Some newbie questions

[vurt]

I'm trying to creating a Nozzle with Painter IX, so i have 4 layers of leaves with drop shadow (collapsed for each layer).

When i cut out the leaves i wanted to shrink the border around them so i didnt get a ugly white outline for each leaf (feather doesnt always work the way you want it with detailed pictures), but the modify panel is greyed out. I have made a selection around the leaf so i cant understand how it cant be available?

So i gave up that idea and instead i'm trying to erase the tiny white border around each leaf, but i have no success using the eraser, all it leaves is a black stroke(?!). I choosed "Erasers", "Erase all". i've clicked the eraser icon, too.

Another question, when i want to deselect something do i really have to go to the menu and select deselect, isnt there some way i can click outside the image and it will deselect, very annoying to go to the menu or to asign a key for such a simple task.

Im used to photoshop and Painter doesnt seem very logic to me, yet :)

Any help is appreciated.

[fes]

What I do when I create a nozzle is:

Paint whatever the nozzles are with each on a different layer, then create the Nozzle file as per how it's set out in the Help menu.

Then I cut and paste the images on their separate layers into the new Nozzle file and overlay them over the canvas where the nozzle file has allocated their places. When they're all in place, I delete the background canvas completely (getting rid of the black and flatten images) and fill it with a mid gray tone.

I then select all the layers and choose 'Drop and Select' from the arrow in the top right of the layers palette. Then I save as a Nozzle.

I find having a gray background is better than a black one and a bit of mid gray border is often less noticeable, and also having the original layers works better than Painters automatic creation of a Nozzle from the same layers.

I hope this helps (and isn't too confusing). Creating nozzles in painter can be a pain. It's often a bit temperamental. Nozzles don't have feathered edges, it likes a hard edge as it is at 100% opacity ie, completely solid. Therefore if your original images aren't completely solid Painter will fill it in with white (or black).



All in all.... try a gray background instead of a black one.




The shortcut for Deselect on the Keyboard is Ctrl+D (Win) or Cmd+D (Mac). I think that's the same as PS?

[vurt]

Thanks for the instructions! I'll try it :)

in PS, i just click outside the image in to deselect, much faster and better if you're a pen user, i dont want to stretch for the keyboard everytime i want to deselect. I mean its something you do quite often (at least me) so i find it kind of illogical that it doesnt work that way in Painter.

No one has any input about the eraser problem or why modify is greyed out? I guess the problem i have with the eraser has to do with the canvas, it's black so when i use the eraser it will create black strokes. Isnt there a background eraser tool like in PS, to make it transparent?

Oh, i found out why i couldnt use modify, i had to transform it to a selection.. so i have to transform my selection INTO a selection.. that seems a bit stupid :D