PainterFactory.com

I apologise if the following has already been suggested:

1) Correct brush cursor size (specifically when erasing). I would like to see a round brush cursor so that I know exactly how big the brush is.

2) Full screen option: I would like a full screen the same as Photoshop, ie. no menu's or screen borders.

 Hi all,

1.I would like to see Painter sharing the same color management engine that Photoshop currently has.

2. Fix the digital water colour tool, as explained: colour sampling with eye dropper sometimes can't give you the original colour, also, blending digital water colours sometimes don't give you smooth gradients, but rather posterized areas of colour.

3. A magnifying glass over the colour picker would be great - that triangle can be pretty small sometimes.

Perhaps it could work like the dock in MacOsX which gets bigger on mouse over.

4. Other than, that leave it alone, it's a great tool! ; )

Bernd

A few things come to mind...

 The basic 2B pencil...it just never feels "right" to me. Im not even sure how to describe it correctly....for all the glory of Painters ability to simulate natral media....the pencil has always felt wrong. I have to lower the opacity and change from a gel layer to get it to closer to what I am looking for.

Layers... Enough people have mentioned some good ideas for improvments...and I just wanted to agree. One addition...and maybe I just dont know how to do it. If I have many layers...I can "shorten" the layer window by dragging the right corner up....but I cant figure out a way to make the window larger so I can see more of the layers...I have to use the scroll side bar.

Turpentine... I dont even know if this is possiable. Id love to have something that simulates mixing turpentine with paints....the way it dilutes the color, makes it flow and thin out.

DDS.. As a video game artist we use the Nvida DDS format a lot. It be great to have support for this.

Watercolor Eraser Wet... Something changed since version 8. I used to love how this worked...now it seems a bit wonky. Can we go back :)

Multi-directional Watercolor...I love the way the water color can drip in any direction. I think it would be fantastic if it could flow in all directions at once. For instance...if I held my stylus down in one point with various amounts of pressure...the paint would flow out from that point in a radial way depending on pressure and time held down.

I love this program!

"Layers... Enough people have mentioned some good ideas for improvments...and I just wanted to agree. One addition...and maybe I just dont know how to do it. If I have many layers...I can "shorten" the layer window by dragging the right corner up....but I cant figure out a way to make the window larger so I can see more of the layers...I have to use the scroll side bar."

You have  move the Channels palette bar.  This frees up the layers palette to extend as much as you like, width and length.

 Thannks, I needed that!

Ann 

Re: Enlarging the Layers palette: 

If you have a larger group of palettes docked with the Layers and Channels palettes, like I do, and want to make the Layers palette either longer (height as in Steve's post) or both longer and wider (as in Tom's post):

Click in a blank area of the Layers palette name bar, hold, and drag the Layers palette out of the docked palette group. Then you can apply either method to enlarge the Layers palette.

To make the Layers palette both longer and wider, click the lower right corner of the Layers palette, hold, and drag down and to the right. To return it to its original (minimum) size, click and drag the lower right corner up and to the left.  

Not that anyone would want to, but I'm able to make the Layers palette fill the entire Painter screen, from the upper left corner to the lower right corner. ;)

steve szoczei:

You can resize the Layers Palette independent by grabbing the very bottom of the layer list , your cursor will change and you can then resize the list to show more / hide layers...

Like this:

Thanks and thanks to TomT  and Jinny Brown also!

Have to agree on the 2B pencil. I have that one and another (sharp pencil I think) modified with MUCH lower opacity, and some other stuff I cant recall. When I tried it out, i was thinking..."This is just a marker, this doesn't act like a pencil." Going down to around 4-7% turns it into a pencil. Ive had an issue with the capacities in painter from the start. 70% seems like 90..50 like 80..etc. With many media, you have to go down to the teens to get what feels or appears like 50% or lower. I pretty much use 50% and down as my 0-100 with several tools. I find that at very low opacity, the pencil is normal and great. A nice grey line htat responds very well to pressure with the Intuos. Also, switching to the felt nib in the Intuos grip pen, gives a more pencil feel than the paintbrush spring tip.

 I would really LOVE to have a thinner for oils. Turpentine or anything (minus the smell, cause that's why I don't do oils in the house outside of summer here!) My traditional style uses a great deal of glazing and Id love to replicate applying washes over colours. Right now, lowering the opacity and going over gives an "airbrushed" look to what I'm doing. Still messing with this of course and may try an actual airbrush to glaze some colour over areas and see how it goes. Still, Id love to have a turpentine cup to dip into and just turn the oils into a wash.

An option I'd like to see in Painter: Fading floating windows (layers, color, tools, etc.). i.e. When the pen is on the tablet and painting on the canvas, the floating windows fade out in the work space. Then when the pen is lifted off the tablet the windows fade back in. With this option there is more viewing space for the artist. This can be controlled with a single keystroke as well. Other enchanced options like animated fading, quick fade, or transparency would be available. Even though I have dual screens it would be helpful, especially for artist with a single screen. Imagine having most windows on without cluttering the work space when painting?

