use it for digital painting and illustration yet because of one MAJOR missing feature: Tablet pressure controlled opacity with the paint brush. As it stands you can set pressure on brush size and flow (among other things) but for digital painters opacity is the most important pressure control you can have. I'd say it's pretty darn important for retouchers as well. Please add this feature soon, because as of now Affinity Photo is unusable for me.

 

Thanks!

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  • 3 months later...

It will arrive, but in the mean time there is a trick to obtain a very similar effect.

You have to think in "grayscale"  ;)

  1. Create a 512x512px light gray (75%) square as Texture
  2. Create a 1024px file for the nozzle shape, using a a similar level of gray for its fill, but add some noise.
  3. Make a new intensity brush using this nozzle and apply texture to nozzle
  4. Give a flow of 6-8% , linear Jitter to 100% and set spacing to 2%

Your base is done, now set Wet Edges On and you're done.

Do not use all available pen pressure (to keep wet edges modulation low).

 

fakeOpacityJitter.png

 

 

Ok, I know it is not an Opacity Jitter but the final result pretty similar.

Hope this will help you.

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bumping this, I didn't even know AD/AP was missing this, I always assumed it had it because it seemed otherwise pretty well thought of (I haven't painted in AP/AD yet as I have other software too).

 

This is single most important brush feature of any art software and surprisingly it is missing from many. Maybe because of many users use mouse instead of drawing tablet and with mouse flow makes sense - however it is useless for painting with tablet.

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however it is useless for painting with tablet.

 

AP/AD are currently perfectly usable for professional paintings even without opacity pressure (there is always Flow Jitter which helps)

This will be no more an issue because Matt and Andy told us it is baking and I'm sure it will be out soon.

 

This feature will be acclaimed by digital painters.

 

What you say is true, opacity jitter is missing from many. 

Among professional digital painting APPs a real opacity variance is featured only in PS.

To use it in MangaStudio you have to override Flow/Density variance.

Painter (even 2016 version) still doesn't feature it.

 

And we are talking about industry standard...  :blink:

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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AP/AD are currently perfectly usable for professional paintings even without opacity pressure (there is always Flow Jitter which helps)

This will be no more an issue because Matt and Andy told us it is baking and I'm sure it will be out soon.

 

Yep, I didn't say AD is be unusable with tablet, I said flow is (well for me, your workarounds seem impressive).

 

Good to know there's a fix coming. And yes it's weird that this feature is missing so widely! It doesn't exist in Substance Painter either (3d texturing software) but it apparently is in 3d Coat (another 3d texturing/sculpting software).

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I got another workaround too, which involves Luminosity Jitter, a custom ramp with cut-off (now possible) and blending mode.

Results are really fine and I'm looking forward to Opacity because all these things all together open the gates of a large number of possibilities.

 

I want to raise the bar a bit...

I'd like to have opacity jitter working combined with wet edges  :P

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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This is the second workaround I was talking about

 

opacityJitter_WA2.png

 

 

No Wet Edges here: you need a simple brush, blending mode set to Average and Luminosity Jitter with an almost linear ramp cut-off (to keep limits away).

Not perfect but works... In italy we use to say: "Fa il suo porco lavoro"  :)

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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AP/AD are currently perfectly usable for professional paintings even without opacity pressure (there is always Flow Jitter which helps)

This will be no more an issue because Matt and Andy told us it is baking and I'm sure it will be out soon.

 

This feature will be acclaimed by digital painters.

 

What you say is true, opacity jitter is missing from many. 

Among professional digital painting APPs a real opacity variance is featured only in PS.

To use it in MangaStudio you have to override Flow/Density variance.

Painter (even 2016 version) still doesn't feature it.

 

And we are talking about industry standard...  :blink:

 

Krita  also includes a separate flow and opacity, just like Photoshop. https://krita.org/

 

But it may be quite unstable for Macs:  it depends on your system. Then again, my students have been running Krita on the classroom's iMacs without too many issues so far.

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Yep, I know... I've contributed to their fundraising on Kickstarter :)

 

Unfortunately Krita cannot be considered a professional APP on OSX.

