Adobe Photoshop feedback
grand marshal polycounter
Hey folks,
Tomorrow morning me and a few other artists will have the chance to meet up with a member of the Photoshop programing team. Hopefully this will be a great, open-minded feedback session.
I am currently putting together my bullet-point list of feature requests and bugs I noticed. I will post it here asap for some extensive PC feedback.
In the meantime, if there is some things that you'd find worth improving in order to make your workflow better, please tell. The only limitation would be to focus on the important things only ; I mean, no need to list each and every little bug or shortcoming, just focus on the annoyances that slow you down during your every day game art/concept art workflow.
For instance : I will report the need for a a shortcut to bring up the color selection window. But I wont talk about some users request to have the current brush displayed in full values as opposed to the current 1 pix outline (because this wouldn't change the workflow at all).
The meeting will likely be too short to address everything so yeah please keep it essential.
Thanks! Will update asap.
Tomorrow morning me and a few other artists will have the chance to meet up with a member of the Photoshop programing team. Hopefully this will be a great, open-minded feedback session.
I am currently putting together my bullet-point list of feature requests and bugs I noticed. I will post it here asap for some extensive PC feedback.
In the meantime, if there is some things that you'd find worth improving in order to make your workflow better, please tell. The only limitation would be to focus on the important things only ; I mean, no need to list each and every little bug or shortcoming, just focus on the annoyances that slow you down during your every day game art/concept art workflow.
For instance : I will report the need for a a shortcut to bring up the color selection window. But I wont talk about some users request to have the current brush displayed in full values as opposed to the current 1 pix outline (because this wouldn't change the workflow at all).
The meeting will likely be too short to address everything so yeah please keep it essential.
Thanks! Will update asap.
Replies
So what is the shortcoming of the current keyboard shortcuts system for you Glib? I know that I reassigned many palettes to F5, F6 and so on, and also some actions to F7 F10 and more. So for me the current keyboard shortcut situation does not hindres my workflow.
What would you like to see improved regarding this? What other program can you think of with an intuitive keyboard shortcut system? (for instance I personally like the Silo way where you just highlight a menu item and type in the desired shortcut and BAM done, over the over complicated maya shortcut editor)
this is probably way outta the scope of your discussion, but one of the biggest things I've wanted for photoshop has been a stroke-smoothing tool setting akin to zbrush's lazymouse. I suppose they'd say it wasn't worth the effort though since you can always use a stroke along a curve
and some sort of setup to do symmetrical painting!
I think a very welcome feature would also be introducing intermediate conditional statements and relative filepaths into the actions setup. It's very true that you can usually accomplish this via scripting fairly easily, but the actions setup is fantastic and it wouldn't take a lot to make it much more robust for every artist to use fully with 0 coding involved
sorry, I doubt that's the kind of stuff you wanted. for some reason I can't think of any simple feature request right now...
trimming down cpu/memory usage... and fixing memory leaks... PLEAAAAASE >.<
if not...
-Better management for tool presets. At least the addition of folders, and non-alphabetical sorting.
-A frontend for managing plugins and filters. Switching them on and off, installing/uninstalling and such.. (OK this one is loooow on my list)
-A color wheel
-Use the middle button for some tasks, like resizing brush size by holding it in and dragging
- the ability to decide which parts of the programs are loaded on startup: 3d, fonts, etc. not everyone needs everything. kind of a who-are-you wizard for first timers, then u can adjust from inside the prog.
- if this hasnt returned in latest versions (havent tried) i want back the numerical rotate option, where i enter precise angle for rotation.
Also, a more procedural/dynamic "stroke along path" would be cool - for example if you have a path, and you Stroke it with a certain brush, instead of just rasterising those strokes as pixels, it could store the brush settings used to stroke the path, and generate the output on the fly. Then you could easily just tweak the "stroke brush" settings for that path and tweak stuff like spacing/size/colour/pattern etc.
didnt find anything to fix that
"For instance : I will report the need for a a shortcut to bring up the color selection window."
almost every photo shop digi painter will kiss your feet if you make this happen, including me. But perhaps a mini version of the colour selector as well.
Also id like to see some much nicer blender tool options, or in other terms, more options to play with colours picked up under the brush. So making a stroke will pick up a certain amount of the colour underneath the brush whilst smudging those lower colour s a little bit.
and rotate canvas!
PLEEEEEASE!!!
- better brush management, saving custom brushes is a pain in PS
and i add
symmetry painting and free canvas rotation
Here's the compiled list as it is. Hopefully I'll wake up on time for the meeting haha
http://www.pioroberson.com/files/photoshop feedback - pior oberson.pdf
To get the IE window poping when I'm not looking my keyboard and usind my F2 hotkey make my "hoo shit not that again! Vista gonna crash! Toshop nooo -__- fuck you!!!""
Who need the photoshop help? haha
node editor for dynamic driven filters/object creation, similar to the ones in Blender, Combustion,...
with instances, references and copies
2.)
useable performance for high framerate painting (so that brushes feel more responsive). Perhaps a option for a classic GUI that runs faster as the new eye-candy stuff.
3.) integrated panel editor
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/configurator/
4.) default unit setup: pixels (and not anymore mm/cm/inch,... stuff) - the print days are gone
but i enjoy some features of bodypaint like :
- When u draw on canvas limit, it overdraws on other sides. Sexy for tiling textures.
