I always use Stroke Angle when painting and a really annoying feature is as soon as the pen clicks on the tablet you get an unwanted, stray paint stroke equal to the length set in Brush Shape. Now this stroke would be fine if it was in-line with with the pen direction, but at the on-click stage the paint stroke doesn't yet know the direction it supposed to go. The angle of the stray stroke is always at 45degrees See the attached image.
A workaround would be to set the paint stroke length to be the same as the width of the brush - it works but far from ideal especially when changing brush sizes.
It should be that when you are in Stroke Angle mode, paint is only applied when the pen/mouse is moved and not on click.
It's a mouse and a pen issue on most of the presets.
Any thoughts?
Replies
I think that John will have to look at the code on this. email him a few presets that exhibit the issue.
If you want to post the specific preset file you are using i can take a look at it and maybe make some editing suggestions.
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I assume we're talking about autodraw interactive pen mode here?
Regarding stroke angle modulation. When the pen just touches down there effectively is no stroke angle. So the paint synthesizer needs to make a default assumption. Which will be offset by any angle offset you have specified in the path angle control panel.
If you move the pen quickly when you mouse down, then there might be enough path information recorded at the beginning of the mouse down paint processing to actually estimate the actual stroke angle you are drawing.
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Freestyle pen mode is one way to get around this, Since you fully specify the draw path before the actual paint nibs are painted on it.
We also added some new features to the development code for the next version that allow for different ways to deal with this 'stroke angle' issue you mention. Again, it has to do with the fact that until a path is actually drawn a little the paint synthesizer doesn't have enough information to accurately compute the stroke angle you are intending to trace out. You can also see this kind of issue with multi-pen presets that use path angle offset tracking to offset the nib placement in the multi-pen.
So we added a new parameter in the pen mode control panel that lets you delay the initial painting for a paint stroke until there is enough information about the actual path to define the stroke angle (or path angle in the case of multi-pen paints).
Again, this has to do with the fact that just touching the cursor down does not convey any information about what direction you intend to draw. Since the paint synthesizer can't read your mind, it doesn't know which direction you are going to draw until you actually do some drawing of the paint path by moving the pen position.
Yes, I am referring to autodraw interactive pen mode.
The way I paint is the same way that I would paint if I was using traditional materials, that is why the stroke angle is important to me. All of my presets are a single stroke style.
Using a moving pen has no effect in reducing the stray stroke and anyway it's impracticle.
I do use the freestyle pen mode occasionally, but it is not an option for general use, although you are correct that there aren't any stray strokes.
Regarding the new feature you mention - would it work that there would be no stroke generated until the the pen or mouse actually starts to move? This would solve my issue.
When is this update going to be available? Is there a Beta version available?
I attached one of my presets, but as I previously mentioned, it is noticeable with all the presets that have a stroke style. I normally us this preset with a very short Max Path Length to minimise the stray stroke, I have lengthened this to illustrate the issue.
preset for SA
try this, it should give a less noticeable stray stroke. Of course it does change the character of the stroke a bit. Still the general effect is there.
mods that I made:
in the path angle panel -
slew to 0
angle multiplier to 14.
you might want to play with the multiplier. gradually moving it up until you get a noticeable stray line then backing it down to where you are happy.
Philipmod1.zip
Thanks LiveArt.
That's a great workaround.
Now to change all my presets
Regards
The start delay feature i was taking about does delay drawing until the pen has moved.
Actually, the start delay feature was primarily added to deal with path tracking in multi-pens. It's not currently an option for autodraw interactive. But for the kind of thing you are doing with stroke angle tracking and that pen mode, i can see how it could be useful. So i'll make sure it gets hooked up as an option for autodraw interactive as well.
Start delay is a feature in the next full version update of Studio Artist. I have no idea when that version will be released at this point in time.
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You could use pressure modulation of the path length as a way to get around the problem you mention. So you'd start off with really low pressure and then increase it after the pen has moved a little. Assuming you have a wacom pen and tablet.