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Hi. Two questions...

-I noticed that the brush strokes often do not change to a newly selected brush type, even though the new brush type is hilighted in the brush menu.  It sometimes takes several clicks before the stroke matches the selected brush type (and I'm not even sure it is the clicking that finally changes it, or a delay or what).  What could be happening here?

-A few times, when using the image based brushes (ex. rope, sock/sweater), the stroke would be monochromatic, rather than coloured, like the 'thumbnail' in the brush list.  What might be causing that?  I tried different colours, black and white, but it always was monochromatic (tinted to the selected colour).

 

Windows7 Pro, 32gigs RAM, i7

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6 hours ago, ladlon said:

-A few times, when using the image based brushes (ex. rope, sock/sweater), the stroke would be monochromatic, rather than coloured, like the 'thumbnail' in the brush list.  What might be causing that?  I tried different colours, black and white, but it always was monochromatic (tinted to the selected colour).

 

If you don’t want an image brush stroke to be tinted to the selected colour, don’t select a colour! When the colour is set to ‘None’, you should find that the original colours are displayed.

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Hi, guys.  Thanks for the responses.

Re: Brush not changing:

I am not talking about the brush reacting dynamically (ex. pen pressure affecting size of brush, etc).  What I am talking about is that the brush itself often doesn't change when I click on a different brush in the brush list (although the new brush in the list hilights).  Sometimes, it works as intended (ex. Have a regular brush selected, paint a stroke (which is a regular brush stroke), select a different brush (ex. splattery one), new brush hilights in list, paint a stroke, and the stroke is a splattery one)... whereas sometimes it doesn't seem to switch the brush (ex. Have a regular brush selected, paint a stroke (which is a regular brush stroke), select a different brush (ex. splattery one), new brush hilights in list, paint a stroke, and the stroke is the SAME as the previous one).  Sometimes it takes two clicks in the brush list to have the brush cursor (and resulting stroke) to change to the new brush... sometimes as much as 4 clicks.

When it was acting up, I could paint a stroke, select a new brush (new brush hilights in list), paint a stroke (still the old brush type stroke), select the same (new) brush, paint a stroke (still the old brush type stroke), select the same (new) brush, etc, etc... up to 4 or so times before the brush changed.

I didn't notice this issue for the first few days I had AP.  It seems it MAY have showed up after I installed some of the bonus brushes (although I think it affects all brushes).  I'd say it happens at least half the time when I select a new brush.

 

Re: Tinted image brush:

Ya, that's what I would assume, but I thought I tried that, too, and it still tinted it for some reason.  I'll have to retest that, as that makes complete sense, and sounds like how it shold work.  I tried it again before posting the original question, and it was seemingly doing it randomly (some brushes had their custom colours, some were tinted monochormatically)... but, ya, I'll test it again, and be sure that the None colour IS in fact on.

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Because you mentioned the rope & sock/sweater in your first post, I am assuming you are working with Affinity Designer & not Affinity Photo. Is that correct?

 

If so, note that there are two kinds of brushes in AD, vector brushes (accessible in the Draw Persona) & raster brushes (accessible in the Pixel Persona). Vector brushes can applied to the paths (the strokes) of vector objects, like those made with the Pen or shape tools. Like any other vector stroke they can be set or changed at any time by selecting a different vector brush from the Brushes panel when the vector object is selected. Raster brushes are different. They 'paint' pixels onto pixel layers & cannot be changed once painted, other than by erasing or modifying then with the usual pixel-based methods.

 

So the first thing to establish is which app (& Persona) you are using, & the second is the type of brush. Do that & someone should be able to help you sort this out.

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Hi, R C-R.  Thanks for the response.  Ya, I totally understand those aspects (personas, vector vs bitmap, dynamic brushes, etc), but I think everyone is misunderstanding the issue I'm referring to.

I'm not talking about changing/editing existing strokes.  I'm talking about painting a stroke, selecting a NEW/DIFFERENT brush, painting ANOTHER stroke... and that second stroke is the same as the first stroke, as opposed to the style of the second brush.

