[FNM]

hey. i'm an advid photoshop user. i haven't ran painter since 5.5, which was ok. right now, i'm messin about wiht painter 7, and it is running kinda slow, especially the watercolor brushes. now this is unusal considering the fact that my photoshop flies, and this is a new computer.

p4 1.8, 512 ram, gforce3.

if anyone has any tips or suggestions on fixing this problem, it'd be much appreciated.

thanx!

[Jin]

Hi,

You're not alone in this discovery. Painter 7 in general is processor intensive and the Water Color brush technology is completely new and very demanding on system resources. Liquid Ink is also demanding.

A few things you can do, besides the general suggestion to avoid using very large brush sizes if possible.

Using Water Color variants:

In the Brush Controls palette's Size section, move the Feature slider to the right. This decreases bristle density and makes the stroke faster and appear lighter, so play with it to find the happy medium.

In the Brush Controls palette's Water section, increase the Dry Rate.

You'll find that some Water Color variants paint black or grey if there's any black in the color at all.. or if the saturation level is too low. To avoid this, pick a color along the top edge of the Art Materials palette's Colors section triangle, or at the right point of the triangle (fully saturated).

If you're getting black or grey in your brush strokes when you want the color lighter and you've already picked a color along the top edge of the Colors section triangle, in the Brush Controls palette's General section (or in the Controls:Brush palette.. use Ctrl/Command+5 to toggle it open or closed), adjust the Opacity slider to the left.

Painter 7 Water Color variants don't paint that nice pooled edge around brush strokes, unfortunately, like they did in earlier version Water Colors, so be forwarned and don't beat your head against a brick wall (unless you really want to).

If you want smooth color with no buildup where strokes overlap, try painting on the Canvas or a Default Layer with a dry brush. When you're finished, if the painting is on the Canvas, in the Layers section menu, choose Lift Canvas to Water Color Layer. Pick the Water Color variant and Paper combination for the effect you want, then in the Layers section menu, choose Wet Entire Water Color Layer. Sit back and watch your image turn into a Water Color image. (If your dry painting is on a Default Layer, drop the Layer to the Canvas, then follow the steps described above.)

Currently, Water Color Layers and other Layers set to Composite Method Gel can't be collapsed (the Collapse option is greyed out).

The Collapse option is greyed out for Water Color Layers because there was an issue with it in the initial Painter 7 release causing corruption and other unwanted results. This issue will be reopened for Painter 8.

In the meantime, here's the workaround:

1. Select the Water Color Layers and Group them.

2. Expand the Group (click the small triangle to the left of the Group name).

3. Highlight one of the Water Color Layers and, from the Layers section menu, choose Convert to Default Layer.

4. Repeat Step 3 for the remaining Water Color Layers.

5. Notice that these Default Layers are still in Composite Method Gel and the Collapse option is still greyed out.

6. Change the Composite Method from Gel to Default for each of the Default Layers in the Group.

7. Click the small triangle to the left of the Group name to close the Group.

8. With the Group highlighted in the Layers list, from the Layers section menu, choose Collapse.

This method, adapted general situations, is from Corel Painter Program Manager Tanya Staples.

Take a trip to PixelAlley to find lots of other Painter 7 information, including Painter Developer John Derry's Visual Guides for Painter 7 Water Colors, Liquid Ink, and Keystroke Shortcuts. All of the links on the right side of the PixelAlley Section Links Page are for Painter 7. You'll also find tutorials in the main Tutorials section (top left link) that can be used with Painter 7, along with some in the other sections of PixelAlley. The URL is below my signature.

Hope this helps get you started with Painter 7, with a little less pain and frustration.

Have fun!