Wacom Cintiq 22 Interface to Serif Affinity Products

[flyinglentris]

I take note of the Brush Customization features in Affinity Photo/Designer/Publisher and do appreciate it much, but I am baffled when it comes to making dynamic settings obvious on a canvas when using Wacom's Ciintiq 22.   Some dynamic jitters clearly change the display brush stroke, but some do not.  And none of them seem to effect the Wacom Pens.

What am I missing?     Is it that Serif's Affinity products do not interface with Wacom Products?    If the two products do interface, how do I set things up so that the Wacom Pen actions reflect the Affinity Dynamic Jitter settings?

[Dan C]

Hi @flyinglentris,

Sorry to hear you're having trouble!

There may be multiple things happening here, so I'm going to require some further information please.

16 hours ago, flyinglentris said:

Some dynamic jitters clearly change the display brush stroke, but some do not.  And none of them seem to effect the Wacom Pens.

Which brush settings have you changed, and for which brushes?

Have you changed the 'Controller' in use on the Context toolbar, to ensure pressure etc is being utilised?

Are you using Windows or Mac please?

Many thanks in advance!

[flyinglentris]

Dan,

Thanks for responding.

I recently purchased and just received all of the compatible Pens (except one) for the Cintiq 22 and not having the Cintiq 22 for long yet, decided to go ahead and ensure each pen was working while at the same time, testing the Affinity Brush customizations and their affect on the Cintiq 22 Pens.

I tested both with the Pen Pressure On and Off.  

I created a set of Custom Brushes which I created from Nozzle patterns I created or borrowed from Gimp.   By doing this, I hoped to test without corrupting the default brush sets. 

I found that I could reshape the brush strokes OK and these static changes were properly reflected on the Wacom Cintiq 22.   It is the dynamic Jitter settings I am having problems with.   The Wacom Pens all, by default, seem to increase width with pressure, whether it is turned on  or off on the Context Menu.   But only the Jitter Settings that directly affect the displayed Stroke affect the actual Pen behaviors.

I tested using Affinity Designer on Windows 10 on an MacBook Pro, Pixel Mode, the 3R Photo Canvas and the Paint Brush Tool.  I specifically tested Rotation Jitter, Hardness Jitter and Saturation Jitter using Colors set to Red, Blue or Black.    Jitters were set to use Rotation, Tilt, Angle, Velocity, Random and Pressure.  Wheel was used with the Air Brush Pen which has a Wheel on the Barrel.      In no case did the Pen Actions reflect any of these settings, only the default actions - increasing width and opacity with pressure and perhaps, visible shape changes with changes in pen direction, such that the true shape of the nozzle wasn't covered by the stroke.

What I expected was that the changes for Jitter settings would be reflected by the actions set when those actions were taken with the Pens.

BTW:  Since I have all but one of the Cintiq 22 compatible Pens, I am able to compare their strokes.  All are nearly identical, though the Pro Pen 2 and Pro Pen 3D are thinner than the legacy Pens.    The Cintiq 22 comes with the Pro Pen 2.   Pro Pen 3D is not a legacy Pen.

Attached, find the Gimp Pattern I am using for the brush nozzle.

 

 

[flyinglentris]

It's early morning here and I don't have the Cintiq 22 hooked up, but have played around and noticed something using Mouse only.

Affinity displays the nozzle when not stroking and with Rotation Jitter set to Direction, moving the mouse without stroking rotates the nozzle image.

This gives me an idea how to more clearly test the Pens and I will do so and report back.

[flyinglentris]

The issues I was experiencing have been resolved. 😀

There were in fact, several things going on that I was not initially aware of.  And I hope by exposing my evaluation and discoveries, others will be able to avoid the enigmas I was presented with and perhaps some documentation upgrades may result.

First, it is important to understand that not all of the jitters will work with brushes defined using custom Nozzles and Textures.   For certain, Shape Jitter and Hardness Jitter will only work, it seems, with brushes that are not defined using Nozzles or Textures.  Flow Jitter barely works with brushes using Nozzles or Textures and then, only if the Flow control on the context tool bar is turned down. 

Second,  all Jitters using Rotation as the Pen Action will only work with a Pen that supports Rotation.  For the Wacom Cintiq 22, the Art Pen is the only Wacom Pen compatible with the Cintiq 22 that supports Rotation, by rotating the Pen Barrel.

Third, the only Jitters that support Wheel as the Pen Action are Scatter X and Scatter Y.  For the Wacom Cintiq 22, the Air Brush Pen is the only Wacom Pen compatible with the Cintiq 22 that supports a wheel and for an Air Brush Pen, it makes perfect sense that Scatter X and Scatter Y Jitters are the only Jitters supported for Spraying Brush Strokes.

Those three things are limitations that must be considered.

To get the Pen Actions top coincide otherwise,  it is important to increase the Jitter Sliders to some degree to the right and specify a usable Pen Action for the type of Brush and the type of Pen being used.  The Pen Profile setting is something all users need to evaluate on a case by case basis, but for initial evaluation, it appears best to set the Profile to Linear.   Pen Actions are stronger, the further the Sliders are moved toward 100%.

Tilt and Angle Pen Actions behave rather oddly, being stronger in the vertical, rather than horizontal, although, a diagonal stroke will produce acceptable results.   The two actions are somewhat similar, but Tilt is much more defined than Angle.

Rotation actions using a pen that supports Rotation, the Wacom Art Pen, are very pronounced in all Jitters.   Keep in mind that Shape, Hardness and Flow Jitters are not available to Brushes defined using custom Nozzles or Textures and therefore, Rotation Action Actions will not work in those cases.