I was experimenting with transparency layers today and I realized I could do my shading with a single color range on multiple layers and then save the transperency for each layer, then clear the colors and paste each empty set into clipping groups for each color, this would make it a lot easier for things like tiny detail spots and stripes that have different colors but would line up their shading.

However, I think this would also be to memory intensive size I would be duplicating transparency layers that are the whole size of the picture, or at least a good chunk.

Is it possible to instance a layer instead of completely copying it?

If I understand what you're doing, which I may not, you're filling a paint layer with a single colour and then painting opacity onto it by using a transparency mask applied to that layer. The transparency mask would be initially black (giving full transparency to the paint layer) and you'd paint shades of grey onto it, giving variable visible opacity?

If not, please ignore the rest of this reply.

If so, you can save some memory by using Fill layers instead. These are, by definition, a single colour and they carry their own internal transparency mask. When you paint onto a Fill layer, you only see shades of grey in the colour selector because you are in fact painting transparency/opacity onto it. A Fill layer can also be filled with a pattern instead of a single colour. (You can also apply a separate transparency mask to a Fill layer, giving two sources ot transparency control.)

If you copy a Fill layer, you can change the properties of the copy to give a different colour/pattern while not affecting any transparency it carries. This may be of use if you're making many copies of many layers and you want to keep the transparency 'image content' while changing the colour/pattern.

As an extra effect, you can use GIMP to create pattern (.pat) files by exporting any image of any size, as a .pat file, then dropping that into the patterns sub-folder of your krita resources folder. A Google Images search will provide you with hundreds of tileable textures and patterns that may be very useful for special effects.

As for 'instancing' a layer, the only thing I can think of is to clone it but I don't think that will save any memory and you can't clone a transparency layer to have it applied to a separate paint layer. You can clone a Fill layer but it's just an exact 'live' copy that can't have its colour/pattern properties changed though you can apply a separate additional transparency mask to it.

If I understand what you're doing, which I may not, you're filling a paint layer with a single colour and then painting opacity onto it by using a transparency mask applied to that layer. The transparency mask would be initially black (giving full transparency to the paint layer) and you'd paint shades of grey onto it, giving variable visible opacity?

If not, please ignore the rest of this reply.

What I am attempting is much different.

It's not a matter of the layer I use for color, it's the alpha channel of that layer.

I paint shading using multiple layers clipping grouped with a single color at the bottom, for example the skin is one group and has five to seven layers for the shading, the shirt is another.

The shading colors inherit the alpha of the main flat color and I use either an airbrush to a blending brush to soften the edges as needed.

What I am considering is that I sometimes have lots of breaks in an object, a shirt with words or a different colored shape in it, for example and it makes shading a little risky because I treat those colors as a separate layer.

The transparency layer allows me to save the alpha portion of the layers I use for shading and duplicate them as needed, I can make the shirt a solid white shape, shade it, the copy the shading layers to the actual color group and fill them with the shade for their respective colors.

Basically I want to shade the whole object first, then copy the transparency of each shading layer to their respective color groups.

However I would prefer not to waste memory on duplicates if there is a way of just referencing the shading layers once.

Your technique sounds very interesting and useful. Would you be able to provide a link to let me download and examine your .kra file? I'm sure other people would also be interested.

I don't know of any way to make references to layers without duplicating or cloning them and thus consuming memory.

ahabgreybeard wrote:Your technique sounds very interesting and useful. Would you be able to provide a link to let me download and examine your .kra file? I'm sure other people would also be interested.

I don't know of any way to make references to layers without duplicating or cloning them and thus consuming memory.

Right now it's a theoretical technique, I came up with the idea when I needed to change the colors for the shading layer and remembered that alpha channels can be saved as a separate layer, so far the only tests I've done haven't been saved.

I'll consider posting an example if I can make one.

The main advantage to this is for things that have different colors along the same surface, shading them either hard or soft is difficult because I separate the flats into groups and then layer on darker or lighter tones.

I main reason I asked is because I can see the use in this and was wondering if the alpha transparency can be shared in a less memory intensive way, if not I am going to see if I about how to request a method to share transparency along layers.