Hello!

I've tested long awaited new masked brush function in beta of version 4.0.
This feature is useful, however there are some missing functions that I would like to see here.

First is controlling opacity, ratio and flow of the mask tip. I find it limiting, that I can't control strength of the mask for some blending modes. If I want to make middle stroke lighter, controlled by pressure - I can't.

I would like to see a "linear height" blending mode for the mask. What it does? It makes stroke at the middle lighter. It allows to achieve wet edges effect. It looks like that:

In this brush, the tip texture lightens the stroke from inside, leaving full opacity only at its edges, so it simulates watercolor brush. It's not possible to do with any modes in Krita.

I agree. I made some watercolor brushes a while ago https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=274&t=138578 in krita and to make better ones i think it would be great to wash away some color from the first brush with the second one.
Some more blending modes like "subtract" should help to make some real good watercolor brushes with drying edges aka "ballooning".
All available blending modes for the second brush just add color / opacity.
I also miss the "auto" generic brush tip option for the masked brush.

Subtract is Linear Burn, this is due photoshop terminology being copied for the blending modes.

Rytellier: Given that this is all maths stuff, could you give a bit more information about what you mean by "Strength" and "Linear Height"? Like, could you make a simple kra file that shows how these features would change how masked tips are influenced by the main stroke?

Also, please do be careful that while we occasionally copy certain features wholesale, we actually really hate doing that with a passion of a thousand suns due to the fundamental problems caused by the fact that Krita is not the other program, which result in bugs and, even worse, people being angry that Krita is not exactly the other program. Hence why I am requesting the kra file, because if it isn't possible to reproduce the effect with basic layers inside Krita, it indicates there might be some fundamental architectural difference that will prohibit the feature. That said, we have over 70~ blending modes, so go to town on those strokes!

(For what it's worth, we might also be able to reproduce fringe effects by applying an edgedetection filter, but I am curious what you'll come up with)

The idea is a blending mode for masked brush tip, that causes that masked tip erases/lightens the stroke. Something similar to overlay mode, but inverted. It doesn't really have to be "linear height", just some mode, that can achieve an effect I'm talking about.

Here's rough visualization of what I'm thinking about:


And this is not about edge detection - I mean to get wet edges effect by using masked brushes, where masked tip defines the shape of what's erased in the middle, so it's possible to customize how will these edges look.

By saying "strength" I meant just ability to control the opacity and flow of the brush mask.

I was hoping for a kra file, but I figured you probably didn't get what I wanted precisely from that, so I made an example:

Kra file

So, this kra simulates the compositing done with each blending mode. I suspect that what you are talking about is the divide blending mode, which indeed, is not in Krita currently, but if we can reproduce it with layers, it is less hard to implement it. It is the last sample in the kra file. (Do note I switched main and masked there and forgot to rename each, the important bit is that the top one is set to the divide blending mode)

Okay, so I have some good news and some bad news.

The good news is that the subtract mode is what you want, and it can be implemented without changing strings(we're in string freeze right now, so no string changes or we make our translators sad)

https://pasteboard.co/H3mAFLF.png

The bad news is three fold:

1. The maintainer of this feature is currently on holiday, so he won't review it till the end of the week.
2. I have no idea if it is feasible to do ratio/flow/opacity for the masked brush tip
3. But I do know that adding these options will require changing strings, so it will have to wait till 4.1... if it is possible.

EDIT: Here's the review request for the patch.
EDIT2: Review request for opacity/ratio/flow(but this adds strings, so won't be in until 4.1

I've tested this mode in current nightly build.
It works nice, but one thing adds some inconvenience when customizing brush.
Mask tip's opacity has to be lowered to very low to make it not erase completely the stroke in the middle.

Mask's tip's darkest pixel's lightness is 83.

But in general it's pretty good. Great job!

Great! I have more good news. Our project maintainer didn't think the options broke string freeze, so I commited them: https://phabricator.kde.org/R37:c1cf170 ... 6eb62e0ec1

They should be in the next nightly. Do note that opacity and flow are both on by default, and particularly flow is very aggressive in subtract mode.

Dumb question, but we're updating our defaults. Would you like to create a preset that uses these features to show them off?

Nice!

I can create a preset. How it should look?

Rytelier wrote:Nice!

I can create a preset. How it should look?

For the stroke, make something cool out of it. If you also make custom brush tips, it might be best to generate a little bundle with the resource manager, or to zip all the relevant files.

If you're worried about the preset icon, I have been using the icon library(it's an option when you save a new brush) and selecting the Chinese brush icon for it, but we can modify the icon if it somehow breaks a standard.

I would say play around with these settings and share whatever you come up with. It doesn't even have to be just water color brushes. Whatever you can come up with that you think is a nice looking brush preset.

Just share the KPP files when you are done. These are brand new features so potentially adding more than one would be fine. We are still working out exactly what the new presets will be for 4.0.

We aren't super familiar with what these new brush tip masks can do, so anything you share would be educational for us as well.

I've created two brush presets:


Where I should send it?

Cool!

The main files you will need to send are the KPP files and a custom brush tip if you used that. I am not sure what OS you are on, but you should be able to find your custom presets and brush tips in your share folder.

windows: user\Appdata\Roaming\krita\paintoppresets or %APPDATA%\Roaming\krita\paintoppresets
OSX: ~/Library/Application Support/Krita/paintoppresets
Linux: $HOME/.local/share/krita/paintoppresets

That location should have the KPP file that you made. If you go up a directory you should be able to get to your "brushes" folder that would have your custom brush tips if you made any

If you don't have any type of file sharing account like drop box or google drive, you could send it to my email scottpetrovic@gmail.com

I'm sorry for my curiosity but I don't want to set separate thread.
I just want to ask the devs what does it mean?
"Remove the dynadraw brush engine" from here:
https://binary-factory.kde.org/job/Krit ... 9f18a8a5d3
Wasn't it completely useful?
What will be done instead of it???

Yes, it wasn't useful at all. We asked for feedback, and it turned out that nobody was using it.