Brush opacity issue

[KiLa]

Hi, i ran into weird brush opacity issue in AP 1.8. See the attached image. What i did:

1. Create new document (attached)
2. Select Brush tool via 'B' shortcut
3. Select Brush 2
4. Select 'Black 50%' color swatch from the Grays palette
5. Draw upper left X
6. Select Brush 1
7. Draw middle left X
8. Select Brush 2
9. Draw bottom left X.

Here is the issue: why there seems to be opacity in the color/brush?!?!
If i switch to Move tool, and then back to Brush, and redo everything (right side), it happens again.

Windows 10 64bit Home, AP 1.8.3.641

Cheers

-k

brush_issue.afphoto

[firstdefence]

You need to export your brushes and upload them so we can import those too.

[walt.farrell]

You need to compare the characteristics of brush 1 and brush 2. At step 6 in your recipe, and at step 8, you might show us a screenshot of the Context Toolbar, and also a screenshot of the dialog you get when you press the More button on the Context Toolbar.

[KiLa]

Hi guys, used brushes are from default installation and as far i could tell, the context toolbar didn't change. I will export brushes and try to create video that shows everything...after work

-k

[carl123]

It looks like Brush 1 is setting "Set Wet Edges on" so when you next use Brush 2 it is also now set to "Set Wet Edges on".

One of the reasons Brush 1 does not appear to paint (like you would expect to see) with "Set Wet Edges on" could be if the "Custom" box next to that setting in the brush's configuration is also ticked. 

 

The above is one way I can replicate what you are seeing, there may be other ways too

[walt.farrell]

5 hours ago, carl123 said:

The above is one way I can replicate what you are seeing, there may be other ways too

Which is why it would be good to see the Context Toolbar and the More dialog for the 2 brushes, at the steps I suggested. Otherwise we're guessing

[KiLa]

Hi again, used brushes atttached and i made a video which hopefully shows context toolbar and brush settings and the unexpeccted opacitty change:

-k

KiLa.afbrushes

[Ray S.]

Yes it is like Carl123 mentioned, Brush 1 is setting "Wet edges" on and this is transfered to Brush 2.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Ray S. said:

Yes it is like Carl123 mentioned, Brush 1 is setting "Wet edges" on and this is transfered to Brush 2.

Yes, and in particular because brush 1 turns wet edges on, and brush 2 leaves the wet edges setting however it found it (that is, brush 2 neither turns it on nor turns it off).

What is interesting to me, though, is that the brush strokes from brush 1 do not appear to have the wet edges effect applied. I see that (as Carl surmised) the Custom box is ticked, but I do not yet understand the effect that box has, and the Help has very little information on it.

[lepr]

1 hour ago, walt.farrell said:

the Custom box is ticked, but I do not yet understand the effect that box has, and the Help has very little information on it.

"Wet edges" remaps the opacity of the pixels output by the brush. It's the same as a Curves Adjustment with target channel set to Alpha, but affecting a brush instead of entire layers.

[walt.farrell]

34 minutes ago, anon2 said:

"Wet edges" remaps the opacity of the pixels output by the brush. It's the same as a Curves Adjustment with target channel set to Alpha, but affecting a brush instead of entire layers.

Thanks, and OK, but how does the "Custom" box affect that? The Help says only that (with my emphasis😞
 

Quote

Wet edges—sets the default 'wet edge' behaviour of the brush. Select from the pop-up menu. Check Custom and apply a preset or custom profile, which subtly changes how watery the stroke appears.
The 'wet edge' behaviour builds paint up along the edges of your pixel brush stroke, producing a watercolour effect.

 

[lepr]

9 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

Thanks, and OK, but how does the "Custom" box affect that?

Ticking the Custom checkbox tells the brush to override the default wet edges profile with the curve that's accessed for editing by clicking the tiny graph button to the right of the label Custom.

[KiLa]

Thank you! 

[iProVid]

Hi, I had the same problem, I fixed it by going into the brush options and checking the CUSTOM box in the wet edges area. No idea why this fixed it, but it did.