While with this option, another idea I have is to have a magnetic color palette or mixer. For example, while the fade option is on when the pen is off the tablet, the color pallet fades back in following the cursor around the canvas only. This way the artist doesn't have to go too far to pick a new color or mix one. Then as soon as the pen is on the tablet it fades out of view. The color/mixer palette has two options: docked and magnetic to the cursor. This would be efficient for artists as it provides convenience when in the 'zone'.

I like to request a brush in digital watercolor called a 'drip brush' which can create a dab of dripping paint run down the canvas within certain randomness. I love using that technique traditionally and it would be a nice addition. As well random splatters (exploding ones like blood splatters.This brush would be great as well). If it's in painter already, my bad for not noticing it.

Thanks.

Smoother Opacity
It seems like anything above 30-40% for many brushes is nearly the same as 100%. Or at least it seems to get really difficult to control, like the pressure ramps up as you push harder.  Maybe this wouldn't be possible with all brushes because the brush engine is different from Photoshop but it's kind of a pain "learning" the opacity of each brush.

Merge layers in one step

Custom Brush Icons.
I want to be able to create a folder for my favorite brushes and create a custom palette from them and be able to tell them apart. Ideally it would be great to make your custom palette, make a bunch of 30x30 pixel images and just drag and drop them on your palette, replacing the image but not affecting the link to the brush. Or make it easier in SOME way.

Larger Color Wheel, it's tough to choose a color just a little off from your current color.  I usually click a couple of times and hope it's close to the original color.  It would be even better if we could choose to have it expand if you hover over it and then get small again.  And also I prefer the square to the triangle. 

Real time transforming so we can see what we're doing.

Easier color/value tweaks like using 'Hue/saturation" in PS

A real perspective tool
When you draw on paper you define your points and hold one end of a ruler on one and move the other end around your image, drawing all lines back to the vanishing point. On the computer we get a grid we can try to line up our strokes to, in the real world this would be like if we couldn't put the ruler on top of the paper but could just light table over top of it and try to draw straight lines freehand. I can't believe neither Adobe or Corel has come up with a way to easily and quickly constrain your stroke to a vanishing point.

One possible way:

You zoom way out of your image and then open the perspective palette. The 1st thing you do it define your horizontal and vertical axis/ horizons (have the lines rotate but snap to vertical or horizontal and stay perpendicular to each other) . Then you click on one of the perspective point buttons (the more the better, I drew 6) and click somewhere on one of the axis and then back on the button to set it. Maybe color the buttons differently if you link it to a vertical or horizontal axis.  Set as many as you want then zoom back in. Minimize the perspective palette and it should dock somewhere where all you can see are the buttons for the vanishing points. The buttons toggle on and off. Another way to define points, if you were trying to match the perspective in a photo for instance, would be click the little "2 lines" box (or whatever you want to call it) and then click and drag two non-parallel lines and the program will figure out where they cross and set the point.

On a similar note is a usable method for confining your stroke to an eclipse. You could click and drag like the circular marquee tool but then it goes right to a transform mode. Transform real quick, double click to set it, draw your strokes, move it or delete the path, continue on.... You should also be able to set the degree, size and angle numerically. An automatic saving of the last few would be useful, like the brush tracker, or maybe with it's own pallete like the vanishing point pallete.

ArtRage has rulers and templates, it's not the best way but it works like real world drawing at least.   Digital is usually easier then real life.  Think of all the architects, comicbook artists, and designers that would be loving Painter if you made perspective drawing easier. 

I like Photoshops ability to set the brush opacity with 2 quick key presses.  If you hit '2' and then '5' quickly in PS you get 25% brush opacity, in painter you get 50%.

 
And Jinny Brown is the most patient person I've ever seen on the forums, I hope she's on the payroll!  Thanks for all the help!!
 

Don 

Odonthe1st:

And Jinny Brown is the most patient person I've ever seen on the forums, I hope she's on the payroll!  Thanks for all the help!!

Don

 
Thanks, Don! :)

It's very kind of you to say what you did, and it's very much appreciated.

I'd definitely like to get full screen support with:

1. No menu bar

2. NO annoying window edge (I use a PC)

3. Just the canvas and whatever tools or pallets you Tab or Hotkey in or out.

To me this is important. I find I work alot better with no "off scheme" visual distractions on-screen, even something as simple as the color of the pallets themselves. I find myself constantly working in this mode when using Photoshop or Illustrator , pressing "F" several times, then Tabbing or Hotkeying tools or pallets as needed is the most hypnotic part of me working in the digital realm.....I almost forget it is digital :) Yet, when I get to my undoubtedly "#1, most used creative application" my screen is frustratingly and uncontrollably hampered by *SOMETHING*. Please include this in the next patch or version.
 

