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changing brush opacity in photoshop with a keystroke

polycounter lvl 17
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Peris polycounter lvl 17
I know I can change the opacity of my brush by hitting the number keys, which is great, but i'm looking for a way i can change opacity up and down about 10% with 2 single keys, like using [ and ] for changing brush size. Anyone know of a way to do this? I want to do it so i can bind it to stuff like my xbox controller thumbstick or stuff like that!

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  • danr
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    danr interpolator
    freaky, i was wondering this only 30 minutes ago
  • Medestruit
    Can you not change keybinds for it? I'll test it in just a second, but I think I remember being able to do so.

    edit: Well hell, Photoshop doesn't even list opacity, or show that it has keys bound to it.
  • Mark Dygert
    People have been after this for years, especially trying to assign it to the touch strip on a tablet.

    They can get some kind of half ass 3D paint package going and they can link brush hardness to a KB shortcut, but they can't link opacity to a keyboard shortcut or a touch strip... All you ever hear is "just use the num keys". Not funny adobe, not funny at all.

    I don't ever remember my opacity setting and I shouldn't have to look it up when I want a little more or less. grrr...
  • Ryno
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    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    Pissed me off when airbrush and paintbrush got consolidated into one tool, with flow settings controlling the airbrush characteristics. This destroyed the ability to quickly toggle between a hard edged brush (formerly B) and a soft edged airbrush (formerly J) with a single keystroke.
  • Peris
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    Peris polycounter lvl 17
    ryno: you can move up and down between brushes with , and .
    so you could create the hard edged brush and a soft edged airbrush right under that.

    medestruit & vig: thanks, seems like it's not possible then :(. There has to be a way though, maybe through a script or so! I keep looking =).
  • renderhjs
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    renderhjs sublime tool
    People have been after this for years, especially trying to assign it to the touch strip on a tablet.
    at least in CS3 and CS4 it is possible- its though a bit hidden :D
    its under
    brush settings > other dynamics > Opacity Jitter > Control : Pen pressure

    after that it has more this openCanvas feel wich smears somewhat better the stroke
  • Michael Knubben
    I don't believe that's what he's asking for, Render. He wants to assign opacity to the touch-strips on the side of a Wacom Intuous. I've got my left one set to Brush-size, which works wonderfully. You'd need keyboard shortcuts for changing the opacity, though, or there's no way to assign the sliders touch-strips to it.

    edit: unless I'm reading your post the wrong way? I had a look around, but couldn't find a way to bind a shortcut to these settings.


    Aaaalso, Ryno, on top of what Peris said, check out tool presets.
  • Mark Dygert
    MP's right, I want incremental brush opacity set to the touch strip which is the same as setting it to a KB shortcut, but there's no way to do it.

    Now before you say "oh see they did bind it to keys" it doesn't work like [ ] for incremental brush size. The num keys will only adjust the opacity to a level not nudge it up or down. Example: you want 55% you punch in 55% want a little more you dial in 6 for 60%. All this is great if you're constantly remembering your opacity setting and doing a little guestmate math as you go. I might as well use the slider since I have to take my eyes off what I'm doing to first find out the opacity then adjust it. The point of KB shortcuts like this is to keep my pen where I need it, not off hunting in menus or adjusting sliders.

    I also use pen pressure to control a lot of other things besides opacity.
    On some brushes I use pen pressure to control things like brush size. That way I can vary my line thickness without having it disappear. Works great for doing line art.
    On some brushes I use it to control jitters like angle, or color shifting, like on a grass or moss brush. There's a reason pen pressure can be selected for many more things in the brush settings besides opacity. And for the times that I don't have pen pressure set to opacity I need another quick way to handle it. It's a pretty basic thing they could have set up but they never have.

    Peris, if you ever find a script or another work around PLEASE post it here! =)
  • Ryno
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    Ryno polycounter lvl 18
    Peris wrote: »
    ryno: you can move up and down between brushes with , and .
    so you could create the hard edged brush and a soft edged airbrush right under that.

    CS2? I'm not getting that to work as , and . aren't doing anything. Am I missing something here?
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