Photoshop Gods against me? (PS issue)

[Adrian]

So ... I've been using manga studio for practicing drawing so far and I've never been more comfortable with anything else for this specific task. Kind of a week ago I felt like it's time to start seeking information about painting too and generaly thought PS would be a good way to start practicing painting because I can approach things in layers effectively even tho there's no exactly capable blending tool (so I thought that's good for a beginner, maybe?). And .. well ... manga studio can open PS files so that's handy.

I've tried it out for a few minutes/hours idk.... and after I've probably pressed some buttons by mistake. Something went wild forever.

It appears as if all the brushes have opacity turned down to 50% or something like that EVEN THO every visible option is set perfectly normal. I've consulted with other people as well and they confirmed it appears "normal".




What I've tried so far and didn't work:

-> reseting the brushes
-> deleting the preference files
-> checking my tablet driver (As proof .. Manga studio works fine as always)
-> uninstalling/reinstalling (Not even this worked ... what the actual hell)
-> googling for the issue (people received responses with what I've tried already, for some it worked ... some didn't answer if it work or not ... for me it certainly didn't work.)

What I couldn't try was to "power uninstall" with a program that deletes every trace of the program. Why ? Because it's registry files are all put together with anything else Adobe.... flash player, reader... etc. Horrible.

So ... really ... what's happening ? Is it divine intervention? hahahah
Has anyone encountered something like this before?

[pnate]

Can you screenshot the settings in your brushes window?

[Adrian]

There they are

[Amit Dutta]

Hey dude, have you tried PS with a mouse? Just to test that the problem isn't specific to your tablet and PS in conjunction. What version are you using?

Also I found this online: It's about Photoshop Elements, but wondering if you have a hidden setting somewhere for brush flow. Maybe try the sticky key shortcuts to see if it affects anything.

"Brush flow is available as an option in Photoshop. In Elements, the option is not shown on the options bar but the function is still present and can be called up using the shortcut keys...brush tool + shift + number key. This setting is sticky...whatever flow rate you set with the shortcut acts as default for all brushes and is considered a user preference for all sessions."

[Adrian]

Well ... if it were a problem which was specific to my tablet and PS in conjunction it shouldn't have worked right away I assume. I don't think the version matters, I've tried two different ones so far and the issue seems to persist ... as if there's a hidden setting on my system.

And even so ... I'm still confused as to how none of these worked at all.

"-> reseting the brushes
-> deleting the preference files
-> uninstalling/reinstalling "

It did work as intended initially. After I've pressed some who knows what shortcut commands , got lost a bit through these options and couldn't really understand why they're here if there's a toolbar for them... but it looks as if some of them are different or more specific I don't really know


"Brush flow is available as an option in Photoshop. In Elements, the option is not shown on the options bar but the function is still present ..."
I've tried that, it does work and it's not really hidden, it basically just works as a shortcut ... and anyway it's not flow related from what I can tell so far, as you can see here in the example with the stylus at 100% opacity and mouse at 50% opacity they look almost the same. Second example is full opacity mouse.




Example of Manga studio working properly as always.


I've tried the trial for Painstorm studio and that was also working well.

[Patrick Gaumond]

It's no big deal man, in your brush settings you have transfer selected as on. Transfer governs how that specific brush behaves when it comes to opacity and flow, both of yours are set to pen pressure with the minimum at zero. It's working as intended. Just tweak those settings for each individual brush you want to use and make sure you save a new brush if you change any settings

The opacity and flow at the TOP of photoshop govern opacity and flow for ALL brushes regardless of settings. You can't set a minimum nor can you change where it gets pressure sensitivity from. It's useful to use those on the fly to get different effects, while transfer settings are useful to set up brushes that have different functions. For instance it's useful to have some brushes that are 100% opaque by default and need no pen pressure, and its also useful to have some that are always use the full range or pen pressure and some in between.

Also whatever you do NOT click those little lock icons unless you're 100% certain you want those settings on ALL brushes. It will be a pain in the ass to fix them all if you change your mind later

[Adrian]

This is how Matt's stroke looks like (taken from the vid here http://www.ctrlpaint.com/videos/brush-troubleshooting )

In the video he has 100% opacity 100% flow , pen pressure tied to both in transfer. You can see there's no glazing effect over his stroke.




