[root88]

I keep reading that the Just Add Water tool in Painter 6 is equivalent to Photoshop's smudge tool. I just don't find this to be true on the default settings. Does anyone know what settings I need to change to make the tools work in a more similar manner? I started drawing in Photoshop and became really accustomed to using the smudge tool for certain things. I love every tool in Painter over the tools in Photoshop except the smudge tool. Saving out and switching applications repeatedly is getting really annoying. What else can I do?

[toast!]

hi root ,

personnaly i hate the photoshop s one ,it makes the pics blurry and dirty (the best photoshops pics come without using this tools ; just have a look around this forum and you will see) . the painter s add water tool is quite different , it works as .. hum adding water on the paper/canvas ; it s quite useful to blend colors and you can keep solid shapes .. It gives also a more traditional aspect in the way of doing things

If you want to have the same effect has the evil smudge tool of photoshop, you can use a round brush instead of the sharp used by default, and reduce the opacity of the brush to 15 or 20 %

toast

[Seeg]

I just posted some of the Painter brushes that I use at my site. There are a couple brushes that I call blenders. You might try one of them and tweak the settings. You probably can get something that is very close to the smudge. Let me know if I can help. www.seegmiller-art.com

[root88]

I have been using PS for so long, that I think I a really good at not abusing the smudge tool. My pics don't usually come out blurry or dirty. When they do, it's usually because of my poor airbrushing not the smudge tool. I like the way PS's smudge works and I'm too stubborn to change. With all of Painters resources, there has got to be a way.

[samdragon]

If you want to smudge, use the distorto brush, not the just add water. The distorto brush is alot like the smudge tool in PS. Play with the transparency of the brush to get the desired effect.

It's important to understand that photoshop is just exactly what the name sez, PHOTO-SHOP. yes, you can paint with it. The smudge/blurr tool was originally meant for smudging small scratches, touching up blemishes and things like that. that's why when people abuse it, it looks really blurry.
It's not the perfect tool for "blending" colors together, as your only blurring colors to achieve a mixed result.
You're really cheating yourself by using it as a blending tool. Try working with values of color and layering the colors to get a transition or blended color. You'll get better results, and your images will not look "fuzzy"
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying don't use it at all, it's just that so many people look over the fact that the majority of the tools in photoshop are built on actual "darkroom" (photoshop) tools. And then they wonder why the tools don't work like they think they should.

The just add water brush is a good tool, if modified correctly, for blending colors and "smearing" colors that can bleed into one another. I think painter's strongest aspect is it's ability to allow the user to customize just about anything. I like the just add water brush, but it tends to bleach out the colors, unless you have a nice color on a layer under it. Try making your own brush for blending. It's not that hard once you figure it out. You do not have to use the just add water, you can use a sable brush, camel hair, just about anything for a blending brush.

Speaking of that, there is a new update out for painter. It finally fixed the problem of the empty layers producing a white stroke when a brush with bleed was to go outside of a painted area. (by using the pickup underlying color option in the objects->layers)
And, so far, it fixed that nasty problem of the the blue image happening when you save in rif format. I say so far, becuase this hasn't happened to me after I updated. I did happen with certian images, and this was a real bitch if you didn't save in different formats.
I noticed you mentioned something about that in your tutorial on 3d palatte (Seeg). BTW, Great Tut!
I'll have to check out those brushes of yours too

[Funfetus]

Awwww, Root, you shoulda come to me. :P

Try cranking up the opacity on the Just Add Water brush. I personally turn the opacity way DOWN and just use it for generally smoothing out an area. I usually use "Sable Chisel Tip Water" brush (under the Brush category) for any real blending. Sometimes I use the Just Add Water after that.

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Funfetus
iCE VGA Division
http://www.funhousedigital.com

[Freddio]

well

you dont really need the smudge tool..

just refine with the air/paintbrush

[root88]

I don't have a Sable brush in my brushes section. Any idea why?

[samdragon]

It's from the painter 5 version. There should be a directory on your painter 6 cdrom with the old brushes.