antialias clone brush

[onno-r]

I have a clean pixel image with flat colours. In the blend options the coverage map is flat-top, antialiasing set to force-off.

Yet when I use the clone brush with a new brush- hardness set to 100% opacity and flow to 100% - I get antialiased result.

Is there any way to get rid of this? Like in Photoshop you can set your general settings to always use nearest neighbour.

Thanks,

Onno

[GarryP]

Have you tried turning Wet Edges OFF on the Context Bar?

That option, I your screenshot, is ‘hidden’, at the right-hand side – just press the ‘double arrow’ button to get more options.

[onno-r]

wet edges are off (by default)

 

[GarryP]

I was hoping that would be the quick answer, it often is.

Would you be able to supply the document you are using?

[onno-r]

Garry, 

I was hoping for a quick answer too.

The original file is client work, but I have another file, same setup, same results.

My guess is that it has something to do with the application. Or the tool.

Antialiasing also occurs when you have one-colour (say black)  pixel shape as a layer. 

Once you rotate that 90 dgs. there is the antalias again. Shouldn't be with this 90 dgs rotation.

camouflage-test.afphoto

[GarryP]

Thanks for the file.

I can see what you mean now – even with the “64 Round Brush” from the “Basic” Category, the edges always seem to have some kind of ‘smudging’ or blending/transparency.

I tried adding a new Pixel Layer, setting the Antialiasing for that layer to “Force Off” and trying again with the Source set to “Current Layer & Below”, but the same effect is there, although to a lesser extent.

I tried different Blend Options for the new Pixel Layer but can’t seem to get anything much better.

I also tried making my own brush from a rectangle of black pixels, just to see what happened, and still get the same thing.

I don’t know what to try next – there’s a chance that the Clone Tool simply wasn’t designed to do ‘entirely whole pixel cloning’ like this if it was created for photo touch-up where an amount of ‘smudge’/blend is normally wanted.

[onno-r]

Thanks Garry for the extensive answer. Every possibility covered!

The default idea behind Affinity Photo might indeed be photograpy.

Image creation goes beyond that. Too bad!

Thanks,

Onno

[GarryP]

You’re welcome.

Hopefully someone will come along and show us how to do it – if it’s not in the design of the software there’s sometimes a ‘trick’ that can be used.

[loukash]

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

if it’s not in the design of the software

If it's not a bug, then it's a major conceptual flaw:
All brushes should respect Force pixel alignment much like objects do. And in fact, they do, except for the brush border. 
Only the Pixel Tool does reliably and absolutely snap to integer pixels by definition, regardless snapping settings.

I was pulling out my hair on similar stuff before, already in v1.  

1 hour ago, GarryP said:

a ‘trick’ that can be used.

1. clone onto a new layer
2. erase borders with the Pixel tool

or:

1. clone onto a new layer
2. Select → Alpha Range → Select Partially Transparent
3. delete

[NotMyFault]

Layer anti-alias settings impact vector layers only, and have no impact to pixel layers.

Pixel based brushes and tools always have forced anti-aliasing. You cannot deactivate it.

So when you use pixel brushes, you will get multiple levels of antialiasing and resampling atop of each other:

• pixel brush anti-aliasing for every brush stroke inside any bitmap layer
• Vector layers have anti-aliasing settings in blend options 
• resampling settings (in performance settings for in-canvas rendering, in export settings for export, enforced with no method to avoid when using rasterize) like bilinear for rendering and export

 

[NotMyFault]

8 hours ago, onno-r said:

Is there any way to get rid of this?

Instead of using the clone brush, you may use alternative methods:

• make a gross selection of the rough area (larger) 
• copy/paste the area
• have snapping on with fore pixel alignment on, move by whole pixels off, other snapping off
• add a mask layer to clone layer
• use pixel brush to paint in mask or remove unwanted areas
• Check that the mask is 100% hard (isolation mode)

 

[NotMyFault]

Another observation: on iPad, the clone brush has a fixed hardness setting of 80% which cannot be adjusted in the regular numeric input fields. 

Even when you choose a fresh square brush.

You need to enter the (formerly) „more“ settings by clicking the small brush preview icon in top row.

[NotMyFault]

In cas you are using the non-destructive workflow, you can repair the clone brush behavior:

1. add a new pixel layer
2. activate clone brush
3. select a square brush. Set the brush to 1px size, 100% hardness (in „more“ / brush icon, not the numeric settings, set wet edges to off)
4. set brush source to current & below
5. choose source position
6. paint in clone area
7. when done, add levels adjustment to clone layer (masking position)
8. choose alpha channel
9. set black level to 50%
10. set white level to 50%
11. now the result is hard, the former soft edged get „repaired“ to hard edges. 

This works reliable as the brush anti-aliasing is only applied to outer edges.

[onno-r]

The best workaround so far.

 

 

[NotMyFault]

Forgot to mention: on M1 based Mac, Levels on alpha is broken (unfixed bug). Use curves adjustment instead, choose alpha, set left node to 0.5/0.0, set right side to 0.5 / 1.0

[loukash]

42 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

on M1 based Mac, Levels on alpha is broken (unfixed bug)

M2 too, obviously…

[loukash]

50 minutes ago, NotMyFault said:

Levels on alpha is broken

Speaking of which:
It's apparently only broken on Pixel layers.
If you convert the cloned layer to an Image layer, Levels alpha works.

[NotMyFault]

10 minutes ago, loukash said:

Speaking of which:
It's apparently only broken on Pixel layers.
If you convert the cloned layer to an Image layer, Levels alpha works.

Interesting, I did not spot that detail