Staight lines with the Brush tool

[supermundane]

Hello,

 

I've performed a search for this to see if someone may have a solution but couldn't find anything so I'll post my question. Apologies if this has already been answered.

 

I'm beginning my gradual migration from Photoshop to Photo and I thought I've begin to sketch out an interior space for a client using Photo instead of Photoshop. In sketching out the space I would like to draw simple straight lines as is possible in Photoshop - hold Shift click with the pen where you'd like line to begin and where you'd like it to end. In Photo it always works from the last drawn line or seemingly where the tablet has last detected the stylus leading to undesired results.

 

Is there a way to configure it so that it performs like Photoshop or an alternative that permits the freehand drawing of straight lines without having the line begin from the last point of contact. As it stands the straight line option via the Shift key is unusable. I've adjusted the sensitivity of my Cintiq but to no avail. Is there perhaps something I'm missing?

 

Thanks

-grant

[toltec]

If you want to use the paint brush tool to draw a line. Click where you want the line to start and shift click where you want it to end. That draws a straight line from point to point.

 

Mind you, for what you want to do, drawing a vector line is much better and faster and you have far more control. You can even draw a line with a gradient color and of course you can turn it into a pixel line at any time by rasterizing it. You can also draw squares or shapes (open or closed) with the polygon option and you could turn a straight line into a curve. 

 

The line can be edited or moved at any time because they stay independent as a layer. You can group them of course. Better to make sure each line is exactly right first (or move it) before committing it to stone.

 

Select the pen tool, click on the line mode button (circled) and it will draw a vector line from point to point. No need to even press shift first. If you click on the line stroke option on the context bar you can decide on if you want rounded ends, butt ends etc.

 

If you use the polygon tool (to the left) it keeps drawing until you press return or escape.

 

Hold down "shift" to constrain the line.

[supermundane]

Thanks toltec. I realised that it's Shift as it is with Photoshop however what I seemed to be doing was holding shift as I was accustomed to in Photoshop before I placed my starting position with the pen. It's a habit I'll have to break.

 

Thanks again!

[supermundane]

Is there however a way of constraining the line as you draw as there is with PS? That is something that AP doesn't appear to be able to do. That is, not clicking a start point, holding shift and clicking an end point but an equivalent to holding shift and simply drawing so that the line is straight irrespective of your hand control?

 

For quick sketching I'd rather not use the vector or polygon tool as when I'm sketching out an architectural feature for example, I quickly alternate in Photoshop between Shift constrained lines and free lines as necessary

[Joschi]

This is exactly what I'm trying to tell them all the time what people who sketch a lot really needs. They don't understand, that the way how affinity now works to create straight line, is useless and very inaccurate. Not everyone wants to work with paths and polygons to create lines. There are many who just want to be able to create straight brush lines. They need to understand, that (especially in brush mode) there is a need for a own straight line tool. Their only answer regarding this is : "create  line by first click start- and second click end"

 

 

[R C-R]

22 minutes ago, Joschi said:

This is exactly what I'm trying to tell them all the time what people who sketch a lot really needs. They don't understand, that the way how affinity now works to create straight line, is useless and very inaccurate. Not everyone wants to work with paths and polygons to create lines. There are many who just want to be able to create straight brush lines. They need to understand, that (especially in brush mode) there is a need for a own straight line tool. Their only answer regarding this is : "create  line by first click start- and second click end"

I am not quite sure I understand what the problem is but have you tried using the Pixel Tool instead of the Paint Brush tool for this? Any time you hold down the Shift key, you can click to extend a straight line from the last point to the clicked one. If you hold down the Shift key while you are dragging, the line is constrained to the horizontal or vertical component of the tool's movement.

[- S -]

On ‎13‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 7:21 AM, supermundane said:

...For quick sketching I'd rather not use the vector or polygon tool as when I'm sketching out an architectural feature for example, I quickly alternate in Photoshop between Shift constrained lines and free lines as necessary

 

This is one of the areas where Clip Studio Paint rocks.  You can set the horizon and vanishing points with the perspective rulers, then draw freehand anywhere on the canvas and the lines will automatically follow perspective.  CSP has quite a few nice rulers for this sort of thing, which would be awesome to see in Affinity products in the future.

