Smudge Tool & Darkness not working

[Neros]

The smudge tool seems to refuse to smudge when there is a dark area.

I have a piece where I want to smudge some shadows, but the tool simply refuses to smudge the darker areas.

When I have the strength at 49%, there us no to little effect.

But when I change it to 50%, it drags a huge chunk of the piece.

*Seems like the standard brush for the program was the problem, refusing to have any effect on darker areas when below 50% strength.

[R C-R]

It might help if you told us if you are using the Mac or Windows version of AP & if possible post a sample afphoto file (like a small section of the one in your screenshots) that shows the problem area.

Also, it may not matter but the dashed line indicates you have a pixel selection in effect, which would confine the smudge to within it.

[Neros]

I am using Windows.

It is because I don't want the smudge or any coloring to go beyond the selection.

I have tried without having anything selected, but the problem still occurs.

In the file, it is the layer that is called "Shape".

Finale.afphoto

[R C-R]

Are you trying to smudge colors into or out of the "Shape" layer? If you are trying to smudge the black outward away from the Shape layer, the pixel selection will prevent that from happening because it is smaller than the Shape.

If you are trying to smudge inward from outside the Shape layer, since there is no color outside of it in that layer, smudging will just brush no color into it, effectively erasing the black bit by bit.

[Neros]

Neither. I am trying to smudge the dark area with the lighter area, trying to mold it and to make the lines that are to "sharp" blend with nearby colors.

I have attached a image were I have done it in photoshop. There, I am only working with a strength of 22%.

[GarryP]

Smudging works fine for me when I Invert the Pixel Selection – see attached video.
If you can give us a full-screen screen-grab (or video) showing us what you can see when you are using the tool then we will have a better idea of what you are doing.

P.S. Which Brush do you have selected? A ‘weak’ brush may have a negative effect in this case.

 

[Neros]

It is still not the edge of the piece that I am trying to smudge, but the darker areas.

And I am using the "standard" brush when you pick the smudge tool, which seems to have be the problem.

For some reason, whatever brush that was, it REFUSED to do anything to the darker areas when below 50% strength.

So your solution didn't work, but your question did XD

Thanks  

[GarryP]

Ah, I see, sorry, I had the problem the wrong way round.
For some reason I thought you wanted to smudge the dark areas into the pink areas.
Anyway, I’m glad that choosing a different brush did the trick.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, Neros said:

Neither. I am trying to smudge the dark area with the lighter area, trying to mold it and to make the lines that are to "sharp" blend with nearby colors.

The smudge tool only works on the pixels of the selected layer. Since your "Shape" layer only has black pixels (the rest of it is transparent) you can't smudge any color into it from another layer -- you will just be 'smudging' its transparency into its black pixels. That should let lower layers show through, which may create the effect you want.

As for the effect of the brush you use, by default there is no "standard" one, although in AP any of them can be associated with any one of the brush tools. This is indicated by a small brush icon next to the brush in the Brushes panel, so you might want to check for that.

[Neros]

I am aware. And the Shape layer layer has black and grey pixels, which were the two I tried to smudge together.

And for the brush, I pressed the smudge button and started smudging. Never changed any brush setting for the tool.

[R C-R]

31 minutes ago, Neros said:

I am aware. And the Shape layer layer has black and grey pixels, which were the two I tried to smudge together.

The grey edge pixels of that layer were all outside the marching ants selection. If I use Select > Grow/Shrink... to increase the selection by 2 px then I have no problem using the Smudge Brush Tool to smudge the black & grey together, even at very low strengths & flow rates.

40 minutes ago, Neros said:

And for the brush, I pressed the smudge button and started smudging. Never changed any brush setting for the tool.

Like the other brush tools the Smudge Brush Tool will remember the last brush used with it if in the Assistant Manager Brush tool settings is set to "No sharing between tools." So it is possible if that option is active that you might not be using the brush you think you are. So maybe try choosing a plain solid round brush from the Basic category (if you have one) or create one & add it to one of your categories if you don't have any basic ones.