Grease Pencil problem (especially soft pencil) #94252

New Issue

Marcin · 2021-12-19T15:56:21+01:00

Marcin commented

2021-12-19 15:56:21 +01:00

System Information
Operating system: Windows-10-10.0.19042-SP0 64 Bits
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 NVIDIA Corporation 4.5.0 NVIDIA 497.09

Blender Version
Broken: version: 3.0.0, branch: master, commit date: 2021-12-02 18:35, hash: f1cca30557
Worked: (newest version of Blender that worked as expected)

Short description of error
Since couple version of Blender I cannot use a soft pencil (mainly) brush in Grease Pencil 2D animation mode. The issue depends on how much You zoom. When You zoom in and use same size it's not visible. When You zoom out and draw with same size dots are visible.
It's behavior is very strange now and produces bad results (visible dotted lines or other which are visible on attached file. Some of these issues occur when the brush is small (line type set as dots). This is much more more visible when stroke stabilization is on. The bug was not there about 2 years ago and I was able to use the soft pencil without such problems. When line type is set to line the pencil stroke has strange contour around and when self overlap is off it produces artifacts on edges.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
Just choose a soft pencil and make it small. Check it with stroke stabilization as well. Then change the line type to line with self overlap on and off.

**System Information** Operating system: Windows-10-10.0.19042-SP0 64 Bits Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2 NVIDIA Corporation 4.5.0 NVIDIA 497.09 **Blender Version** Broken: version: 3.0.0, branch: master, commit date: 2021-12-02 18:35, hash: `f1cca30557` Worked: (newest version of Blender that worked as expected) **Short description of error** Since couple version of Blender I cannot use a soft pencil (mainly) brush in Grease Pencil 2D animation mode. The issue depends on how much You zoom. When You zoom in and use same size it's not visible. When You zoom out and draw with same size dots are visible. It's behavior is very strange now and produces bad results (visible dotted lines or other which are visible on attached file. Some of these issues occur when the brush is small (line type set as dots). This is much more more visible when stroke stabilization is on. The bug was not there about 2 years ago and I was able to use the soft pencil without such problems. When line type is set to line the pencil stroke has strange contour around and when self overlap is off it produces artifacts on edges. ![pencil.jpg](https://archive.blender.org/developer/F12763508/pencil.jpg) **Exact steps for others to reproduce the error** Just choose a soft pencil and make it small. Check it with stroke stabilization as well. Then change the line type to line with self overlap on and off.

Marcin commented

2021-12-19 15:56:21 +01:00

Added subscriber: @Wizard1

Richard Antalik commented

2021-12-21 10:01:15 +01:00

Added subscriber: @iss

Richard Antalik commented

2021-12-21 10:01:15 +01:00

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Needs User Info'

Richard Antalik commented

2021-12-21 10:01:15 +01:00

Do you mean that with same brush you get very different results based on zoom level?

Marcin commented

2021-12-21 10:56:26 +01:00

Yes. That is one of problems. I think the important one. When I use soft pencil (line set as „dots”) the dots resolution (gap between them) depends on zoom level and brush size. So with the same brush size the line has huge gaps when zoom out when painting and almost no gaps (it looks good, like real pencil) when zoomed in when painting. In addition gaps are much bigger when stabilization is being used. So space beetwen dots is not regular in mamy cases.

Take a soft pencil. Set small size. Draw a line when zoomed out. Zoom in and draw a second line. Results will be very different.

Yes. That is one of problems. I think the important one. When I use soft pencil (line set as „dots”) the dots resolution (gap between them) depends on zoom level and brush size. So with the same brush size the line has huge gaps when zoom out when painting and almost no gaps (it looks good, like real pencil) when zoomed in when painting. In addition gaps are much bigger when stabilization is being used. So space beetwen dots is not regular in mamy cases. Take a soft pencil. Set small size. Draw a line when zoomed out. Zoom in and draw a second line. Results will be very different.

Richard Antalik commented

2021-12-22 05:01:39 +01:00

Changed status from 'Needs User Info' to: 'Confirmed'

Antonio Vazquez commented

2021-12-22 16:14:07 +01:00

Added subscriber: @antoniov

Antonio Vazquez commented

2021-12-22 16:14:07 +01:00

Actually, the dots are not created at constant distance, but at "events" distance.

What you get is a known issue and is related to the way Windows handles pen / mouse events (Linux does not have this problem or it is very small). We are looking for a way to get enough events when you move the mouse, because now Windows does not send all the events and it is impossible to create a constant distance between points.

Another way to solve it would be to interpolate the points that we never receive. We have used some of these techniques but they have a limitation ... we cannot abuse them or the artist's "gesture" is missing. Actually the only solution is to move your pen / mouse slower and try to use the fastest PC available.

Actually, the dots are not created at constant distance, but at "events" distance. What you get is a known issue and is related to the way Windows handles pen / mouse events (Linux does not have this problem or it is very small). We are looking for a way to get enough events when you move the mouse, because now Windows does not send all the events and it is impossible to create a constant distance between points. Another way to solve it would be to interpolate the points that we never receive. We have used some of these techniques but they have a limitation ... we cannot abuse them or the artist's "gesture" is missing. Actually the only solution is to move your pen / mouse slower and try to use the fastest PC available.

Marcin commented

2021-12-22 16:24:01 +01:00

As You have said about artists…moving pen in a slower way is not what we are looking for.

Antonio Vazquez commented

2021-12-22 16:35:45 +01:00

@Wizard1 Agree 100%, this is why we are looking for a solution.

Antonio Vazquez commented

2021-12-23 09:38:45 +01:00

@ShenCiao-2 We already have the resampling code to keep constant distance, but to do that while you draw is not easy...always is a "post" draw process. We have some ideas to use a Bezier conversion to get same shape without using too many points.

Marcin commented

2021-12-23 09:44:23 +01:00

It is good to know the team is aware of that. Thank You for answers. I hope it will be solved someday. I am just wondering why all painting software (PS, Affinity) has no isseus with drawing like this if that is Windows problem. But I am not a developer so I guess the problem is not an easy one.

Philipp Oeser removed the

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Grease Pencil problem (especially soft pencil) #94252