Author Topic: Can the line drawing mode get pressure sensitivity like auto shapes?  (Read 9354 times)

mattnava

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Wowzers, I didn’t realize adding pressure sensitivity would be such a controversial idea among artists! Lol jk, everyone has a different way of working! ;) To me, it’s pretty simple though, having it read pressure doesn’t stop you from using it in the old way. But it does change the default. Now You have to change which brush you use, to one that doesn’t use pressure. And I think that’s actually a big an improvement- It’s exactly the same process you would do with freehand mode. In my opinion the modes should work as similarly as possible- it is more intuitive and clear. If switching off pressure sensitivity is a thing that is a common pain, then I would say that should be addressed as a separate issue. Pretty sure photoshop has a button to toggle it globally without digging into brush settings.

Regarding your thoughts on the validity of straight lines for hatching- it may be true that you don’t see the use of it on your work, but as I said it’s something that is very important in mine, which is equally valid. And many artists use this technique, hatching with straight lines is very common. Often, I don’t use it for an entire image (although I have), but only for certain areas, and combine it with other hatching techniques. I shared pieces done in traditional media to show and highlight the effect, because it’s less common in digital work- in large part due to the lack of tools like this. And yes you can do hatching with freehand mode- and I do- but line mode hatching gives a different and very useful effect that is a fantastic addition to other drawing techniques and hatching styles. (Another great use case is speed lines, or anime style background flare effects!)

With these changes, using it with or without pressure is now an available choice, instead of there only being one way. This enables entire new ways to work. And the default behavior is now more in line with freehand mode. The question now is- how simple and efficient is it to work either way.

I’m pretty sure that live preview on all the drawing modes is something that will universally be appreciated- once it’s super responsive. I could see an option for toggling pressure sensitivity being a good solution for making it easier to work either way. I’d personally opt for that to be a global toggle that could potentially go in the top bar or quick menu rather than a setting per drawing mode, since I can only imagine that adding unnecessary complexity to the ui. A nice thing about doing it that way is that you could still use favorites to save a preset brush that enables or disables pressure sensitivity and also sets the drawing mode together.

I’m not trying to get features subtracted here- my suggestions for changes do not remove the ability to work as before- they are motivated by the desire to enable new abilities and make things more consistent and intuitive. I’m not sure I understand the reasoning behind arguing for subtracting this feature which has pretty clear benefits, and is useful to at least one artist (me) as I have previously explained, and likely many others. And this feature isn’t just a win for hatching technique- I think that this change is a great step towards making the drawing modes all act in a more similar way, which is a better default. I’d argue that it makes it easier to understand how the tool will work, and that the fact the other apps lack this feature just makes it more valuable here. It enables a more diverse way of working. And there are ways to make toggling pressure sensitivity intuitive and simpler, if that is indeed a common issue.
Last Edit: December 25, 2021, 03:10:52 AM by mattnava

Pikachu

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Don't worry, there's no controversy here, I stated multiple times that I'm not arguing for the removal of this feature, I just don't think it should be the default.

My point wasn't at all "I don't use the line tool to crosshatch, so this shouldn't be implemented". It's that I don't think crosshatching
*with the line tool* is a significant enough technique to change the default way the line tool works, since that seemed to me the reason for this change. This was especially because I've never heard of people using it to cross hatch; freehanding is the only method I've ever seen- in digital work as well. If you say many other artists use the line tool, then I'll take your word for it.

Again, I like the feature, I also think it's an improvement and I'm glad we got live preview as well. I just think it should be toggleable since having to change brush dynamics just to use it the old way (and the way every other program does it) would be a pain. Photoshop does have a very accessible toggle like this for brush tool sensitivity, and that would be a good solution. 

mattnava

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Cool! Yeah I think it totally makes sense to add a feature to make toggling pressure quick and easy. Thanks for your thoughts!

icezimy

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There was an app called Craft Pro made by borodante (a youtube artist from Ukraine) - Boro CG channel
It had interesting UI features, and a very ergonomic brush-size-changing/color-picking feature called thumb bar.
Adam Duff did some review of the app if you are interested https://youtu.be/X5z7CpdoCls?t=433

The thumb bar looked like a cool feature too! However, if you want to use the tablet one handed only, it’s less useful. For example if you have a keyboard or controller in your other hand, or when you hold the tablet in your left hand when not at a desk(couch, standing,…), or even when you just in general prefer using it one handed etc..

So once again I just want to plead to please never remove the long press eye dropper feature for the pencil, it’s just the best! And now that I know thanks to Mattnava that it’s possible to make the delay time for it even shorter, I can work even faster with it. I think it’s simply the best solution for blending quickly while painting, like Pikachu said as well, and just for picking color in general. So me, plus many others wouldn’t want to miss this feature! I even wish it was the standard in other apps too.
Last Edit: December 26, 2021, 08:43:33 AM by icezimy

lastaccess

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I use pencil double tap for eye dropper. And when my finger is tired of these double taps, I use holding pencil on screen. I really can’t understand how people use finger to color pick. It’s so long and uncomfortable. The only moment when color picking with pencil hold can be frustrating is when you work on small details, so you need to turn it off or make delay longer.

mattnava

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It’s clear that different users have different preferences regarding the finger/pencil long press eye dropper functionality. Some like to use just finger (like me, to avoid accidental triggers with the pencil), some like just pencil (for good reasons explained by lastaccess and icezimy), or both. It’s valuable to have those options available. The dev acknowledged that feedback, so I’m sure it will return to the beta soon after they return from their holiday. After this iteration, it’s probably going to be more understandable too!

Lucky Clan

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Thanks for all your remarks. We added "Allow Long Press Pencil Eyedropper" in Preferences.

However we are still not sure about "dynamic pressure" Line mode...

icezimy

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Thanks for all your remarks. We added "Allow Long Press Pencil Eyedropper" in Preferences.

However we are still not sure about "dynamic pressure" Line mode...

Awesome!😊

I also think dynamic pressure for line mode is good to have. Besides crosshatching it could also be very useful to quickly sketch out more dynamic looking perspective scenes/objects/guides, if you don’t want to wait for autoshape to activate. It’s like using a ruler in traditional art, just much quicker. And in traditional art when drawing a scene, you would usually touch the paper more lightly for things in the background and harder in the foreground, and also some guidelines you only want to see very lightly. It also can be useful to draw something like speed lines in comics or even paint something like rain quickly. So I think having pen pressure as default for line tool is a natural thing to have/expect. And I feel, it’s easy enough to use a brush without pressure sensitivity or turn it off for a specific brush, if you don’t need it. But a toggle for that somewhere in the tool settings could be solution too, like already said by others.

But also I think the tool by itself is probably only used by few people, since it’s only good for specific cases and most people will probably mainly use autoshape, which btw, I think it’s a good idea to make autoshape the standard setting when first downloading the app from the store, instead of freehand (idk if that’s already the case). Because I remember few months ago when I bought the app I was confused why there’s no autoshape and only later realized that there are drawing modes, so maybe more people feel like this.

But anyway, for those people who use line tool, they’ll benefit a lot to have dynamic pressure. I personally never really used/needed it before, but with the pressure sensitivity and live preview I see myself actually using it for some cases. :)

ggermain1

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Yeah, ever since dynamic pressure and line preview were added, I’ve been using the line tool more often especially with hatching.

mattnava

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Thanks for chiming in on how you like the feature, icezimy and ggermain1! Lucky Clan, please rest assured, it’s great. I want to point out that even Pikachu mentioned several times that he liked the feature and was not arguing for its removal.

Lucky Clan

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Yes. Autoshape is now a default mode for new users.