Some brushes not working or broken in affinity designer 2 pixel persona?

[vinbrooke]

Hi I'm a new affinity user and I really enjoy it so far.

I've been mainly getting accustomed to making raster art with designer in pixel persona and mixing it with vector details.

Everything seems to work great except some brushes appear to be broken or not work?
For example in basic category the first 2 brushes round brush sizes 1 and 2 have no stroke preview in the window, and if I select them and draw on the canvas it creates a new pixel layer but no lines appear.

I noticed the same happen with some other but instead they leave a ghostly transparent line if I go veeeery slowly but nothing if I go fast.
This is a very strange behavior and I wonder what's wrong?

I would really like to know the answer, thank you!

Edited August 14 by vinbrooke

[carl123]

You may be experiencing this known bug...

 

[vinbrooke]

5 minutes ago, carl123 said:

You may be experiencing this known bug...

 

I see, so it's unresolved so far if I read that correctly?

A similar but somewhat different phenomenon occurs with this brush from Frankentoon.

It has a broken preview and using it creates a new layer and no lines however it is 12 px.

What's even stranger is if I use a tablet input instead of mouse and draw with it very slowly it creates a very strange looking highly transparent line that lags behind and leaves dots or stopping and ending ghostly effects but only if you go very slow, if you move normally it simply leaves nothing.

And it's not the only one, I know these are custom brushes but they are affiliated with Serif and offered officially on their site so I thought it might be not out of place to mention it too since it might be the same bug since the behavior is the same except for the very strange "only when drawing slowly" artifacting it produces.

[vinbrooke]

I have also checked in Affinity Photo just in case there was any difference and everything is exactly the same.

[carl123]

26 minutes ago, vinbrooke said:

A similar but somewhat different phenomenon occurs with this brush from Frankentoon.

I don't have that particular brush set installed to test it but hopefully someone who does will be able to test it and see if they get the same results as you

[walt.farrell]

There are known issues using raster brushes inside vector layers, and I think you're encountering one of them.

Try it without the Layer container, just on the canvas.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&tags=AF-489

[vinbrooke]

17 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

There are known issues using raster brushes inside vector layers, and I think you're encountering one of them.

Try it without the Layer container, just on the canvas.

https://forum.affinity.serif.com/index.php?/search/&tags=AF-489

Here is the result if I understood correctly, it behaves the same way.

Edited August 14 by vinbrooke

[StuartRc]

27 minutes ago, vinbrooke said:

Here is the result if I understood correctly, it behaves the same way.

 

Interesting.
This threw me for a bit thinking that it was to do with the multiply being set on the context tool bar...but it isn't
I believe it is a product of the 100% hardness in the brush dynamics (100%) or context bar....

If you set it to say 90% the brush should function on the canvas...also you could just increase the size to compensate..
So you could just make it work and save the adjusted settings. No idea why it is set this way!

[vinbrooke]

10 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

Interesting.
This threw me for a bit thinking that it was to do with the multiply being set on the context tool bar...but it isn't
I believe it is a product of the 100% hardness in the brush dynamics (100%) or context bar....

If you set it to say 90% the brush should function on the canvas...also you could just increase the size to compensate..
So you could just make it work and save the adjusted settings. No idea why it is set this way!

Huh, so indeed setting the hardness lower than 100 for basic brush size 1 and 2 does make it work, however it is 100 for 4 and above and they still function, it's just the 1 and 2. (the stroke preview is still blank)

As for the gel pen I can't appear to be able to change the hardness as it is greyed out and won't allow me to manipulate it in any way.

[StuartRc]

2 minutes ago, vinbrooke said:

Huh, so indeed setting the hardness lower than 100 for basic brush size 1 and 2 does make it work, however it is 100 for 4 and above and they still function, it's just the 1 and 2. (the stroke preview is still blank)

As for the gel pen I can't appear to be able to change the hardness as it is greyed out and won't allow me to manipulate it in any way.

The gell pen is probably a different issue..I will take a look!😀

[StuartRc]

Just now, StuartRc said:

The gell pen is probably a different issue..I will take a look!😀

You sholud be able to just save the brush with a new setting...I can get a duplicate 'Invisible brush' 2px to appear just by changing the hardness. Are you editing the brush? have you a red update line ?