This is me trying to go right over his same stroke there. Doing it with the same settings (which were actually default when I loaded the brushes)

I've tried it without pen pressure too ... but it's obvious from Matt's stroke that he does have pen pressure on since I could in no way start as lightly as he did (besides that was his last setting in the vid). And that also made some weird tube shape stuff that I think should have been covered by the above stroke if my explanation makes any sense.




You did make me curious about the locks tho ... if you lock them once it changes and saves the settings for all other brushes ? That's what you meant ?

Oh and sorry if the titles I make are usually too dramatic hahaha .. I usually make titles like that to summarize my current feelings properly. And I'm not very happy with this :/.

[Patrick Gaumond]

Ok, I'm a bit confused about what the problem is. It seems like it's working as it should be, but you're not satisfied with the settings.

Two things:

1. The harder you push the less the glazing effect shows up because the more opaque the stroke is. If you turned off transfer you would get 100% opaque no transparency and therefore no glaze. If you push as hard as you can with pen pressure on and the minimum relatively low the same thing will happen. YOu can get 100% opaque stroke even if transfer is on. Doing that often will give you bad rsi though so be careful

2. This is something most people won't cover in a photoshop video; You can customize the sensitivity of your tablet's pressure sensors. For instance if you're a very heavy handed person it might be useful to set the minimum pressure lower so that the range of pressure is more in line with your physical strength. If you're a little wuss like me you can set the minimum pressure mid-higher ranged so that you don't have to press as hard to go from 0-100% of the tablets pressure levels. This is separate from photoshop by the way. In "wacom tablet properties" on the first page, there should be a setting called Tip feel with a little gauge under it. Play around with that and see if it helps. You don't see Matt changing that or see how hard he's pressing so my guess is based off of everything here that its just a setting you're not tweaking

[Adrian]

I know uhh ... it's a bit hard to see it from the outside since you're not feeling it and it certainly looks just normal from the outside.

To put it super simple to make it clear.

1) It worked PERFECTLY two days ago, I've changed no settings at all beforehand.
2) I press UNKNOWN combo commands by mistake like an idiot -> brushes start acting weird.
3) It no longer works like in "1)" even tho I've tried everything I could to reset it to defaults.

That's pretty much it.

But know that in the example I gave (the only strokes that are mine are the ones with arrows towards them, just to make sure) I've started slightly with a light press and as I moved over Matt's strokes I pressed unnaturally hard in an attempt to cover up that stroke and not get the glazing effect, yet it's still there as you can see. And I mean like really really hard press, a tablet-damaging press even that I would absolutely never normally do and I most certainly wasn't required to do when I first used Photoshop and it worked perfectly fine back then exactly like in the video. I had made no changes to the defaults back then just went with the default settings on them and they worked, nothing more nothing less.

So why would they react differently from when I've first tried them if:

-> my tablet settings are the same as when I first used it and brush worked exactly like in the vid.
-> brush settings are same as his since those are the defaults he uploaded/saved them with. He has 0% on every setting there in the transfer pannel. Why would I need different settings than his if I have "met all these conditions" if I can say so. AND additionally .. THEY used to work like that with those settings ... WHY doesn't it work anymore ? I'm confused as hell and very frustrated because i'm wasting a lot of time with this .... and also your time guys, for which I'm very sorry.

Matt's settings(from vid):



My tablet settings:



How the problem "feels" is as if there would be a problem between tablet and PS in conjunction like Amit said. It sort of "feels" as if there's a 3rd layer of settings for oppacity and flow hidden somewhere ... lol.

The tablet alone isn't causing me any trouble with any other program and honestly ... in general my very basic bamboo has never caused me any problem like frequent pressure sensitivity loss and stuff like that that I hear about a lot from other people. I think it did that only once or twice and it was partially my fault for overloading my limited system. So generally I trust the tablet and I doubt it is at fault.


