Wacom tablet input and opacity

Soccerman18

I just got an Intous 3 for xmas (wooohooo!) and I was playing around with it today and I noticed that it doesn't seem to be drawing very smooth lines. For example, when I draw a circle quickly it comes out like a hexagon. I'm guessing this is just a result of the speed at which the position of the cursor is being read at (and maybe I'm just slower with the mouse and didn't notice it as much). Is there a way to have it be read or output quicker so that I can get some smoother lines, or do I need to just draw slower? My comps only about a year old and it was top of the line when I got it so I don't think it's an issue of my comp being too slow.

Also, is there a way to change it so that the pressure affects the opacity instead of the width? It seems more natural to me that if I don't push as hard I'd get a lighter stroke, not a thinner line. Plus it's easier to switch between strokes than change the opacity (although there may be some shortcut key I don't know of to speed this up).

MoP

are you drawing this in photoshop?
if so, try checking the "smoothing" checkbox in the brush palette (the one where you choose what the pressure's affecting and stuff).

SkullboX

Looks like your spacing is set way too high. Under 'Brush tip shape', set it to 0%, this can be set in the same window you can change the pressure sensitivity settings. You can disable Size jitter' under the 'Shape dynamics' of your brush settings, and change it to 'Opacity jitter' under 'other dynamics'.

Soccerman18

Yea I'm using photoshop 5.5, don't have a newer version, not seeing a smoothing checkbox to check. Tried lowering the spacing, didn't change anything. It's not that the stroke is broken up, it's more like it's not getting all the data for curve and only getting a few points which it plays connect the dots with. Here's a pic:

That's just with the normal paintbrush. I don't think it's a photoshop setting cause the cursor seems to move a little choppier when I use the tablet, but I'm not seeing any setting in the tablet optins in control panel for it.

Archanex

yeah, I believe the smoothing option was added in v6.0 when adobe did an overhaul on the brush engine. As far as I can remember there's no way to fix that in version 5.5 Sorry man

thomasp

ehm, i use 5.5 myself and while i sometimes create slightly edgy shapes when drawing very quicky, it totally never puts out a shape like that for me.

it looks like you have some performance problem, what is the cpu load when painting like? must be something with your system/tablet/driver since you say the cursor movement is choppier than normal.
tablet with bluetooth or usb? and are there other data-hungry devices sharing that connection, perhaps?

Soccerman18

I just saw an option in the info for the brush where the stylus pressure can be set to affect size, color, and opacity.

The tablet is usb, same as my mouse. The CPU was getting up to around 40%, both with mouse and tablet. It's working better right now, although that may be the result of having fewer aps open, but I'm still getting edges rather than a smooth line when I draw quickly, guess I just need to slow down then.