 

Manga Studio 5 Tutorials: Rulers (Skip straight to 6:00)

[Joschi]

18 hours ago, R C-R said:

I am not quite sure I understand what the problem is but have you tried using the Pixel Tool instead of the Paint Brush tool for this? Any time you hold down the Shift key, you can click to extend a straight line from the last point to the clicked one. If you hold down the Shift key while you are dragging, the line is constrained to the horizontal or vertical component of the tool's movement.

 

This is what i meant. I don't want to create a straight line from the last point to the clicked one. It is inconvenience, slows down the drawing process and is very inaccurate, because you have estimate your A to B points in order to create a straight line (there is no useful cursor for that) I want to create several, if not hundreds single straight line - and it does no good, if a line is always created from the last clicked point. 

[gdenby]

I must be missing something here. I don't have any current experience w. Photoshop. I found this youtube vid.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt7uzDf9Bu0

 

It is from a couple of years ago. I don't know if things have changed. What is being shown is pretty much identical to what I can do in both Affinity Photo and Designer. Click anywhere, shift down and click any place else. I have a cross hair cursor to show both points. Continue to hold down shift, and proceed from one point to the next, as shown in the vid.

[Joschi]

On 14.7.2017 at 9:06 PM, gdenby said:

I must be missing something here. I don't have any current experience w. Photoshop. I found this youtube vid.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt7uzDf9Bu0

 

It is from a couple of years ago. I don't know if things have changed. What is being shown is pretty much identical to what I can do in both Affinity Photo and Designer. Click anywhere, shift down and click any place else. I have a cross hair cursor to show both points. Continue to hold down shift, and proceed from one point to the next, as shown in the vid.

 

But the Lines are always made of the last clicked point on the canvas - that's the problem I was talking about. And as you can see in the video ( from 2:18 - 2:21), in order to create a new line somewhere else on the canvas, you have to first create a "last clicked" Point, to create a line (you can see from 2:18 - 2:21, there is a green tiny dot - because of creating a last clicked point). So in reality, you do not have only a straight line, but also the dot you because you had to create a "last clicked point" in order to create a straigth line. That is useless, because it is not clean and accurate for drawing or painting - especially when your drawings are mainly (perspective) sketching. Look at Krita, and see their Line-tool. You will know what I and many other drawing/painting/sketching users mean by that.

[gdenby]

"So in reality, you do not have only a straight line, but also the dot you because you had to create a "last clicked point" in order to create a straigth line. That is useless, because it is not clean and accurate for drawing or painting - especially when your drawings are mainly (perspective) sketching. Look at Krita, and see their Line-tool. You will know what I and many other drawing/painting/sketching users mean by that."

 

Ah, I see. Yes, upon close inspection I see that Affinity Photo (and Photoshop elements, which I have) does make an initial dot, and then starts a stroke over that, and the initial dot can sometimes be seen. The Krita line tool appears to record a path, and then lays the brush on that. I think I recall Photoshop, or perhaps Corel having a feature which was stroke to path, which back when I used them was a 2 step operation. At this point Affinity doesn't, tho' there have been a few requests.

 

The closest approximation I know about it Designer's vector brush, which stretches a bitmap along a path. But w/o subsequent adjustment, doesn't make straight paths, being a freehand tool.

[mhackney]

Power PS user here converting to Affinity Photo for the last 5 months. I was just about ready to cancel my ps subscription and then ran into this exact issue. I don't know what the confusion is here. In PS, if you select the brush tool, hold the shift key, and then click and drag, the stroke will be constrained to either horizontal or vertical depending on which direction you start to drag. It seems trivial but if you've used and become accustomed to this behavior it is very useful. For instance. I frequently need to draw a horizontal line on both sides of a specific location. With this tool I can click and drag left first and then back trace to the right to extend the line to the right. I am trying to do exactly this right now on a drawing and I've spent 15 minutes trying to do it unsuccessfully when it took me 1 second in PS. I can't even snap the brush tool to a guide (which would be an acceptable option).