"If you turned off transfer you would get 100% opaque no transparency and therefore no glaze. If you push as hard as you can with pen pressure on and the minimum relatively low the same thing will happen."

~ THIS right here ... your second example is not working for me. AND that is super weird. Again , tablet is working perfectly fine in any other program I've tried so far AND it used to work fine in PS two days ago as well.

[Patrick Gaumond]

Sorry man, I honestly don't know any other settings you could tweak. Wacom tablets go kind of wacko sometimes from what I understand. For instance I had a friend who literally did everything and could not get pressure sensitivity to work at all. I've had a problem where I put my pen to the bottom of the tablet and it ends up at the top for literally no reason, and I frequently have to restore my preferences because the tablet doesn't work properly for no apparent reason once again

I guess there's two more things you can try. Unlikely they will work but its worth a shot anyways

1. In tablet settings theres an option that says adjust sensitivity for older apps that only support 1024 pressure levels. See if that changes anything

2. Download CCleaner from piriform.com. Run the cleaner and also run the registry cleaner. Sometimes old file paths or accumulated junk files cause issues at random. Its a free program and its very useful, might help this might not but its a good idea to use it anyways. You might also want to try defragging with defraggler just in case fragmented files are the issue.

Oh and I know you've done the driver thing already but have you tried older drivers as well? Some drivers have some pretty nasty bugs with new OSs

If nothing else works the only other solution is to invoke the warranty gods and get a new tablet or buy a new one or something. I know that sucks but theres not much else you can do at this point short of praying lol.

Sorry man! And I forgot to answer before but yea, those locks affect all brushes. I don't think thats your problem though

[Amit Dutta]

Beg borrow or steal a working tablet from someone, or take your laptop to a store and try a new one, and see if the same problem occurs. It's the only way to see if it is the tablet itself that goes screwy with any Ps, or just your Ps settings. Alternatively you can take your tablet to another machine with PS and try it. When you mentioned reinstalling in your first post, was that for Ps or the tablet? Definitely reinstall PS if you haven't. Maybe try that first before checking with a tablet that you know works. Also you could try a different version of Ps.

[Adrian]

Thanks guys , I'll probably be getting a new computer soon so hopefully the problem fixes by "itself" with that haha.

"Beg borrow or steal" laughed so hard at this haha. I don't really know anyone that has one to be honest. If there actually are other artists in my town that use a tablet I have no idea of their existence ... as they do not of mine for that matter haha.

Yes , when I've mentioned reinstall I meant PS. And yes I did it with different versions too :/. cs6 and cs5.

If I'll find the answer to this I'll let you guys know so if it does happen to anyone else they would know what to do.

[Adrian]

And yep ... Not even that worked haha. :/

[Mylqin]

I don't think it's your driver man, I think that's how Photoshop works, You can try to turn off the opacity's pen pressure setting in the "transfer" tab and try it, maybe turn the spacing down to zero (you won't get a lot of texture out like that, but it's worth a shot.) As others said above I think it's a pressure sensitivity issue and that's why I suggest turning the opacity's pressure off.

Experiment more with the brushes to try to get the desired effect, I had the same problem when first starting out with photoshop, also when you eventually find the solution try to save a preset of it.

[Adrian]

I wish it was so man. But really All I get is either full hard or glazed. And it didn't do that in the begining ... that's what I've said. As long as I have pressure sensitivity on I get glazing.

And I've used settings from other people as well which should have worked and they didn't ... :/

[U-3C]

Whoa whoa whoa!!! Before you throw the computer into the trash, see if deselecting this has any effect:



I still cannot fully understand the issue, so that was just a guess.

Just to clarify my understanding of what's going on:

It's not that you cannot reach 100% opacity by pressing hard, but that you feel that you have to press much more than usual to achieve 100% opacity?

Can you try going back and forth on the same stroke, using the same pressure, and see if the value builds up with every layer, as if you are using a pencil?

Also, have you tried removing the nib of the stylus and putting it back in?

^^Sorry if those sound like stupid questions. I understanding still seems a little vague as I am not experiencing the issue firsthand.