Selected brush disappears when brush size is changed

[fubar33]

Is that a normal thing for affinity photo and designer? It's quite difficult to sort out what brush you are currently using as soon as you try to enlarge or decrease brush size the highlight on the specific brush disappears.

[carl123]

Unfortunately, this is "as designed"

The logic being that when you change the brush size you are no longer using the original brush chosen in the brush panel therefore you lose its highlighting 

[R C-R]

11 hours ago, carl123 said:

The logic being that when you change the brush size you are no longer using the original brush chosen in the brush panel therefore you lose its highlighting 

Put a slightly different way, the Brush panel allows you to chose a brush preset -- a specific collection of brush parameters like size, hardness, textures, nozzles, & so on -- so as soon as you change any of those parameters (not just brush size) you are no longer using that preset, so the highlight in the panel disappears to indicate that.

So in that respect, from a programming standpoint it is logical ... but there has got to be a better way to implement this, like maybe with an asterisk to indicate you are not using the preset & possibly a 'reset to preset' button on the context toolbar or some such.

[fubar33]

@R C-R

From a creative/artisitc process standpoint it hinders your process because the way I see it I am still using the brush and its core attribute which is the brush itself..I'm only using it differently from how it is being presented by default. My pipeline in creating artwork is usually cycling through all of the brushes that I use, since I am using watercolor wash brushes so it's not all the time I am using the brushes in its default state..I resize them, rotate them to my needs. From a strict programming standpoint you are correct I am not using the "default" attributes of the brush but since this is a art software they should also factor in the creative side.. PS doesn't do this no matter how I enlarge/reduce the brush because I am still using the brush itself just not the default way

anyway, thank you very much for the input.

[fubar33]

@carl123

18 hours ago, carl123 said:

Unfortunately, this is "as designed"

The logic being that when you change the brush size you are no longer using the original brush chosen in the brush panel therefore you lose its highlighting 

So technically we share the same experience? or not

[Ron P.]

I think you might be glossing over the preset aspect. The same that happens when you make a change to a brush preset, happens to any other preset in the Affinity apps. If you select a Curve preset in Photo or Designer, then make changes, it is no longer that preset. Affinity Photo's Styles are presets, and the same will happen when you select one, then tweak/alter, make changes to it. You no longer are using that specific preset. The parameters that make up the preset are now different.

That said, I agree there should be something keeping track of where you started. For now, make a quick note of the brush number you selected, which however is just the size so, yeah, probably won't work either. 😒

[GarryP]

It might be useful if the Brushes Panel behaved similarly to the Text Style Panel insofar as when you apply a text style and then alter the formatting of the text, the Text Style Panel shows that you have a ‘base’ style and some differences from that style – see attached image.
The Brushes Panel could show something along the lines of: “Basic Dry Acrylic + Brush Width: 20; Size Variance: 60%”
At least that way the user could see what they were using even if there were no extra functionalities added.
I feel sure that this sort of thing will have come up before; I’m just giving it as a possibility.

[R C-R]

6 hours ago, GarryP said:

The Brushes Panel could show something along the lines of: “Basic Dry Acrylic + Brush Width: 20; Size Variance: 60%”
At least that way the user could see what they were using even if there were no extra functionalities added.

To be of much use, I think it would need to provide a way to reuse the original 'base' brush preset (here your Basic Dry Acrylic one) without any of the "+" changes.