[StuartRc]

For the Frankentoon Gel brush for me it is displaying as a solid. To create the effect displayed on the brush panel you are seeing. It looks as the spacing is off. It has a flow and flow gitter setting. try adusting thse to see what you get. Export the set and re-import if you cannot edit

 

I am using the beta version at moment to test it as I dont want to interfere with what I am working on..there may be a difference 

[vinbrooke]

3 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

For the Frankentoon Gel brush for me it is displaying as a solid. To create the effect displayed on the brush panel you are seeing. It looks as the spacing is off. It has a flow and flow gitter setting. try adusting thse to see what you get. Export the set and re-import if you cannot edit

Sorry I'm not quite sure I understand but here are the settings it's at, the hardness is greyed out so I cannot change it.

I tried exporting and re-importing the set and this brush and adjusting spacing, flow and jitter but none of them seem to change anything.

[StuartRc]

Some brush settings only function of specific or different types of brush... as
basic brush will allow a hardness setting adjustment and shape I believe 
raster brush with nozzle probably does not

 

Most of my brushes are raster + nozzle based so don't really consider the issue. If I want a transparent or tint for  brush or colour I tend to just tap the 0-9 on the keybard to re-adjust the opacity. The Blend modes individually set to brushes are a real pain if working on brush sets unless you reset all to none in the dynamics in the first instance (Otherwise every time you change a brush it will influence the dynamics settings) Sort of same applies to Wet edges...Only use where needed!

[vinbrooke]

4 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

Some brush settings only function of specific or different types of brush... as
basic brush will allow a hardness setting adjustment and shape I believe 
raster brush with nozzle probably does not

I see, so since these changes wouldn't affect it could it just simply be corrupted?
I'm unfamiliar with how it works so I'm not sure if that's a possibility.

Edited August 14 by vinbrooke

[StuartRc]

2 minutes ago, vinbrooke said:

I see, so since these changes wouldn't affect it could it just simply be corrupted?
I'm unfamiliar with how it works so I'm not sure if that's a possibility.

It could be an issue.. but when I imported Splat brushes before There have been a few issue in the past...but overall it is a pretty good brush set. can you duplicate brush and edit the dynamics to see if you can fix.edit it manually?

[vinbrooke]

3 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

It could be an issue.. but when I imported Splat brushes before There have been a few issue in the past...but overall it is a pretty good brush set. can you duplicate brush and edit the dynamics to see if you can fix.edit it manually?

Of course, which dynamics settings should I change?

I tried setting it all to 0% and "none" and it was the same.

[vinbrooke]

I seem to have made some headway...

So I looked at the store page again and it says version 1.9+ so I went and downloaded latest version 1 of designer from here https://store.serif.com/en-us/update/windows/designer/1/

And what do you know the gel pen actually works as intended hooray, so maybe it's just incompatible with version 2?

 

However now the next brush, the runny fineliner seems to work incorrectly in both versions at least according to the guide.

It has a feathering transparent edges when according to preview it's supposed to be solid... 🤪

I guess I'll have to take this one up with Frankentoon... but since this set seems to be abandoned since version 1 I imagine I might not get a response.

[walt.farrell]

1 hour ago, vinbrooke said:

but since this set seems to be abandoned since version 1 I imagine I might not get a response.

"Not updated since V1" does not necessarily mean "abandoned". It may simply be that the brushes do what they wanted them to do, and they haven't had a reason to do any updates.

2 hours ago, vinbrooke said:

As for the gel pen I can't appear to be able to change the hardness as it is greyed out and won't allow me to manipulate it in any way.

Hardness cannot be set for most raster brushes. It is fixed at 80% by design.

---

For what it's worth, the Frankentoon Splat Gell Pen seems to work fine for me in Designer 2 Pixel Persona, on both macOS and Windows.

[StuartRc]

The brush set was working fine for me when I installed it from account into new Beta version. But I have seen issues with a few of the brushes before. The brush dynamics were changed with some extra options and features older brush sets would not have these settings available. I have had to update a number of brush sets to compensate for this. It was worth it as the brushes are much more flexible with new dynamics.