Different way to explain it: Imagine you have RED selected as a colour... You paint a stroke, and it is red.  You then go to the colour wheel, and select blue as your current colour.  The 'Current Colour' indicator shows the current colour as blue (as expected), but when you paint a (new) stroke, it paints it in RED (not blue), despite the fact that you not only selected blue, but also that the Current Colour indicator shows blue.  You select blue again, do a stroke... still red... select blue again, do another stroke, and now it's finally a blue stroke (....the actual number of times you have to reselect blue is kind of random).  Now, apply this same issue, but instead of colour, it's the brush type (the 'brush shape/behavior' from the Brush list).

 

Sorry, I should have mentioned, I have both AD and AP.  I believe this is happening exclusively in AD currently.  I'll have to doublecheck that.  I suspect it MAY have something to do with the Daum Blackbox brush pack, which I recently installed (...I don't recall this issue happening previous to that).  Not sure why it would affect ALL brushes, though... if it is in fact to blame.

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I just did another test (the issue still exists... in this case, in AD).

Take a look at the screen grab.  In this test, I selected each brush, starting from the bottom (chain brush), painting a stroke (first one is on the left, and each new one is right of that), then selected the next brush (verifying that the brush in the list hilights to indicate it is chosen), and paint a new stroke to the right of the previous stroke/brush).

As you can see, the first brush painted properly (chain), I selected the next one up (rope) and painted a stroke, and that worked fine, too...

I then selected the next stroke (regular paint stroke above the rope one in the list) and painted a stroke... the third last in the brush list... and instead of a regular paint stroke, it painted as the rope brush again.

I selected the next brush (4th last in the brush list), and did a stroke... still the rope stroke.

I selected the next brush up (5th last on in brush list), and NOW suddenly it stops painting as a rope, and does the proper, selected brush.

But, then I select the next brush above that (6th last in brush list), and it now is staying as the previous brush, as it did with the rope...

And so on...  It's like it randomly fails to change the brush, even though a new brush is selected and indicated by a hilight.

 

I did the same test a minute later, and this time, it worked perfectly fine (each stroke was different, and the proper stroke for the brush that was selected each time).

Either a random occurrance, or something triggers it... but it is definitely there, and happens seemingly at least half the time for me.

 

BrushSwitchIssue.thumb.JPG.e09baefe3609c4b75c71efd665b596a3.JPG

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I am still not sure I understand the issue you are having but try this:

 

1. Draw a path with the Pen tool. It does not matter if it is open or closed or if you have selected a textured, image, Daub, or whatever type of vector brush or its stroke width.

2. While the path is selected with either the Pen, Move, or Node tool active, click on the vector brush style you want to use.

3. Does the path immediately get that brush style & its default stroke width?

 

If so, as best as I can tell this is how it is supposed to work -- that is, only after the path is created can you set any of the vector brush styles to it. There is no inheritance or 'stickiness' for vector paths -- they all start out as plain 'unbrushed' paths.

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Hello again, R C-R... No, again, you are talking about editing an existing stroke.  Yes, that's exactly how it is supposed to work, no arguement there.  You select a stroke, and can alter it.

Again, I'm talking about simply switching the brush for a NEW stroke.  See/read my post above.  We are talking about totally different things here.

It's like if you are painting with blue paint, and then switch to red paint (and the software is showing you currently have RED paint as your colour), and you do a new stroke, and it's blue, rather than red.  You do 3 more strokes, and they are all blue... You select RED again, do a stroke... still blue....  Select RED yet again... do a stroke, still blue...  Select red again, do a stroke... now suddenly it's red, as it is supposed to be (...the other strokes obviously stay blue).

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Hi ladlon,

Welcome to Affinity Forums :)

I'm not able to reproduce this here. What Affinity Designer version are you running (Retail or Beta)?

Can you please clear the user defaults and check if it works properly afterwards: to do it press and hold CTRL while launching the app until a Clear User Data dialog appears. Keep the first boxed ticked (Clear User Defaults) then press the Clear button (don't tick the reset brushes checkbox). Does it work correctly after the reset?

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This is what the above screen shot should have looked like if it did it properly (as it did in this latest test you see in my second image)...  Again, I went from the bottom of the brush list, selecting the next brush (upwards), and painting a stroke (to the right of the previous one), and then selected the next brush up, did a stroke, and so on.

