Auto clean added to paint mixer brush

[Ash]

Apps: Photo (and Photo Persona in Publisher)
Platforms: Windows, macOS and iPad

A new option available in the context toolbar options of the paint mixer brush to auto-clean the brush after every stroke.

[Patrick Connor]

Known Issues

• AFP-6036 - Auto clean setting (paint mixer) isn't remembered
• AFP-6075 - Auto Clean Brush is missing from iPad's Paint Mixer Brush

Further known issues will be added to this list as they are reported to us by customers in this thread.

[IPv6]

This is helpful, thanks!

[jportraits]

this could be the best thing in whole version 2, but need to see how it works. im so close to switching to photoshop to be able to use mixer brush in their way 

[walt.farrell]

59 minutes ago, jportraits said:

but need to see how it works.

Is something stopping you from trying it?

[jportraits]

no

[jportraits]

the way it works now seems to be good. but there is problem - it is so slow it not usable. few strokes and i have to wait a minute before it is executed. 

i was trying on windows laptop i7-10510u, intel mx250 gpu. it works even worse with enabled hardware acceleration.

i would try on mac mini m2 but i dont have a license on mac, waiting for some discounts.

[Chris B]

Do you mean it's slow with Auto Clean enabled and it's fine without that setting or generally, paint mixing is slow?

[jportraits]

i was only checking auto clean, i assume it work similar without auto clean. will check.

i have run benchmark on affinity trial on mac and it looks that mac cpu is about 10x faster and mac gpu is 100x faster then my windows laptop. so maybe my laptop is that slow.

[Craig Ozancin]

I have been playing with this. It is a feature that has been needed for some time in the retouching arena smoothing colors in frequency-separation. 

I have found a discrepancy remembering state when switching from paint mixer brush to brush and then back. While the auto-load-brush checkbox remembers it's last state, the auto-clean-brush checkbox.

I am testing 2.1.0.1714 on Windows 11.

[Ash]

10 hours ago, Craig Ozancin said:

While the auto-load-brush checkbox remembers it's last state, the auto-clean-brush checkbox.

Thanks, that's a bug - it should remember that setting. We'll get it fixed.

[paolo.limoncelli]

Thank you for this option!

I'd try to use this thread to share some digressions I've collected about this tool, coming from both users and personal experience.

I think it has an impressive potential but I'm still struggling in making credible tools for this one... 😅

Probably there are some wrong expectations from my side, but using it "as is" it still looks more like an "advanced" blender than a painting tool (to me at least...).

The behaviour of the Strength slider is non-linear

It seems to start acting as a paintbrush close to the end of the ramp

 

In order to make it more realistic you need to paint into a filled layer, so it needs a "one layer" approach for illustrations.

Also, using tablets only Nozzles Interpolation and "Geometry" Jitters work properly.

Maybe HSL Jitters or Wet Edges are skipped by design, but Flow's variation does nothing at all (both Jitter and its context bar value).

Texture works in Nozzle mode only(*) and  Sub Brushes > Erase mode does not work too.

In short some dynamics allowed by the engine are totally bypassed and it has been this way since the very first AP release.

On the other side the Affinity team keeps on adding cool features such as this one and the mixing Model: so is the actual behaviour something by design? 

 

Because in this case I need to choose different design strategies.

(*) Texture works in both modes this morning... 😅

My fault, I was using a over-sharpened paper

 

[IPv6]

On 3/11/2023 at 2:02 PM, paolo.limoncelli said:

The behaviour of the Strength slider is non-linear

 

It highly depends on brush spacing. On brushes with low spacing low values are "Work" too.

It is a cool tool, auto-clear comparing smduge does not prefer "light" color (smudge always prefere them, it is not anizotripic)

The only thing is missing now is to allow Mix brush work on "meta channels" only - "Lightness", "Color", etc

[paolo.limoncelli]

2 hours ago, IPv6 said:

It highly depends on brush spacing. On brushes with low spacing low values are "Work" too.

Are you sure? 

On macOS low spacing it is even worse...

Here you can see a different tool and background colour (one layer painting), you can see also other issues such as the "blocky" effect or the mixing that happens "before" crossing colour areas.

It is true that I'm not a photo retoucher, and AP is "photography-first" so for sure its behaviour is useful for these channel and frequency separation tasks/workflows.

Speaking as an illustrator, I find it a bit "confusing"

For sure illustration is still perfectly feasible...

...but is a bit hard and the design strategy of the preset needs to be different, since the 80% of tablet's dynamic is disabled and the only parameter which rules the interaction (Strength) does not have its Jitter and needs to be changed manually.

 

 

 

 

 

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Auto clean setting (paint mixer) isn't remembered" (REF: AFP-6036) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.1.0.1728".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.

[Secret Goldfish]

Is this auto clean option not in the ipad beta?

I cannot find it, the load, auto-load and clean buttons are there but no auto-clean

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, Secret Goldfish said:

Is this auto clean option not in the ipad beta?

I cannot find it, the load, auto-load and clean buttons are ther but no auto-clean

I don't see it either.

[Chris B]

I cannot see it either... I'll get this logged.

[Affinity Info Bot]

The issue "Auto Clean Brush is missing from iPad's Paint Mixer Brush" (REF: AFP-6075) has been fixed by the developers in internal build "2.1.0.1781".
This fix should soon be available as a customer beta and is planned for inclusion in the next customer release.
Customer beta builds are announced here and you can participate by following these instructions.
If you still experience this problem once you are using that build version (or later) please reply to this thread including @Serif Info Bot to notify us.