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Feature Request: Pressure Sensitivity Control for Opacity


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Ok, yes I'm fully aware this has been asked for, but please read on. I'm quite new to Affinity products and I absolutely love the software. It is important to note that while I do some photo editing and more compositing, I am primarily a digital painter. I was very surprised to discover that AP and AD has no pressure sensitivity control for Opacity. Yes, there is for Flow, but that really is only effective if one is using brushes whose spacing is not set to 1%. I know some have equated Accumulation to opacity but that operates completely differently to either Flow or Opacity. As you know, with Flow, opaqueness increases each time you brush over the same area. You do not need to pick up the pen and reapply it to increase the opaqueness of a stroke. With Spacing set to 1% (or close to it), one is, in effect, brushing over the same area many times over by even moving the brush a millimetre. As a result, even with very low flow rates with very low spacing, you essentially get a fully opaque stroke. With pressure sensitive opacity control, unless you pick up the pen then reapply it over the previous stroke, your opacity remains at what you set it at, or with how hard you press your stylus down, regardless of the spacing. For someone like me (and many, many other digital artists I know) who often use round brushes with spacing set to 1% (or very close to that), a pressure sensitive opacity control is the most reliable control we have over the opaqueness of the brush stroke while stroking continuously. Without this, our expensive tablets that excel in pressure sensitivity functions lose a significant amount of their usefulness.

Anyway, I just wanted to reiterate the need for such a control, and the reason why for that need. This is the only professional level drawing package that I am aware of that does not have such a feature, and is one I (and numerous others from what I can gather) consider critical. Thank you very much for taking the time to read this.

Glenn

Mac Studio, Monterey (latest version) / 32 GB RAM / 1 TB SSD Storage / Wacom Cintiq 24 Pro (latest drivers) / Affinity Photo & Designer v 1.10.5

https://glennsart.myportfolio.com

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  • 4 weeks later...

I agree, I am using Affinity Photo for both photography and digital art and at times when I  am doing post on an image I want to vary the opacity (burn in/dodge using a curve) and find myself unable to control the process, so yes, the ability to control opacity by pen pressure is really a necessity when I am using  the Wacom tablet for post.

I have experimented with the  flow, accumulation, etc., and none of my experiments give a useful result if I need to vary opacity.

 
Light travels faster than sound. That's why someone can look bright until you hear them speak.

 

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Yes. I recently rediscovered the brush engine for other purposes which I find it excels at, but it's not something I would do a more detailed painting in. It's great for "mark making" (the best way to put it), but for layering strokes and building up fine detail, it's unoptimized. I think that the way it is designed, it is meant to maintain texture and keeping a more constructed digital look (less smudge-y), but I use another program for highly detailed works that require rendering.

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  • 2 months later...

Totally agree. Affinity Photo is a great software for Postproduction, but it's missing some professional settings which are pretty normal in PS for years.
I find it nearly impossible to generate a pressure sensitive brush without opacity control in AP and for me as for many photo editors pressure is the most important part when using a brush, that's why I work with wacom tablets. I use the pressure for dodge and burn and enjoy to paint my masks with smooth transistions, especially when it comes to blue skies or studio backgrounds, but it's nearly impossible to make smooth masks in AP comparised to Photoshop.
For me this would be the most desired feature for coming versions plus better refining of selections while Photoshops AI nearly generates this in a perfect way meanwhile.
I would also prefer mask icons next right to every layer and don't undestand why masks for pixel layers or folders appear underneath the layer while masks for adjustment layers appear right next to the layer icon. This is very confusing for me and caused already some errors in my workflow.

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  • 11 months later...

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