Author Topic: Some suggestions and feature requests  (Read 8694 times)

SebLiese

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Some suggestions and feature requests
on: March 20, 2019, 03:37:49 PM
Hi there,

I have been using ASP every day for the last 6 months. Overall I'm very happy with its options and performance. However, I would like to suggest a couple of improvements:

* I would like to be able to save my selected brush when switching between eraser, smudge, dodge and painting. I do not like that each tool has their own associated brush. I can imagine I would want this in some cases, but most of the time I want to just keep using the same brush when I switch between tools. This could be implemented as a toggle on the tool select. Maybe double tapping a tool could allow me to toggle between a "global brush" and a "tool specific brush". Alternatively this could be a global toggle in the preferences menu: use global brush.

*The brush preview does not always correctly represent the size and shape of the brush selected. It also does not change depending on pen pressure. Any chance you can make some improvements to this?

*It would be great if you can implement the use of layer masks. You can currently get the same result by duplicating a layer and then add a layer mask and clipping mask but it's kind of annoying to deal with and layer masks are just such an amazing tool.

* I would like to be able to move the color bar to a different area of the screen and keep the right side clear. It's currently a little too easy to accidentally change your selected color with your palm. Alternatively, in pencil mode, the color bar could/should be completely insensitive to hand input.

*I would love to have the option to display my colors as a color wheel in addition to the available options. I wouldn't mind sacrificing some screen space for this.

* It would be great to have the option to add some smoothing on the lasso tool (motion smoothing) as its currently quite hard to make clean selections on the slippery ipad screen with no stabilization.

* After importing new brushes, their stamps don't show up in the list of available stamps when creating a new brush from scratch.

* Color picking with the finger took some getting used to but it works ok. However I feel like when I'm working on the Ipad, this action can still be quite flow breaking. Have you considered an optional single button overlay or maybe an area on the side of the screen that you can press and hold to toggle to the color picker?

* When adding a new adjustment layer, the fact that it opens up immediately instead of only adding it, means that if you want to use the adjustment layer as a clipping mask, you first have to cancel out of it, turn it into a clipping mask, and then open it up again. I would prefer it if it didn't open up automatically OR gave me an option in the thing itself to use it as a clipping mask.

* This could just be me, but when i merge a layer down into a layer that has a layer effect enabled, I don't expect to end up with a layer with the effect disabled and where the effect has been "baked" in. On the other hand if the layer I'm merging DOWN has an effect enabled (and the one below doesn't), I do expect this to happen.

*Finally, I have more than once lost some work because of the program closing itself when minimized while searching for references. I think this is related to the number of documents you have open. Maybe an auto save can be done whenever the program gets minimized or closed.

Thanks for reading and keep up the great work,

Cheers,
Seb





Last Edit: March 20, 2019, 03:51:46 PM by SebLiese

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #1 on: March 21, 2019, 08:10:10 AM
Some of your request are planned to be added in the next major update:
- smoothing in lasso tool
- auto add stamps when importing brushes
- option to enable/disable clipping mask when editing adjustment layer
- Merge Down should keep effects from layer below

Few explanations
- global brush - usually you are using simple sharp round brush from Eraser, soft round for Blur/Sharpen and more advanced brushes for Paint, Wet Paint etc. That's why we don't like global brush idea.
- brush preview problem - do you mean brush 'stroke' preview in brush editor, and 'stamp' preview when changing brush size/opacity?
- layer mask problem - i don't get that, please give us more details
- color bar - you can hide it so it is not touched accidentally, or use Painting Mode to move it to the left
- color wheel is on the todo list, but don't expect it soon
- quick color picking - currently you can use long-press, or set eyedropper for Finger, or hold Option key, or activate Eyedropper with 'I' shortcut, or just tap Eyedropper icon. Currently we don't plan to add more ways to use Eyedropper.
- app cloing when minimized - this is managed by iOS, it often closes apps when need memory for other app. Drawing apps like Artstudio use a ot of memory, that's why iOS is closing them first, we cannot imporove that.

SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #2 on: March 21, 2019, 09:11:57 AM
Thanks for the quick reply.
Great to hear that some of these are already in the works!

Global brush - couldn't it still be a global option that's turned off by default? Surely I'm not the only user who would prefer to use a single brush?

Brush Preview - I mean the little transparent cursor thingy that appears underneath the pen tip (if you have this option enabled). For example, it will sometimes have the shape of an oval even though the brush stamp is a rectangle.

Layer Mask - - this setup from Photoshop

Color Bar - Both of your suggestions need additional clicks away from the screen, either to hide the UI or to unhide the colors when you want to change color. Wouldn't it make a lot of sense to add the option: "Allow Finger Color Selection in Stylus Only Mode" to the Apple Pencil options? It's consistent with the other available options in there.

Quick color picking - What is this option key you mentioned? It sounds like that could be exactly what I was suggesting, how do you use/enable it?

App closing - I understand you can't prevent it from closing, however, can it not make an autosave when minimizing, just as it does now when you go back into the document selection screen?

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #3 on: March 21, 2019, 10:40:26 AM
Glogal brush - users asked to find a quick way to use the same brush in Paint and Eraser tools, and we added "Erase" blending mode in Paint tool (also available in Quick Menu). Paint Tool with Erase blending mode = Eraser.

Brush Preview (cursor) - it will be added in next major update.