[supermundane]

On 20/07/2017 at 7:06 AM, mhackney said:

Power PS user here converting to Affinity Photo for the last 5 months. I was just about ready to cancel my ps subscription and then ran into this exact issue. I don't know what the confusion is here. In PS, if you select the brush tool, hold the shift key, and then click and drag, the stroke will be constrained to either horizontal or vertical depending on which direction you start to drag. It seems trivial but if you've used and become accustomed to this behavior it is very useful. For instance. I frequently need to draw a horizontal line on both sides of a specific location. With this tool I can click and drag left first and then back trace to the right to extend the line to the right. I am trying to do exactly this right now on a drawing and I've spent 15 minutes trying to do it unsuccessfully when it took me 1 second in PS. I can't even snap the brush tool to a guide (which would be an acceptable option).

This. I cannot overstate how unbelievably useful this is and necessary if you're going to win Concept Artists over from Photoshop. I'm afraid (sluggishness and non-responsiveness of the brush tool aside) I've had to put AP on ice and revert to Photoshop.

[supermundane]

My suggestion would be this. Retain the existing functionality within AP with the brush tool whilst holding SHIFT but add an ALT+SHIFT option that constrains the straight line to the horizontal and vertical as found in Photoshop and as mhackey describes. Users can always remap the shortcuts if they choose.

A dedicated line tool a la Krita would be nice also.

[onamac]

10 hours ago, supermundane said:

 

 

On 7/19/2017 at 5:06 PM, mhackney said:

I am trying to do exactly this right now on a drawing and I've spent 15 minutes trying to do it unsuccessfully when it took me 1 second in PS. I can't even snap the brush tool to a guide (which would be an acceptable option).

There are a few things that do not behave as what I've become accustomed to (from being a long-time Photoshop user) and had to launch PS just to get it done quickly. I really have big hopes for Photo though.

[chirpy]

In Affintiy Photo, when I click on a point on the canvas and then shift click, the stroke continues from the last shift clicked point, NOT the new point that I clicked independently of the shift click. Therefore, I can never start a new straight line - it always continues from the last shift clicked point.

Rather, I should say, that I have to actually MOVE the mouse while painting in order for Affintiy Photo to use that as the starting point, instead of just clicking and making a dot without moving the mouse.

Really frustrating.

[Polygonius]

Its a bug in the latest version (at least on mac). But AFAIK its on the to-fix-sheet!

[blackxacto]

21 hours ago, chirpy said:

In Affintiy Photo, when I click on a point on the canvas and then shift click, the stroke continues from the last shift clicked point, NOT the new point that I clicked independently of the shift click. Therefore, I can never start a new straight line - it always continues from the last shift clicked point.

Rather, I should say, that I have to actually MOVE the mouse while painting in order for Affintiy Photo to use that as the starting point, instead of just clicking and making a dot without moving the mouse.

Really frustrating.

(ATTENTION ALL MAC USERS) Unlike our fellow PC users, the Mac brush tool is a dinky retarded brother. You must first Click+DRAG a tiny bit+HOLD SHIFT+Click the end point on a Mac. DO YOU UNDERSTAND? You must CLICK the brush to start BUT DRAG SLIGHTLY, then, (+) Hold Shift, then, (+) Click the brush at the end point. They screwed up the Mac Brush in Affinity Photo, say it will change in AP 7, and we've heard nothing else for months. Hell, go back to Photoshop if you have it. Come back when it is corrected.

[supermundane]

/bump my own thread on this subject. Still a deal-breaker for me. Bought Affinity some time ago as it showed great promise. There have been massive improvements but my transition to Affinity Photo is on hold until this functionality (which every other competing package, commercial or free has) is implemented.

[M911]

this.  straight line pixel drawing is of major importance for me.  so many times in the last couple of weeks with AP it's taken hours extra what used to cost me minutes in PS.  AP has a lot going for it but there's so many niggling little things to bang your head against that it makes looking for something better (or god-for-f'ing-bid going back to PS) seem attractive.  no matter what the cost    

[firstdefence]

Joschi is talking about actually drawing a straight line as you move the pen or mouse, so the brush is linearly constrained as you draw, no deviations from the straight line, no organic diversion, just a pure line with a brush, well that's how I read it.

It's a bit like smooth on steroids