Couple wishlist features

[Delofasht]

I would love to be able to set a hotkey to pick the color directly under my pointer without having to hold Alt and tap down with my stylus or mouse button to pick it. Just hover, tap hotkey = color picked and ready to paint with.

It is a feature I've never seen in any program as of yet and so subtle and simple a thing that will save more time for me than any other possible thing. (number of times I load a brush with a new color while painting X the fractions of a second to do 3 actions to pick the color I want instead of 1)

A couple other interesting features I'd love to see would be a Gradient Mapping feature where the Gradient scale is applied to the information in the layer or selection based on it's value scale from black to white/transparent = to colors chosen in the gradient bucket, preferably with the ability to have it on a separate layer for adjusting it to different modes . Lastly I'd love to have a Histogram and Curves adjustment tool (for multiple channels) Those 2 tools would make me almost not ever need any other program, currently have to open images in other programs to check this kind of information, which I don't need often so I don't want it up front but I'd love it be something I could set up to be usable if I should need it. Both these features could be buried in a Filters folder or something as I rarely if ever need them for the kind of work that I do.

As I think of more things I'd like to see I'll list them in thread.

- Delo

[Delofasht]

I'm certain many people have requested the same thing but basically being able to apply the Oil or Watercolor engine to Sticker Spray brushes to provide for a larger range of brush types would push the entire brush engine package over the top. I would suggest putting an option in the brush settings to choose from a shape of one's own choosing preferably placed in the fly out when you click on the icon in the settings box that way it's not clogging up the very clean tidy UI for the settings box (don't want to clutter that too much and overwhelm the user), especially given that this would be an advanced option that doesn't do anything with how the brush acts just what it's basic shape is.

Adding a toggle in the Sticker Spray, on the other hand, to make the spray have the Oil or Watercolor brush settings options could be amazing as well. Being able to turn a custom sticker sheet spray into a brush that lays on impasto oils for blending with a palette knife would be beyond the strongest of painting capabilities of any other software on the market at the moment (In my opinion of course).

The engines as they are right now are MORE than adequate for my general painting though and all of that stuff would just increase my productivity as a painter further while maintaining a realistic feel. (because I know I use the tilt, rotation, and pressure of brushes quite extensively with painting traditionally)

One last suggestion might be having toggles to reverse the general effect of Pressure or Stiffness responsiveness in the current Oil settings. . . because when I think pressure I think of how hard I am pushing the paint into the canvas and when I increase this it ends up making the paint thicker but when I push harder in traditional media it actually scrubs that paint deeper into the canvas and makes it less thick normally. Same for stiffness I kept trying to figure out why it was reacting backwards for me, then I have stiff bristles they tend to push the impasto effects on my canvas around heavily and soft bristles apply the paint without affecting the texture of impasto effects on the canvas nearly as much. I'd much prefer it reversed but I can see how it might have been this way for awhile and might negatively affect the user base to change it now, but given an option I think it'd feel much more intuitive for me to reverse this (a toggle to reverse it that is).

- Delo

[Delofasht]

Another one I just thought of, though it might have already been suggested is a dry paint button, where the thickness of the paint becomes set and the colors not movable with palette knife or wet blending methods as the layer is now "dried". Of course I can just work on a new layer which is basically the same effect, but I like to keep my layer stack to one or two at most and treat it as I would traditionally giving time to let areas dry before coming to work on them, some sort of toggle for a paint drying over time where we could set the amount of time that passes before paint dries based on it's thickness and perhaps type of paint (oil vs watercolor) linked to the approriate tools under advanced options (when you click on the settings icon and get the fly out list of options). That would make the process feel even more authentic I think and allow for training traditional media to people with ArtRage using the same techniques based around how quickly or slowly paint dries.

[Delofasht]

A point of origin choice toggle for selection tools, start shape from corner or middle. Also, as others may have noted a way to transform empty selections, not just move them around but actually put them into perspective and such before working on them. In fact, a wide range of selection tools are the only thing I feel are lacking in ArtRage, even if I don't use them often in the way I paint having access to them could be quite useful.

Filter library having an online resource for us to download from would be nice too, having no filters at base doesn't bother me, but I'd love to be able to look for specific filters and download them as needed.

I'll think of more as the days go by I'm sure.

Edit: Found some of the hotkey toggles for the selection for making the corner or center based selections, still think it'd be nice to have a toggle in the tools selection as for toggling the mode prior to starting a selection.

[Delofasht]

A new thought I had would be the capability to double load a brush or palette knife so I get color transitions from the left side to the right side of the brush different based on how I loaded them. Also a way to load or scrape paint with a palette knife from the canvas or a reference scrap. Often in traditional media I will use the palette knife to scrape away paint on the canvas, currently all I can do it smudge it or smear it but I feel like unloaded I should also be able to scrape back to the surface with this tool.

Loading a brush from a palette would be my most wished for attribute and would take the realistic feel even further, with perhaps a variety of different thinners off to the side to dilute my mixes on my palette down with. Once again these are by no means needed, just really wishes. Often people ask why I would want all this, why not just do it traditionally. . . well I like to paint in public places from time to time, carrying all my easel and other stuffs out and setting up and cleaning up is a very lengthy process and often requires me be in a place that will allow for smells and such. Do it all on a laptop exactly how I would traditionally without the smell, clean up, setup and breakdown? Yes that's my dream, all the benefits of traditional without all the drawbacks (or limitations). Controlling loading and thinning in an analog manner feels much faster and can be nearly as accurate (possibly more so) as pulling sliders around (did I mention faster?).

[Delofasht]

Brush edge based on tilt, where I could paint with the corners of my square brushes or flat and twist in my stroke while applying a bit of pressure to make it fatter and use more of the bristles. It is a very minor thing but further pushes the idea of traditional feel. Every step this program takes towards traditional feel just makes the workflow more fun and interesting and, for me, easier. Also think I should be able to control the amount of edge of a palette knife touching the canvas. Paint thickness on the palette knife being considered could be quite good too, allowing us to graze the surface with a heavily loaded knife to catch on various impasto elements on the surface for creating interesting broken color effects.

I feel like it is so close now, just tiny tweaks to how a dry brush interacts with wet paint on the surface for pushing paint around or scumbling a bit more realistically and things like that could push it even further. Would also really like to see advanced options for the paint thickness levels to allow for even higher impasto effects and lighting controls to allow us to move the lighting position or even color of the light on the canvas. There are so many things I would love to see in software, I wish I could be of more help but all I know is how things feel and what I consider with each stroke. Is there a place to write with detailed feedback regarding tactile response in ArtRage? Seems kind of like what you all might have beta testers for but I don't really have any idea of your development process either.

Also, I saw 16 bit color mode and CMYK color gamut correction mentioned in other threads that I think could be quite good as well.