Issue with Eye Dropper Tool

[moedgehog]

Hello! Tried to do some digging on this but wasn't able to find anything. I've continually found myself running into some strange issues with the eyedropper tool. It will start off picking up the correct color that I'm looking for then eventually it will shift to picking up a color that's considerably lighter then eventually the only color it picks up is black.

The thing that feels most weird about this is I tried to do a recording of it and suddenly it was working fine. The app I used to try and record the issue was RecordIt. I'm not sure if this is something to do with my settings since I'm pretty sure something gets shifted when doing screen record but any assistance I can get to resolving this would be appreciated. Just switched over from Photoshop and am trying to make this my main program but this is also the kind of bug that's unfortunately making it very hard to make this switch stick. Thanks!

[Michail]

11 hours ago, moedgehog said:

It will start off picking up the correct color that I'm looking for then eventually it will shift to picking up a color that's considerably lighter then eventually the only color it picks up is black.

I'm not sure I understood your problem correctly. Have you ever tried increasing the radius in the context bar?

[moedgehog]

It's definitely a weird one that honestly I haven't run into before! Essentially what happens is: I'll use the eye dropper to select a color in the image. I've tried to have this set to both Global and also to the specific layer that's been selected. I will then use that color from the eye dropper to color on the image and it will end up being a color that's much lighter than what I selected. Eventually it just seems to stop working entirely and just selects black even if black is absolutely no where to be found where I'm using the eyedropper tool. I can try to increase the radius to see if that will impact it but this seems like more of an actual bug considering what's selected eventually stops working. The only way for me to get it to work again is for me to completely close down Affinity Photo and reopen it. Then it will start working correctly again.

Edit: To add to this, another issue I'll run into is that after a while I'll no longer be able to move the canvas. It's another issue that seems to only get resolved once I restart it. I'm not sure if this is a compatibility issue but my computer specs (brand new build) are:

• - Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 2700x Eight-Core Processor 3.70 GHz
• - Ram: 32.00 GB
• - Using a Huion Kamvas Pro 20 (2019 edition)
• - WIndows 10 pro, 64 bit

Any assistance on this would be appreciated. Thanks.

Edited July 26, 2020 by moedgehog

[Chris B]

Hey moedgehog,

Does this happen if you don't use the Huion and just use the mouse? Without a video or a visual aid, it sounds like it might be picking from the wrong coordinates perhaps.

 

[moedgehog]

12 hours ago, Chris B said:

Hey moedgehog,

Does this happen if you don't use the Huion and just use the mouse? Without a video or a visual aid, it sounds like it might be picking from the wrong coordinates perhaps.

 

It does unfortunately! I was thinking something similar but other things like not being able to move the canvas around (which will happen even if I'm using the mouse) will also randomly happen while I'm in the middle of working.

Next time I can definitely try to find a different way to record it to show what's going on the next time it starts to happen but I do worry it's a compatibility issue.

[moedgehog]

Okay, so I managed to at least catch the program when it just stops allowing me to move the campus. The trigger for it is honestly random. Right before this happened I merged a few layers together, the program halted for a moment and then when I went to move the campus to readjust my view it just stopped working - https://recordit.co/qSBTFzmOyV

I'll have to restart the program to get it to work again but I'm going to presume the eyedropper tool will also stop working at some point and hopefully I'll be able to also catch that.

[Chris B]

Hey moedgehog,

This is now ringing a bell. I think this can happen with a tablet connected but I can't remember the recipe. We're doing maintenance on our bug reporting software so I will check once it is available. 

You might want to check to see if you can still reproduce this on the beta:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/120342-affinity-photo-windows-customer-beta-184681/

I am by no means suggesting you work in the beta but there have been a lot of tablet and stability changes which might benefit you.

[moedgehog]

10 hours ago, Chris B said:

Hey moedgehog,

This is now ringing a bell. I think this can happen with a tablet connected but I can't remember the recipe. We're doing maintenance on our bug reporting software so I will check once it is available. 

You might want to check to see if you can still reproduce this on the beta:
https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/topic/120342-affinity-photo-windows-customer-beta-184681/

I am by no means suggesting you work in the beta but there have been a lot of tablet and stability changes which might benefit you.

Thanks for this! I've downloaded the Beta and will test it to see if I end up running into the same issue. These issues tend to pop up regularly while I'm working so I'll try and mess around with it for a while and report accordingly whether I come across the issues again or not!

[moedgehog]

Okay, opened up the Beta and for the most part it actually seemed to work out a lot of passive issues I've been having with Affinity. However, I did manage to capture the random glitch I've been running into with the eyedropper. It's very subtle but you can see the color being picked up as being a bit lighter than the original color selected. I thought that it may have been a color adjustment layer underneath impacting it so I turned it off and that, for the first time, actually made the color that was picked up accurate again. I then turned the color adjustment layer back on underneath just to double check to see if it was that adjustment layer messing with it and it continued to pick up the same color. Hopefully this makes sense! I'll keep an eye out for the issue with the canvas moving as well - https://recordit.co/3vYEVLAmKN

ETA 3 hours later: Okay. I spent the last 4 ish hours on and off messing around in BETA and here's what I've found:

• As far as I can see, the issue with the canvas drag tool seems to be resolved? In the original version it tends to happen within an hour or so of me working and I managed to get nearly through an entire piece without it happening.
• The issue with the eyedropper tool still seems to be there in the BETA, however there seems to be a resolution that isn't there in the original. From what I can see when the color picks up odd, if I just turn the layer that I'm trying to pick the color from off and on then it seems to resolve it. Didn't have to reboot the program once though it is kind of a bummer that this is happening.

Hopefully this provides some more concise information on the issues I've been running into! Let me know if you need more.

[Chris B]

Hey moedgehog,

I'm glad the beta is somewhat more stable.

Regarding the Colour Picker Tool—I can't tell if it's because you're working under a HSL Adjustment or not.

If you change from the Swatches Panel to the Colour Panel, do you notice the colour values changing? It might be worth getting the document off you at this point. Here's a link to a private Dropbox folder than only QA/Dev can see:

https://www.dropbox.com/request/u7loWJdQPVI4F44L8PKp

If you can give me a nudge once it has uploaded that would be great. If the document is priavate and you cannot share it, is there any chance you can make a quick mock-up document?

[moedgehog]

Great! I've gone ahead and uploaded the file. 

I took the time to make sure that all of the HSL adjustment layers were turned off when color selecting. Not sure if adjustment layers that are underneath will impact it but also made sure to turn those layers off too just in case.

[Chris B]

I think the culprit is that layer with opacity and soft light. See the video:

 

[moedgehog]

Ahh sorry about this 'cause I think there's been some confusion @Chris B! The file that I sent is actually the near finished version of the illustration rather than the version I was working with at the time that I made this post. In the version shown in the video, there's few adjustment layers and overlays that are in place. It's literally just me working with the flats and line art. I used the HSL layers for that version to properly adjust the flats before I move forward with the rest of the coloring like shading and lighting adjustments. Let me try to do away with the final version of the character art and re-upload what was actually present so that hopefully there'll be a clearer understanding.