Brush tool doesn't paint a mask

[SG Pilgrim]

Creating a masked adjustment layer, then selecting the mask and trying to paint with foreground or background color doesn't seem to do anything.

Interestingly enough, if I use the gradient tool I can get a mask made. Not idea, but it works.

Seems like a bug.

 

[Old Bruce]

What are the colours you are using? Are they Black and White? Black is what you want to show the difference.  And try setting the value for the Saturation to a really low value so you can see if anything is happening, as it is you are just slightly changing the colours of the image with the 24% Vibrance.

[NotMyFault]

Whenever a brush seems to not work:

1. add a new pixel layer on top of stack
2. paint on that layer.
3. does it work?
4. if not, create a new document, add pixel layer, try brush. Does it work?
5. if Not, create a fresh basic round brush of 64px radius. Use this new brush and try again.

the usual settings seem ok in your case (brush blend mode, hardness, flow, protect alpha off etc).

 

[NotMyFault]

And try deselect all. An active selection can spoil your day.

[R C-R]

5 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

And try deselect all. An active selection can spoil your day.

That would be my guess as the most likely cause.

BTW, @SG Pilgrim, @NotMyFault means a 'marching ants' pixel selection not deselecting layers/objects. 

[SG Pilgrim]

Thanks for the ideas everyone.

@Old Bruce I check the color, it was set to grayscale. However, the other color systems had the same issue.

@NotMyFault There wasn't anything selected, and just to be sure I used the Select > Deselect menu

While working through your ideas a couple times I did stumble on the issue.

It seems I'm not able to paint on a pixel layer, or edit a mask outside the artboard.

However, if I drag the object into the artboard then edit the mask or pixel layer everything works as expected. I can then move the object back off the artboard and continue editing either the pixel layer or the mask as desired, but I first have to drag the object into the artboard space.

[NotMyFault]

Related to AF-6678

Pixel layers and masks behave unexpected when used in documents with artboards.

• Painting can be capped at artboard edges, sometimes inconsistent in only specific directions
• visibility is capped at artboard edges (when able to paint) (always, somehow consistent but nexpected to some users)
• while painting on layer outside of artboard, layer may get moved into artboard. This is always unwanted e.g. for adjustment layers
• The area where you can paint is the bounding box of all artboards.

 

[NotMyFault]

Strong recommendation: never do any brush work outside of an artboard. Unless you intend to get surprised 

[NotMyFault]

9 hours ago, SG Pilgrim said:

It seems I'm not able to paint on a pixel layer, or edit a mask outside the artboard.

You can paint inside the bounding box defined by all artboards, even if layer is outside an artboard.

in case you have 2 artboard with a huge gap between them, you can paint in the gap.

[nickbatz]

Is the artboard a Photoshop term for the Canvas?

I hadn't heard it, looked it up in the manual, and there's nothing there.

[Old Bruce]

12 minutes ago, nickbatz said:

Is the artboard a Photoshop term for the Canvas?

No. An Artboard can be made only in Designer, not Photo nor Publisher. It is more like a Layer or a Group than The Canvas.

[R C-R]

23 minutes ago, Old Bruce said:

No. An Artboard can be made only in Designer, not Photo nor Publisher. It is more like a Layer or a Group than The Canvas.

But the other Affinity apps can open & work with documents that have had artboards created in AD, including duplicating tghem, renaming them, deleting them, & so on.

[SG Pilgrim]

19 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

Strong recommendation: never do any brush work outside of an artboard. Unless you intend to get surprised 

Indeed. It has been quite a surprise, but now I know.

It still seems a bit strange to me that it works after I move the object into the artboard area. Once I've done that, I can move the object anywhere outside the artboard (or it's bounding box) and continue to edit as expected.

Again,
Thank you gents (presumably) for the assist.

[NotMyFault]

3 hours ago, SG Pilgrim said:

It still seems a bit strange to me that it works after I move the object into the artboard area

Painting within pixel layers works only inside the area of artboards.

Photo has the same (very similar) restriction. You can paint only inside the visible canvas, all strokes outside the canvas are prohibited in principle.

For Designer, artboards take over the role of canvas, and in case of multiple artboards Affinity use a performance optimization and calculate the bounding box of all artboards.

But beware: all gets really messy if you rotate a pixel layers, or move it so it now extends over the canvas or artboard edges. The Affinity uses „auto extend“ of bitmap layers and allows to increase the bitmap layers even outside the canvas - but only into specific directions. A bug was filed recently about this, and I filed multiple bug reports long time ago because rotating bugs leads to excessive „auto extension“ letting layer and file size explode.

[NotMyFault]

 

 

[NotMyFault]

Loosely related

 

 

[Alfred]

23 hours ago, NotMyFault said:

in case you have 2 artboard with a huge gap between them, you can paint in the gap.

If you have two artboards with a tiny gap between them, you can zoom in and paint in the gap.

<off-topic>
”in case” refers to contingency plans, as in “I’ll take an umbrella in case it rains later”.
</off-topic>

[thomaso]

3 hours ago, Alfred said:

”in case” refers to contingency plans

"My name is Justin."

"I did not ask."

"Justin Case."

[CaroleA]

I came to post just about that. I can brush anything on my photo, but as soon as I add a mask layer, the brush has no effect. The same thing happens with Adjustment layers.

I know I am not proficient with Affinity Photo yet, but I tried everything suggested in this thread and nothing works.

 

[SG Pilgrim]

Try making sure the mask is selected, that your colors are set to default (black and white), additionally I would check to make sure that the mask layer mode is set to normal and give it another try.

If none of these work either, if possible, upload the document and I / we can try editing the mask to see if it works or not.

 

[CaroleA]

Try making sure the mask is selected - checked

that your colors are set to default (black and white),- checked

make sure that the mask layer mode is set to normal - do you mean the brush blend mode? if so, checked. If not, I am not sure what you are referring to.

[SG Pilgrim]

My UI is customized, but the layer mode is at the top of the layers panel. If it's not open by default, then using the menu, select Window > Layers.

 

What I call "brush like" tools are pointed too by the shorter arrows, they are Clone Stamp, Healing Brush, Undo Brush. There's also the Pain Mixer Brush I didn't highlight, but I think you get the idea.

Not sure what else might be the issue.

[CaroleA]

Still nothing. Here is my demo:

- brush on the image - it works

- add a mask layer - brush on the mask layer - nothing

- undo back to the original image

- rasterize (in case) - brush on the image - it works

- add a mask layer - brush on the mask layer - nothing

https://www.loom.com/share/cffbb5813a0a422e81ba0638a3f6a085?sid=c1404152-05ac-457a-91d3-ceeae731635f

[R C-R]

53 minutes ago, CaroleA said:

I came to post just about that. I can brush anything on my photo, but as soon as I add a mask layer, the brush has no effect.

• Make sure the Paint Brush Tool selected.
• On the Context Toolbar, make sure "Protect Alpha" is not enabled (you may have to expand the toolbar with the ⨠ button to see that option because it is the last item in that toolbar).
• Make sure you have selected the Mask layer & not its parent.
• Make sure are using a dark (ideally black) brush color.

Do you now see an effect when you paint ?

Same for your adjustment layer.

[CaroleA]

That was it: the Protect Alpha was checked. Thank you.