Diffuse brushes

[GFS]

I'm using the Dodge/Burn brush on a pixel layer.

 

Is there any way in AFPhoto to 'diffuse' a brush when painting?  By this I mean, you paint a stroke and can then diffuse, or soften that stroke by using another tool, so that it's effect is softened and becomes less intense with less distinct edges.  Sort of like adding water to a water colour painting.

[anon1]

Like

Reduce hardness to 0%?

[GFS]

Hi MBd.

 

No.  That's not what I mean.

 

I'm looking at being able to soften the effect of brush strokes 'after the fact' as it were.  Sometimes when painting it looks fine as you do it and then you sit back and look at it again and think there's maybe an area that is too strong.  My old app lets me switch to a brush that will 'diffuse' or water down the effect of the brush strokes.  Very useful.

[anon1]

Add a mask and paInt black the areas you want to hide?

[GFS]

Yes, but not quite the same simplicity.  It's such a lovely tool, I'm missing it quite a bit in AFP.  Ho hum.

[anon1]

You can set your layer blend mode to soft light and then use a 50% grey brush

 

Or you can use the eraser with low opacity and hardnes

 

Or the smudge tool (there are also some smudge tool brushes from Paolo available)

 

Not really sure what the other tool that you mention does differently

[TEcHNOpls]

Can you provied some viausal aids as to what you want to achieve? From my perspective it's very vague what you want to achieve. (screenshots, video grabs, or similar are best).

Also, I undestand it's some kind of tool parameter, on/off type. Not something you can apply to an old painting?

[GFS]

Okay.

 

So just to be clear, I can use this brush on any layer type ... image or adjustment, not just paint.   What it's doing is diffusing the layer's (brush) mask.  It just sort of waters it down.  It's not just blurring, because it's becoming increasingly transparent at the same time.  The heavy jpeging of the video makes it look a bit blocky, but you get the idea.

[anon1]

that is pretty much the exact result of the smudge tool 

 

you can adjust Strength to 100% and flow sth. like 2% ... works 

[GFS]

I just tried the smudge tool in AFP, in the same scenario as my video ... and it smudges.  It's not the same thing.

 

I have a separate tool for smudging in my old app.  (I'm also reminded how incredibly fast my old app is).

 

I'll make a feature request, because it's such a nice brush to have.

[carl123]

Filters > Noise > Diffuse
 

Then some Gaussian Blur
 

Comes close to the final output in your video

 

You can also then reduce the opacity to make it more transparent