I noticed that if I have a multi-layer image, and I put the brush into a mode (for example overlay or luminosity to apply lighting) the brush will only take into account objects on the layer I am currently on, and will appear as if it were in "normal" mode wherever there is nothing from my currently selected layer.

Is this a misconfiguration on my part? or is it a bug?

If I want to apply lighting "on top" of existing layers I would create a layer on top and set it to multiply/overlay/screen/etc mode.

Brush mode I would use when the layers are already merged and I wanted to do some fine tuning (alpha locking the layer first).

Don't think brushes take into account what's on layers that are bellow the current one. Brushes only "see" what's on the current layer (well, i think clone brush can copy from a different layer).

I'm not sure what you were expecting, because it seems difficult to think up a consistent way brush strokes would take into account layers bellow the current one. What if theres some hidden layers bellow? How does it interact with current layer opacity/mode?

It's not so complicated, inheriting opacity from the layer is a no brainer, it's already configured to do so. But when the brush reaches an area where the opacity is beneath 100% (or there is low/no alpha) it should try to read what is underneath the layer by way of "what is visible?"

Since the stroke/paint which was done in whatever mode the brush was in is on the layer in use, what is visible becomes subjective (meaning even if there are hidden layers underneath, unhiding them would just mean that this paint would have to be applied on top of them instead of what was visible in that area before)

But the method you mentioned works out fine as well of course. I will use that, but I think it's a bit silly that brush modes are nullified if they are drawn on transparent areas, I can imagine a few scenarios where it can be inconvenient (it can sometimes force you to create a layer when you otherwise might have gotten away with being lazy and not creating another layer)

Basically I think brush strokes should be consistent across layers where applicable, if a brush stroke is not at 100% opacity, and it was drawn in a specific mode, that mode should be applied to whatever is visible underneath rather than being drawn as if the brush had been in normal mode and on top of all other lower layers.

cestarian wrote:Basically I think brush strokes should be consistent across layers where applicable, if a brush stroke is not at 100% opacity, and it was drawn in a specific mode, that mode should be applied to whatever is visible underneath rather than being drawn as if the brush had been in normal mode and on top of all other lower layers.

But where will the change be applied, the current layer or the layers bellow?

From what I understand the brush operation (simplifying things a lot) takes pixels from the current layer, applies some operation based on brush properties/current color, and stores the result back into the current layer.

Assuming you mean that pixels are only read from the layers bellow, then storing the result into the current layer would partially copy features from the layers bellow into the current layer. Dunno if that would be useful, it might probably be a bit weird.

But if you mean that pixels are both read and stored into layers bellow then I have no idea how that would work. A single brush stroke could span multiple layers then, with varying effects on each. Also it is unexpected for a brush stroke to modify layers other than the current one.

In short, it is not so simple as it initially sounds.