The second image shows a different style of stroke each time, as expected.  The first image shows what happens often, where the stroke the brush creates is NOT reflective of the brush that was selected when it was done (even though the correct brush is hilighted in the list).

 

CorrectStrokes.thumb.JPG.8d648a9395b7da7864ba65817aea445b.JPG

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Hi, MEB.  I'm using v 1.6.1.93 of AD.

I have to check if this is also happening in AP.  I'll get back to you on that.

I'll try clearing the defaults, as suggested.

I did not notice this issue previously, and SEEMS to be happening after I installed the Daum Blackbox brushes (...not sure if it was them specifically that may have caused this, as I added some of the bonus material as well, but the Blackbox was the latest one (yesterday), and I don't recall this issue beforehand.

Right now, it's working fine (as shown in the second image).  It's very odd... just kind of randomly happens (and often, it continually happens, after it is 'triggered').

I'll get back to you shortlyl...

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I did the same tests a few times again, rebooting AD as well.  I hadn't done the default reset yet, as I wanted to see if I could narrow down what may be triggering this, before possibly wiping out the issue with a reset.

The strokes behaved properly for several runs of the test (so, I started to think it might be a 'happens after you boot up' type of thing, although it was running fine even after bootup in my latest tests.

I just kept changing brushes, and doing new strokes... everything currently good...  then switched to the Pixel persona, and did the same... still good...

Went back to the Design persona, did some more strokes (changing the brush between each)... all good... and then SUDDENLY, it did it again... I was using the rope brush, painted a rope stroke, selected another brush, painted a stroke, and it's the rope stroke again.

Still trying to figure out what might be triggering this.

I will do the reset in a bit... just want to explore while this is still doing the issue.

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23 minutes ago, ladlon said:

Hello again, R C-R... No, again, you are talking about editing an existing stroke.

Actually, I was talking about both editing an existing stroke and creating new ones. At least for me, a newly created vector path does not use a selected vector brush style until after it is created and then I click on the brush style.

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@MEB : Okay, I'll update the version.  Thanks.  Isn't there any kind of notification of new versions by the software or a Check For Updates feature?

@MEB : Is using the Reset User Defaults in the Miscelaneous Preferences section the same as the CTRL-Boot method?

@ R C-R : Weird...  Mine (usually) works like a regular brush...  Select the style, paint the stroke in that style.   Then again, I'm talking about PAINTING a vector stroke, not creating a vector with (say) the pen tool, and then applying a brush stroke to it.  Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear on that in my explanation.

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Hey, MEB.  Here's something you might want to try...

Paint a stroke with the rope or chain brush.  Select it wtih the white arrow tool.

Now randomly click between some of the 'regular brush' brushes in the brush list, and the rope/chain brushes, and see if the stroke updates.

Over here, 90% of the time it does (as would be expected), but sometimes, it doesn't (even though the clicked brush gets properly hilighted).  Again, click between 'regular' brushes and one of the image brushes (rope/chain), as it's easier to spot when the stroke doesn't update.

This is probably the easiest/fastest way for you to possibly run into the issue I seem to have spotted.  I suspect it's the same 'issue' (if it is one) that is happening with the 'select a brush, paint a stroke... stroke is not that of the selected brush' issue I'm talking about.

Again, I'll try the default reset in a while, but wanted to explore this issue while it's still 'live'.

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UPDATE: I reset the user defaults, and I'm still noticing the issue (specifically... paint a stroke, select it, randomly click through brush types in brush list).  Once in a while, the clicked brush in the list hilights, but the stroke doesn't update.  I was randomly clicking between the rope and chain brushes in the list, and every once in a while, the stroke didn't update (but the hilight did).  I tried it slower, seeing if it was just a 'you're clicking too fast' type of thing, but it happens on slow clicks, too.

 

FYI, I'm notoriously good at spotting bugs, it seems.  I think my workflows and patterns are maybe different from the general public... or I just have lousy luck.  I tend to spot issues within minutes of installing software!

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Hello, dutchshader.  The most recent quick tests I've been doing today (updating an existing stroke) have been done with a mouse.

