Aftershaft Posted November 24, 2020 Posted November 24, 2020 Hi. I have a Wacom Intuos Draw tablet. How do I limit the area that I can move the pen into the size of the Designer document? The cursor is all over the place (my whole monitor and the Affinity window). I would like to be able to line up with the document window, so if I put the cursor on the left-upper corner of the tablet, I would like it to be the left-upper corner of the document. Or at least just the Designer window rather than all over my monitor screen(s) - I have two monitors. Is this possible? The software I installed for tablet does not have a calibration tab, like I have seen on youtube videos for others. Another question that I have: When using brushes, the pressure is stronger using the mouse, much lighter when using the tablet and pen. Sort of the difference between a fine point pen and magic marker. -paulw Quote
Dan C Posted November 25, 2020 Posted November 25, 2020 Hi @PaulWilliamson, 16 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: How do I limit the area that I can move the pen into the size of the Designer document? The cursor is all over the place (my whole monitor and the Affinity window). This will be a setting within the Wacom Driver, where you can set a 'focused' area to draw, there aren't any specific Tablet alignment features in Affinity, so you will need to set any of these controls through the Wacom Driver settings. 16 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: The software I installed for tablet does not have a calibration tab, like I have seen on youtube videos for others. I recommend making sure you've downloaded the latest version, directly from Wacom. If you're still having trouble here you may need to contact Wacom directly. 16 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: Another question that I have: When using brushes, the pressure is stronger using the mouse, much lighter when using the tablet and pen. Sort of the difference between a fine point pen and magic marker. Again, in the Wacom settings you can usually control your pressure sensitivity, which should allow for more granular control here. I hope this helps! Quote
Aftershaft Posted November 25, 2020 Author Posted November 25, 2020 Hi Dan, I uninstalled and reinstalled something I found at the Wacom website. I think it's the same drivers and programs. But I seem to be in better control now. I know my Draw tablet is a few years old. Not sure what most Affinity Designer users are using for a tablet these days (if one at all) and if upgrading to a new one would make a difference. I found these Affinity links regarding tablets and pens: https://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Extras/penTablet.html?title=Using pen tabletshttps://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Painting/pressure.html?title=Pressure sensitivityhttps://affinity.help/designer/English.lproj/index.html?page=pages/Painting/pixel_modify.html?title=Modifying pixel brushes I did go through those a few days ago. I will do that again. I purchased the ChalkDust brushes from the Affinity store but there is absolutely no helpful documentation on how to use them. I did buy a "How to use the pen in Affinity Designer" course at Udemy. I think I need to take it and get also get used to using a tablet and pen. Maybe not if I get used to using the mouse for drawing and writing instead. Is that what most people do? Use the mouse and pen/vector pen tool for drawing? Doh - it dawned on me that the writing in the ChalkDust example could have been done with a chalk font, not the brushes! 🙂 Thanks you! -paulw Quote
Dan C Posted November 26, 2020 Posted November 26, 2020 Thanks for letting me know Paul, if you have any more trouble changing the device settings for Affinity then please let us know! 14 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: I purchased the ChalkDust brushes from the Affinity store but there is absolutely no helpful documentation on how to use them. My apologies, are you having trouble installing this kit into Affinity, or do you already have it installed and are unsure how to implement the new brushes? If you could expand on this for me it would certainly be appreciated 14 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: Is that what most people do? Use the mouse and pen/vector pen tool for drawing? As far as I'm aware, many of our customers have drawing tablets and will use this almost exclusively in Affinity, however you can switch to using your mouse at any point - so it's completely personal preference. Quote
Aftershaft Posted November 26, 2020 Author Posted November 26, 2020 Hi Dan! I know how to install assets into all the Affinity products. I just don't know how to use them to reproduce the "selling points" of these products (how they are described and the creative examples that are displayed). They all don't come with much more than installation instructions and promotional stuff. For instance, how do I create or use the Xenon brushes for the galactic and lens flares at this page: https://affinityspotlight.com/article/painting-with-light-xenon-brushes/ and what is displayed on this page: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/product/chalkdust-brushes-by-ian-barnard/ Things like that! I seem to remember a tablet thread here a while back. I will see if I can find it. Maybe there is something "better" than what I have. Thanks again!!! -paulw Quote
Dan C Posted November 27, 2020 Posted November 27, 2020 Thanks for confirming that for me Paul 16 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: For instance, how do I create or use the Xenon brushes for the galactic and lens flares at this page The Galactic brushes can be used similarly to 'Spray' or 'Spatter' brushes, you can simply choose your colour and then mix and match the different brushes to 'build up' the effect. I'm certainly no artist, but I've created a screen recording below showing this - 2020-11-27 10-41-53.mp4 Secondly, the Lens Flare brushes are designed to be used as 'stamp' brushes. This means you can select the lens flare brush, change the size and colour as required, then simply click once to 'stamp' this brush into your document - as Lens Flare should only appear in specific areas of an image. 17 hours ago, PaulWilliamson said: and what is displayed on this page: https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/store/product/chalkdust-brushes-by-ian-barnard/ The Chalkdust brushes are supplied with a few PDFs, one containing multiple example alphabets and the other being a 'tips and tricks' sheet. Unfortunately I can't post the links to these here (as they're only available to purchasers of this kit - but you can find these links below the brushes in your Affinity Store account on the Downloads page. There is also an up and coming 'Creative Session' on our Youtube with the creator of the brushes, so I am certain this will be a great learning experience however it's not Premiering until Monday 30th @6pm GMT. - I hope this helps! Quote
Aftershaft Posted November 27, 2020 Author Posted November 27, 2020 Thanks again Dan, Might have to check my other brushes in order to do a complete aurora borealis (I have missed two outside my house here in Montana because I was sleeping and my neighbors didn't bother to call me! I had to hear about it the next day! Maybe this winter). Nice example with the galactic brushes. Thanks for the video. I get it now. I will have to mess with the lens flares. Thanks for the tip. I am looking forward to Ian's chalk lettering session! Hopefully that will clear up a lot! -paulw Quote
Aftershaft Posted December 1, 2020 Author Posted December 1, 2020 The Chalk video wasn't very useful to me. Maybe it if I slow it down if there is an archive. I don't have an iPad (but I want one now!!). And I was really interested in how to use the brushes. Thanks, -paulw Quote
Alfred Posted December 1, 2020 Posted December 1, 2020 4 minutes ago, PaulWilliamson said: Maybe it if I slow it down if there is an archive. I don’t know what kind of archive you might be looking for, but there’s a ‘Playback speed’ control that you can access via the gearwheel in the console at the bottom of the YouTube video. Quote Alfred Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.5.1 (iPad 7th gen)
Aftershaft Posted December 1, 2020 Author Posted December 1, 2020 Okay - Thank you. Yesterday it was "live" so I couldn't do it, but there was a pause button but I was afraid to use it then. On another note, I just bought an Artifex Forge brush package. His instructions on how to use his products are pretty darn good! My grandfather was Scottish. I am not sure what the Williamson tartan name is. I have a magnet on the fridge. It sort of looks like MacLachlan -pw Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.