I am pleased you have made some progress😀

 

I looked it up

2.2 Shortcuts for brushes
2.1 Brush Panel Improvements
2.0
Recent raster brushes by layer
brush panel grid view
Brush Engine improvements (Re-order Nozzles, Any colour for intensity brushes)
Distance added to dynamics
Brush tip interpolation
Improved performance

[StuartRc]

Ok I had a look at the brush
It not displaying because of the Blend Mode | Wet Edges and Associated tool functions on the Brush panel. I cannot remember when the Associated tool option was added to Designer!.. but it is a more recent addition. 
So with the specific brush... It is there but not working as expected with its exisitng settings. If you go into Brush edit (DD click on brush) and adjust:
Blend Mode: Normal
Wet Edges: Dont set wet edges
Associated Tool: No associated tool
The brush should appear..You may also need to adjust the accumulation. 
Make sure you turn off the comensurate tools on the context bar...they tend to stick around even if the brush has changed

After this you should be able to edit | use | destroy the brush

[vinbrooke]

Sorry it took so long to reply, I wasn't aware you could only make 10 posts per 24 hours so I had to wait out the time limit.

18 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

"Not updated since V1" does not necessarily mean "abandoned". It may simply be that the brushes do what they wanted them to do, and they haven't had a reason to do any updates.

Hardness cannot be set for most raster brushes. It is fixed at 80% by design.

---

For what it's worth, the Frankentoon Splat Gell Pen seems to work fine for me in Designer 2 Pixel Persona, on both macOS and Windows.

That is fair, I said abandoned under the idea that it was only useable in version 1 which would mean it hasn't been fixed in multiple years but if it does work in version 2 out of the box then that is very strange.

I guess I should've mentioned I'm using version 2.5.3 (the latest one I was offered for download on their page)

17 hours ago, StuartRc said:

The brush set was working fine for me when I installed it from account into new Beta version. But I have seen issues with a few of the brushes before. The brush dynamics were changed with some extra options and features older brush sets would not have these settings available. I have had to update a number of brush sets to compensate for this. It was worth it as the brushes are much more flexible with new dynamics.

I am pleased you have made some progress😀

 

I looked it up

2.2 Shortcuts for brushes
2.1 Brush Panel Improvements
2.0
Recent raster brushes by layer
brush panel grid view
Brush Engine improvements (Re-order Nozzles, Any colour for intensity brushes)
Distance added to dynamics
Brush tip interpolation
Improved performance

Ah so that might be it then, perhaps it was fixed in beta and simply doesn't work in 2.5.3?

17 hours ago, StuartRc said:

Ok I had a look at the brush
It not displaying because of the Blend Mode | Wet Edges and Associated tool functions on the Brush panel. I cannot remember when the Associated tool option was added to Designer!.. but it is a more recent addition. 
So with the specific brush... It is there but not working as expected with its exisitng settings. If you go into Brush edit (DD click on brush) and adjust:
Blend Mode: Normal
Wet Edges: Dont set wet edges
Associated Tool: No associated tool
The brush should appear..You may also need to adjust the accumulation. 
Make sure you turn off the comensurate tools on the context bar...they tend to stick around even if the brush has changed

After this you should be able to edit | use | destroy the brush

I see!

It was the "set wet edges on" setting that was not allowing it to be displayed!

Changing blend mode or associated tool doesn't do anything as far as I can tell, now it can be displayed however it looks wrong, it's still transparent and lacking the texture so maybe I'll have to tweak other settings now that I can see it.

I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what comensurate tools on the context bar are?

[StuartRc]

Hi 

with regards to the settings for brushes (Set wet edges on & blend mode). These options are available in the brush editing area
When you select a tool addtional options appear on the second bar at top of screen. If you select the brush you will find 'Wet Edges' and 'Blend Mode' available on the right side.

If you apply these settings in the brush editing panel. They should be reflected on the bar. However they can get 'sticky' If I was working on a brush set I tend to make sure all settings for Blend Mode Wet Edges and Associated tool are off Otherwise you can get unexpected results when brushes are switched in the brush panel.

The 'transparency' was been controlled by the accumulation settings

There appears to be a sub-brush within the brush which adds strokes at end of brush and set to a smaller size. In the brush dynamics of the sub-brush have a play around with the size and flow jitter settings...