I think I experienced the main issue ('NEW stroke' tests) with both the mouse and tablet... but if I'm not mistaken, I think it showed up more often with the tablet.

I'll do some tests with the tablet, and verify whether it's more frequent.

 

MOMENTS LATER:

I just did a quick test (painting a stroke, changing the brush, painting a new stroke), first with the mouse, and then another test with the tablet.

Even though I only did about 4-5 strokes, I found the mouse worked fine (this time around), but the 4-5 tablet drawn strokes did run into the issue (new strokes were of the previous brush style, and not the selected brush style).  Granted, I'd need to do this far more often to really get a proper 'ratio of error' between them, but for a quick test, it seemed like the tablet had the issue occur more often.  Thanks for bringing that up!  Might be a clue...

 

AND A LITTLE BIT LATER AFTER THAT:

Yep, it definitely seems like the tablet has that happen quite frequently (yet it still DOES happen with the mouse, just not as freuquently).  I was painting strokes and changing the brush types, and it was happening quite often... switch to the mouse, it behaved (for the most part), switched to the tablet, immediate return of the issue!

@MEB : Again, please try some of these tests, if you like.  I wish I could record the screen on my work computer to show you it happening.  I didn't adjust much (if at all) in the settings/interface.  Pretty much vanilla.  Defaults have been reset.  The only difference, is that I DO have the bonus content added (offered by Affinity).  I think it was working with those fine, and MAYBE it was the Blackbox install that did it.  Never noticed any issue until I installed that (a day or two ago).  Might be coincidence, though.  I have to install the latest version of AD.

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two tests with tablet

switch from eyelets to emboidery, both strokes come up as the eyelets brush.

eyelets.png.d2611e5fbc4d092c58c834079d6c1a22.png

and in pixel persona, the last stroke was painted with the smokebrush selected

brush.png.94ff5a361994a6a3f81961bb11c9e8d4.png

i get the same result in photo

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@MEB : I used my iTouch to do a recording of me showing the issue, but I suspect it's too big to upload (got an error when I tried, even though it appears to be within the size limits).  I just did another video where I talk through it as well, which may be more helpful.  Is there an email I could send the video to?  I don't want to clog the forum with a large file.

 

@dutchshader : Yep, that's like what I am experiencing... Issues with both painting new strokes with a vector brush... as well as in updating an existing stroke (by clicking on a different brush in the brush list).  Tablet is definitely showing the issue more often, but it's happening with the mouse.  Can't find any real pattern or trigger for it.  Just kind of happens randomly.  It appears that all clicks in the brush list window do NOT always change the brush (even though the hilight changes).  When you are trying it out, keep an eye on the brush properties palette (on mine, it's right below the brush list, but may be different on yours).  You'll see that when the brush DOESN'T properly update, the properties don't either (indicating the brush really isn't being changed, just the hilight).  When you DO see the properties change, you know that the stroke you paint WILL be proper.

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1 hour ago, ladlon said:

@ R C-R : Weird...  Mine (usually) works like a regular brush...  Select the style, paint the stroke in that style.   Then again, I'm talking about PAINTING a vector stroke, not creating a vector with (say) the pen tool, and then applying a brush stroke to it.  Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear on that in my explanation.

So to clear up any lingering confusion, are you saying you are using the Vector Brush Tool in Affinity Designer's Draw Persona? I asked about the "type of brush" you were using in one of my earliest replies, by which I mean the name of the tool, but I guess I was not clear about that. :(

 

Anyway, when I use the Vector Brush Tool, it always uses (or switches to) the brush selected in the Brushes panel without any extra clicks or erratic behavior. I am using a Mac & the current 1.6.0 retail version of Affinity Designer. I don't know if you have discovered a bug only in the Windows version, but it does not seem to be present in the Mac one.

All 3 1.10.8, & all 3 V2.4.1 Mac apps; 2020 iMac 27"; 3.8GHz i7, Radeon Pro 5700, 32GB RAM; macOS 10.15.7
Affinity Photo 
1.10.8; Affinity Designer 1.108; & all 3 V2 apps for iPad; 6th Generation iPad 32 GB; Apple Pencil; iPadOS 15.7

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