Useful for learning, not for production... I'll never start a commission using it (it is up to me... Anybody is free to do it... :) )

Linux is the best platform for Krita, and there are lots of artists using it proficiently.

 

My intention was to list OSX industry standards in digital painting, and today it is a question among Painter, MangaStudio and Photoshop.

On OSX Photoline and PaintStorm Studio have their respective Opacity Jitters too but performance is still far from professional purposes...

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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  • 1 month later...

I too would like to see "Tablet pressure controlled opacity with the paint brush". This is a feature I used like breathing in photoshop and really do miss it and need it a lot. Sure am loving Affinity Photo over all and it's just wonderful how it was a one time purchase and has such a great support forum.

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I seem to have pressure controlling opacity in both Designer and Photo. Without pressing down the "force pressure to control size" button in the top tool bar it works fine when using my tablet.

 

I haven't had much success with Krita anytime I've tried it. Maybe it's because of the OSX not ready for prime time aspect... I find the UI a little scattered, but I'm probably not giving it long enough of a trial....

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I seem to have pressure controlling opacity in both Designer and Photo.

 

:blink: Are you sure Kevin?

Mine is always off and I don't have Opacity Jitter...

 

 

@retrograde: the new 3.0 alpha is out, and according to mac user reports it is becoming viable now.

https://krita.org/item/first-krita-3-0-pre-alpha/

 

They kickstarted their project to have a solid OSX port... Now they removed OSX icon from their Kickstarter page...

Still Pre-Alpha and experimental...  <_<

 

ShetckBook Pro added Opacity jitter and a new interesting colour mixing model, even if its engine is still missing basic features IMHO...

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

This is really THE most vital function for any successful painter/designer. Would love to have it added asap, preferably exactly in the same way that it works in photoshop: 

 

when painting with less then full pressure, the opacity remains low no matter how many times one goes over the same area (e.i. when crosshatching the areas where strokes have intersected should not get darker unless one lifts the stylus off the tablet and starts a new stroke above the old ones)

 

There is a very particular way opacity works in PS and it would be super nice if Affinity had the same brush feel. In general, brushes feel far from perfect, sometimes choppy curves appear where PS was perfectly smooth on the same hardware. 

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  • 1 month later...

It is available in both AP and AD 1.5 Beta.

 

It is named Accumulation Jitter and works exactly as in PS, moreover you can control the pressure curve (in PS you can't).

Opacity is still available but it is constant.

Where is that accumulation jitter ? I don't seem to be able to find it in brush settings.

 

EDIT: Also haven't been able to locate this: 

 

 

linear Jitter to 100%

Would love to replicate your settings, as I really dig your brush in the example ! If it's not too much trouble, would you be able to share it with the fine people here ? Myself included ? :D

UI and UX designer extraordinaire, dad, avid Destiny player, and generally striving for decency.

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  • 11 months later...

It's again some kind of workaround.
OK, I'm new with AP, but if I would like to feel myself at home like in PS, or reccommend it to my collegues this is a MUST BE!
Otherwise PS will still be a King and I'd like to support the alternative too.
...
So I have to put it in a Brush properties and since I can not see brushes as icons (?), I'll have to browse all the time as mad, not to be able to see whether  this feature is active or not.
VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!  ... and I want to use this feature with ANY brush or Eraser.

Please add a knob or shortcut (or both).
It's essential!

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  • 3 months later...

Hello, I just download ( 10 min ago ) to give it a shot as it is promesing ... but I really have to admit that opacity pressure is something I need for my work ... I understand Affinity Photo is mainly for Photo I guess ...  but brushed are there and we cannot get the full capacity of it ...  I just cannot work without it... even though Ihave 10 trial days I'll probably stop the next hour cause I'm not able to play with the opacity pressure  .... from 2015 'till today it is a gap :/ and hell I am attracted by affinity ... but cannot work with it for now. Do you guys have any updates ? Thanks anyways ... it's a shame for now ... Hopefully an answer will be given , I really hope.

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