CANVAS:

Add:
Add some functions for RMB click on canvas title bar: Resize, Canvas Size etc.


RULERS:

Add:
Add Percents as Ruler Units.
Make possible to grab Ruler Line at any point of it, not only on the ruler itself.
Make possible to turn horizontal ruler to vertical and vice versa.

Change:
Change method to choose Ruler Units (from Alt + LMB, to RMB on ruler - just like in Photoshop).

Fix:
When working with rulers turned on, it's a great chance, that after a few minutes artifacts will appear on the rulers, and Painter will crash immediately without any warning or error message.


TEXT:

Fix:
Better support for non-english keyboard mappings.
When I type characters using Right Alt modifier (which are used very often in Polish language i.e.), Painter constantly add CTRL key to the stroke (when I type RAlt+S, Painter calls "Iterative Save" function, which have CTRL+ALT+S shortcut assigned).
When I try to paste text typed correctly in any text editor or word processor, the text rendered in Painter is totally different (and Yes - I used correct keyboard mappings and fonts).
Just lock any other function when Painter is in typing mode, and/or add separate window to type text in it.


PAINT BUCKET:

Add:
Add mode when lines from other layer can be used as a fill cell borders (i.e. a comic lineart used to place color in bottom layer without any leaks).

LAYERS

Add:
Add info on Painter title bar about currently used Layer (extremely useful in fullscreen mode).
Add some warning when painting on canvas (with option to turn it on/off in Prefs).

Well, I love Painter X as well.  But MY GOD is it buggy!

My wish list:

An undo feature for video frame painting. 

Something like Photoshop's History panel.

SIMPLIFIED workflow for messing with VIDEO !!!

More accurate & helpful previews before adding in effects.

I loved the 2B Pencil request. Also how about a 'blue' pencil?

I'd like to save my custom palettes with names, like "my standard kit" and "all oils".  Speaking of which, I'd like to be able to show a lot more info in the Palette listings.  Stroke OR title?  C'mon...  Give me any / all rather than limiting it.

The little colored buttons under the tools toolbar are ... really badly done.  Sorry.  They should have a graphical interface, just like we expect w/most apps nowadays.  Either give them their own graphic tool icons, give them a special toolbar, or make them REALLY intuitive!

Speaking of which, the 'look' save control is hella unintuitive.  I can't seem to save the 'look' precisely, which sucks.

Here's a BIG wish --> let me load a picture (painter would be fine, but ANY kind of pic would be 20x more awesome).  Then have Painter sample the lines in the pic and design a palette of brushes that I could use that would match the look of the picture.

I'd love some Painter brushes/effects/transitions to be useable by Final Cut Pro, but I figure you aren't doing this b/c you want to preserve Painter's unique nature or are afraid of it being pulled along as 'just a plugin'.

I'd also like the Alpha channel piece to be far easier to use.  It's really confusing.

Which reminds me --> ALL of the menus that have another arrow at the top right, something needs to be fixed there.  Who said this is a good way to do a GUI?  This sucks!  This could be fixed as a patch for Painter X.  Please make that go away!  *Either have that extra area ALWAYS come up when I click my tool (so I can see the options), or *have it automatically activate if I swing the mouse that way, or just re-do the menus & streamline those things into a better workflow.  It's a lot of extra clicking!

Many options on that little arrow on the top right are COMPLETELY unintuitive!!  Some of those little options are REALLY IMPORTANT to use (or know when to use), but you could use Painter X for years and not find some of those options (or not know what they do).

I like Clone layers, but they almost make things too easy.  HA

Um, observation -- Painter X sure doesn't work like Photoshop...  But why not?  Why not use similar shortcuts?  Confusing... 

How about showing us what xml Painter is generating?  Can we re-do paintings manually by re-running XML from a painting, and perhaps removing a few lines here & there? 

Last  comment -- why is Painter so buggy?  DEBUG!  Zoom is buggy.  Also, flipping a Wacom pen (to eraser side) sometimes doesn't work.  Also,  why does selecting 'jpeg' as a save format cause Painter to pause as it recomputes?  Why can't Painter X do stuff 'in the background' while we're picking away at menu options?  Why does it crash so much?  Why does it crash w/o any reports of WHY?  How come certain brushes disable Brush Creator, but then you open & close Brush Creator & it works?   etc etc

Certain parts seem to be 'a work in progress'...  So where are the patches?

Again, I love Painter X.  Started on Painter 3, happy with this version -- altho I can tell that it hasn't  been developed with the goal of maintaining a sense of unity between the tools.  It feels like a great program where certain components have been grafted on like Frankenstein bits (patterns, cloning, & all the buttons under the tools toolbar).  Parts of the UI def need to be reworked so they integrate smoothly with the other stuff.

 Thanks for asking!

peace - rekzkarz

rekzkarz.com