[Austiemo]

I am having an issue where not matter what I set:

Wet Edges Do Not Set

Wet Edges Sett Off

Custom Box Checked

 

The basic brushes are adding buildup as I go over the strokes.

 

I would like this to not be the case.

I set global swatches and am trying to have the flat color.

 

In the screenshots you can see where my brush went over itself and is making the color darler.

 

 

[carl123]

We can't see the full context toolbar settings with the brush selected

Make sure Wet Edges is not selected there and check Blend Mode is set to normal

Also go into the Colour Panel and ensure Opacity is at 100% for the colour you have selected

[Austiemo]

 

Thank you for the suggestion! I found the issue was my swatch opacity had been turned down.

I did not realize it. I was getting very frustrated.

 

 

 

[Austiemo]

Each swatch was down to 80%. I manually clicked each swatch and set them to 100%. Is there a shortcut I accidentally pressed that adjusted each swatch?

If so I would like to know so I can know how to undo it in the future.

[Ron P.]

1 hour ago, Austiemo said:

Is there a shortcut I accidentally pressed that adjusted each swatch?

Yes, it's the number, in your case 8. While having a brush selected, pressing numerical keys, 0-9 sets the Opacity. 0=100%, 1=10% and so on.

[Austiemo]

I now found the workflow issue I was having:

1. I accidentally must have changed swatch opacity with keyboard shortcut.

2. I made global swatches with the opacity down.

3. After reading your notes I adjusted opacity on each swatch then saved file.

4. Today I open the project, the swatch opacities  are back to 80% etc. I move the slider to 100% then click a different swatch and click back. The opacity does back to 80%.

 

Is the solution to move slider to 100% opacity, create a new global swatch with the 100% opacity, and then delete the old swatch?

 

I normally work in Affinity designer where the global swatch data will change for examples all the fills of the same color.

Will I lose any data like that by deleting and creating new swatches?

 

I understand there is an edit fill color for the swatches where I can change tint, HSL, etc but I do not see a way to change opacity in the edit fill section.

[Austiemo]

I found the real bigger issue to be this:
 

 

 

I had recently installed the NVidia GeForce Experience software. Which did game optimization. I have not used Affinity since having it installed.

While making these posts Affinity Photo would randomly crash when doing basic tasks. I had Affinity Photo for over 2 years and had not had it behave that way before.

I believe this effected the graphical interface as well. For example the swatch opacity not staying as the desired level.

 

Thank you everyone for your posts.

Love the community Affinity has made.

 

[Dan C]

Hi @Austiemo,

On 4/25/2022 at 2:37 PM, Austiemo said:

I understand there is an edit fill color for the swatches where I can change tint, HSL, etc but I do not see a way to change opacity in the edit fill section.

As you've mentioned, once you've created a Swatch at a set Opacity value, it's unfortunately not possible to change this Opacity value for the swatch, my apologies.

On 4/25/2022 at 2:37 PM, Austiemo said:

Is the solution to move slider to 100% opacity, create a new global swatch with the 100% opacity, and then delete the old swatch?

 

I normally work in Affinity designer where the global swatch data will change for examples all the fills of the same color.

Will I lose any data like that by deleting and creating new swatches?

You will need to create new swatches as Global Colours, then re-apply these new swatches to your layers if you wish for them to update when the new Global Colour is changed.

13 hours ago, Austiemo said:

I had recently installed the NVidia GeForce Experience software. Which did game optimization. I have not used Affinity since having it installed.

While making these posts Affinity Photo would randomly crash when doing basic tasks. I had Affinity Photo for over 2 years and had not had it behave that way before.

It's likely this has enabled Hardware Acceleration, which may be causing these issues for you. If you open the Affinity app and navigate to Edit > Preferences > Performance, then untick Hardware Acceleration at the bottom of the dialog, then restart the app as prompted.

Does this reduce the crashing behaviour you're seeing please?