- You can create an alpha mask on a layer just by droping an other layer on it.
*wish for instances too*
Almost everything I would have said
Would like to add though that aside from assigning keys to specific brushes and organizing them in folders, it'd be great if we could break off said folders into new windows or dockable menues along the top or side.
My number one gripe for so long has been:
- Opacity linked to incremental key presses, like [] for brush size.
So we can use the touch strips on the Wacom to control opacity!
I know punching in a number will adjust it exactly, but that requires knowing what my current opacity setting is and making a guess at what it should be. I want to nudge it up or down or better use the touch strip and not take my eyes & hands off what I'm doing.
- Next would probably standardize the light set-up for 3D paint.
The way the lights are placed, and the way the are manipulated is awkward and not like any other standardized lighting system.
I totally agree with Poir's idea of stopping the "true 3D paint" and do it 2D projection. I'd settle for having a split window (2D unwrapped flat and 3D viewport), if viewport updated at a semi reasonable rate. Lighting and true 3D paint make it inaccurate and unreliable for production.
If we're thinking about radical new paradigm:
I'd like the ability to build non-linear layer systems. It doesn't mean we need to change the basic behavior, but the ability to switch to an 'advanced mode' or something similar.
I'm tired of copying masks over diffuse, specular etc, when one single 'node' could be linked to the masks of other files and update them automatically. It's kinda similar to 'instancing layers' but a bit further. A unique layer graph could output more than one file, or large layer systems could be shared/instanced into multiple files. I don't know if a nodal interface is the way to go, but something that offer the same level of control would be nice
We could theorize hours about this, i guess you get my point pior
very high on my list would also be the ability to assign hotkeys to any key and not to just ctrl+, shift+ or f keys.
color wheel would also be great.
and a lazy brush like feature would be awesome, just like in zbrush.
Something where I can create named folders or tabs of brushes, (Painting, Grunge, Etc.) and be able to drag and drop things where I want.
Brush set manager (current method involves deleting them all except the ones you want, then saving and re-importing everything).
If I save a file as a different format than the current document, don't add " copy" at the end of the filename (this is just an annoyance).
Similar to adjustment layers, you add a filter layer and it'd allow you to ammend/change the filter's settings further down the line, or to add masks to effect it to underlying layers, or layers in that group.
Filters are really the only destructive part of my workflow now. This would change that.
I also thought this was what smart filters was going to be, but it really wasn't
OH DEAR GOD YES!
One thing I think would be useful is the ability to change your brush size in smaller increments. Maybe this is different with new versions and tablets? Right now, using [ and ] for me increases pretty sharply at certain sizes. I'd like to be able to execute something like shift + [ or ] to scale it one pixel at a time, or ctrl + to go 100px at a time. Though I should think this to be possible with scripting or a more advanced action scripting than I've been using in CS2.
Edit: oh, also? Some sort of "save incremental" function. Either a custom auto-incrementing save function or like the + and - buttons in Max/Blender during Save As.
I oftentimes need to boost levels, desaturate, etc certain elements of an image, and it would be nice to do this on the corresponding layers themselves rather than using a masked adjustment layer.
The programmer was very open to suggestions (especially the simple, yet artist important ones like the brush ordering and such) - it was much more successful than I expected. We showed him video recordings showing performance decrease over consecutive CS release, provided interface elements mockups, all that.
Obviously I cannot tell anything about what was discussed (future Adobe plans, that kind of stuff). All I can say is that, everything posted in the .pdf on page 1 has been mentioned over the meeting (even part of the feedback collected here). The suggestions posted later on this thread were not brought up, but, I will make sure to forward this polycount page to him as soon as I get hold on his contact info.
However, it is worth noting that some things that might seem easy to implement (like, stuff seen in another light app but not in photoshop) are not all that simple in the end for many intertwining reasons. But the good thing is, he is now aware of all these little artist/workflow requests.
This thread might be checked by him from now on. So please keep stuff well documented and concise. Paradigm changes suggestions are welcome (node based layer system, all that stuff) but for obvious reasons the little 'smart' tricks or fixes have more chance to get through.
Thanks for everything guys.
Cool that the meeting went well though, here's hoping they listen. Blizzard must be able to put some weight on those Adobe guys, right!
I *could* even update the pdf haha. But honestly I think it's fine.
It's way late, but while the thread's still alive I just wanted to clamor for painting and blending at the same time the way Painter, Paint Tool SAI, and ArtRage do. I guess the finger painting option with the smudge tool is supposed to do that, but it doesn't work with pressure sensitivity. That one feature is pretty much the only thing I regularly use other painting programs for.
please please please please please please please........ pretty please?
C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3\Adobe Photoshop CS3 Settings\Adobe Photoshop CS3 Prefs.psp
However... doing this locks in all the current settings which can be a pain if you do a variety of things in PS as I do.
Is there a hotkey to delete a layer? I could use that.
Can you? Is it in CS3 or 4, I`m still using CS2. I tried CS4 when it came out but I may have overlooked this feature over the performance issues I was having with it. Just to clairfy: I`m referring to grabbing the canvas and positioning it anywhere *inside* the window.