Layer Mask - if you want to move/transform/elastify layer together with masks just select them all in Layers popover.

Color bar - option you mentioned is already there, go to Preferences > Finger Function When Pencil Is Connected, and choose Eyedropper.

App closing - document is autosaved when minimizing.

SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #4 on: March 21, 2019, 11:25:40 AM
Global brush - I don't think that's a particularly elegant solution to be honest. It still requires additional clicks and opening and closing a menu. Photoshop does give us the option to switch between a global brush or tool specific ones, Pro create does not. It might be a nice opportunity to get ahead of your competition on this.

Brush preview - that's great news

Layer Mask - I thought my picture would be enough to explain but what I mean is basically the ability to add a "layer mask" to a "clipping mask". This way you can for example have an adjustment layer set as a clipping mask, but then you mask off part of it using the layer mask, so the effect only appears in the white areas of your mask. This is a very common technique in Photoshop and would be a great addition to Art Studio.

Eyedropper - I know you can use your finger to do it, it's what I've been using so far. In your previous reply you mention the "hold Option key" method for eye dropping. What exactly did you mean by that? What's the "option key"?

Color Bar - The option you describe is not what i was talking about. I was requesting to add "Allow Finger Color Selection in Stylus Only Mode" to the Apple Pencil options (so i can disable it). So this has nothing to do with eye dropper. It will stop me from accidentally changing color with my palm.
Last Edit: March 21, 2019, 11:31:52 AM by SebLiese

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #5 on: March 22, 2019, 07:50:39 AM
Global brush in Photoshop - i cannot find this option.

Mask + Clipping Mask - i get it, i already have this on my ToDo list, i will try to add a solution in next major update

holding Option key - i meant Option key on iPad physical keyboard (Apple Smart Keybaord)

Toolbars must be responsive even in Pencil Only mode, sorry. Please use Painting Mode or Fullscreen mode if you want to make sure your palm donesn't touch toolbars.

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #6 on: March 22, 2019, 09:24:04 AM
Mask + Clipping Mask - you can achieve the same result if you put Layer and Adjustment Layer with Mask in a separate group, and choose group blending from Passthrough to Normal, you can do it in current Artstudio Pro version.

SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #7 on: March 22, 2019, 02:20:39 PM
Global Brush - My apologies, you are right, this does not exist in Photoshop either. For some reason I thought it did. I'd still like to have this option but I can do without..

Mask + Clipping Mask - Nice to hear that this will be added in the future.  As for your alternative solution: "put Layer and Adjustment Layer with Mask in a separate group, and choose group blending from Passthrough to Normal", I can't get it to work unless i also duplicate/merge the underlying layer(s), am I doing something wrong? Any chance you can show a screenshot or give a clearer description of the setup?

Option key - Ah yeah, I should have realized, unfortunately I'm on the Ipad so I dont have the options key. I'd like to have a touchscreen version of this button somewhere on the screen though, if that would allow me to color pick while holding it...

Color Bar - Ok in that case, if I could just move it to another area of my screen that would already help a lot. Having to constantly switch back and forth between painting and/or full screen sounds even more annoying than accidentally changing colors :)

Once again, thanks a lot for your replies I very much appreciate them. I hope you can give me a bit better explanation for the layer mask + clipping mask, after that I'll leave you alone :)

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #8 on: March 22, 2019, 02:48:26 PM
Mask + Clipping Mask - please send me example from PS (psd file), and i will show you how to do it in Artstudio Pro.

SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #9 on: March 22, 2019, 03:06:47 PM
I have sent you a file in PM

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #10 on: March 22, 2019, 03:51:47 PM
Here is the same effect achieved in Artstudio Pro. I modified mask layer a bit so you can see that Clipping Mask really works. I'm attaching both .psd and .artstudio files so other users can see the problem and the solution

SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #11 on: March 22, 2019, 04:23:24 PM
OK so when you group an adjustment layer with a normal layer and set the "group blend mode" to normal, the adjustment layer acts as a clipping mask. I did not know this and this will be very useful. Thanks a lot for showing me.
Everything I tried always involved using an adjustment layer set to clipping mask.

I think the way PS handles it is probably a bit more intuitive: there when i add an adjustment layer it just comes with a mask which you don't necessary need to use. Perhaps this is something you could consider adding as an option when adding an adjustment layer (you already mentioned you were going to add the option to set adjustment layers as clipping mask when adding them).

Anyway, thanks for your time and patience and best of luck with the future developments of this great App. :)

Cheers,
Seb



SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #12 on: April 21, 2019, 08:45:43 AM
Hello again,

I'm still struggling with the clipping/layer mask functionality. I have been using the method you showed (using groups) a lot when dealing with adjustment layers. However, i still haven't figured out how to achieve the same thing but with a clipping mask.

What I'm trying to do is:
- I have a layer A with an image
- I add a clipping mask layer B and fill it with red
- Now I want to add a mask layer C that will allow me to paint (using greyscale ) where on layer A I want the red from Layer B to appear

Is there a way to do this in ASP?

Cheers
Last Edit: April 21, 2019, 08:48:33 AM by SebLiese

Lucky Clan

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #13 on: April 24, 2019, 03:42:44 PM
Send me this case in psd from photoshop, and i will try to recreate it in artstudio.

SebLiese

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Re: Some suggestions and feature requests
Reply #14 on: April 24, 2019, 03:58:55 PM
Thanks, I have sent a PM