P: Some brush presets only work with certain tools (eraser, brush, clone, etc)

I'm glad I could help. They did kind of bury their legacy brushes in a new "set" in a menu item, although I'm sure they didn't really mean them to be hidden in plain sight. It's just hard when an entire feature gets revamped and the user doesn't quite know what has changed, what is the same, so finds it confusing.

After some looking, I have found them.  I believe the issue is resolved.  The legacy brush work as I remember them.  A wonderful legacy!   Thank you so much for your help and persistence.  

> I just called Adobe support to get back my custom actions and preferences that a previous support rep had "temporarily" removed from Photoshop 2018 CC.  I got cut off on the phone and he did not call back.  At any rate, this new rep restored those preferences, but it appears she also ":updated" the 2017 Photoshop that had brushes that worked as I wanted (installed by the rep who told be about the beta).>>

Sheesh.  Sorry, Adobe, but I hear this too often about your customer service. They don't seem to take into account what you can't allow them to destroy while they're "fixing" something. Either they don't know Photoshop, or they don't want to take the time with the customer to figure this out.<sigh>

So the Legacy Brushes can be found in the Brushes panel — don't look in the Brush Settings panel.



These are Adobe's brushes as shipped before Kyle's brushes. Kyle's brushes are still available through "Get More Brushes. . . " In case they did something to those, as well.

I'm sorry, but I don't know the path in Windows, but your User Library, under something like Application Support, Adobe, Photoshop 2018, Presets— should have all the brushes you have installed and saved to it, in case you're not aware of that library. If you relied upon Preferences to store your brushes, they could be anywhere that you originally put them when you downloaded them, or lost to the ether if you created or altered them and never did save them. Save is now called Export Selected Brushes, and it's your best friend when it comes to a new version or a customer service rep messing about with your installation.

I'd also advise backing up that Presets folder somewhat regularly to some other place entirely where you store personal data. That's rescued me from some bad experiences where I might have lost a great deal.

And I did record a screen capture video with vimeo, but it did not show cursor or the brush tips, so it is useless.

And where might I find them?  They are not in the brush pallet.  Just general round tips and lots and lots of Kyle's.  I see no  Legacy Brushes in the Brushes flyout menu.  I have turned on and off all the options in the brush tip menu to no avail.

And just fyi, I just called Adobe support to get back my custom actions and preferences that a previous support rep had "temporarily" removed from Photoshop 2018 CC.  I got cut off on the phone and he did not call back.  At any rate, this new rep restored those preferences, but it appears she also ":updated" the 2017 Photoshop that had brushes that worked as I wanted (installed by the rep who told be about the beta).  Now those brushes are "dynamic" or "scattering" or whatever and do not work properly in my estimation.  And these are not Kyle's brushes, but brush 284 and 112 and the like.

I am extremely mad about this entire episode.  And once again with a computer issue, I do not know who to believe and the problem persists.

Oh, that makes a difference.  Please open the Brush settings panel. You haven't been the victim of some deep state attempt on Adobe's part to mess with your brushes. There's also no such thing as a "staggered" release. Your ACC app may not tell you right away that a new version is available, due to volume of notifications that have to go out, but you can get it right away if you prompt the ACC app to update without waiting for it to do so automatically in 24 hours. You didn't receive a "staggered update." I don't know where he got his ideas about how brushes have been changed, but I think he needs a refresher course, no matter how knowledgeable he sounded.

Most, if not all, of Kyle's brushes were tools. They were not part of Adobe until the 2018 release. Now they're "brushes" with tool settings.

His Spatter brushes, unlike Adobe's own Spatter brushes, are all dynamic. They have Scattering enabled in the Brush Settings panel. They also have several other settings, depending upon your choice. One is Transfer—that will affect Opacity. Another is Dual Brush, which affects the tip, as well as Texture. It's extremely important, if you're going to use Kyle's brushes, that you learn as much as you can about that Brush Settiings panel and what each of the features in it does to the brushes.

These are all very different from Adobe's own Spatter brushes that I have heard often get used by retouchers to work with hair, as you indicated. Kyle's brushes are really special effects brushes. They absolutely will not follow where you place your brush. I would strongly suggest for your masking and retouching purposes you either go back to Adobe's brushes, which will install if you choose Legacy Brushes in the Brushes flyout menu, or that you learn to tame Kyle's brushes—by first turning OFF Scattering.

Eartho, Cristen,

I read the release notes and it does not seem to describe the actions of my brushes.  I am trying to use Kyles's spatter brushes - Supreme spatter & texture.  I'd be happy to create a screen capture video for you, but have never done this before.  Any recommended software to do this. 

Incidentally, the support rep I talked to - and he is a rep that you get when to call Adobe's technical support telephone number - used the word "beta".  What I and another 10% of Adobe users have received may not be an "official" beta, but perhaps an early release or a staggered release of a photoshop update.  That seemed to be his meaning.  

Adobe's default brushes contain spatter brushes.  Adobe doesn't ship with any 'splatter' brushes,  but it sounded to me like he was talking about brushes all of us have. That would be the legacy brushes. They aren't dynamic. I checked. And I have heard people say they use those brushes for the same intended purpose he is using them.

But to rule out any confusion about exactly which brush and what settings, I asked for screenshots of the Brush Settings panel and the Options bar. The rest has already been explained to him.

Even if there isn't much more to it, we need to have a clear idea of what the brush is that he's selecting before we can assume anything more about it. Catching up to how brushes changed takes a bit of time. Helping him find where to look is only possible with more input from him about exactly what he's got selected, or figure out that it's corruption somewhere, which frequently happens if we don't delete our settings when we update.

It resizes itself and then does not erase where aimed. WTF!  Incidentally, I'm trying to use the splatter brush tip.

Sounds to me like they had just loaded a brush preset which had scatter and shape dynamics variables being applied. I don't think there's much more to it.

Maybe they don't understand that when you have a preset loaded and click a different brush tip, the settings don't automatically reset to zero... you still have to define the options you want and save out that brush, then choose different tips as needed.

Earth, we've been through the changes. It's this we're now dealing with, about halfway back before we got started on what the "support" guy told him:

"However, I tried to use the eraser tool for the first time after FINALLY being able to select the brush I wanted, and the tool does not work properly or least like it used to.  It resizes itself  and then does not erase where aimed. WTF!  Incidentally, I'm trying to use the splatter brush tip.  "

At this point, I think we need someone official to set his mind at ease that the guy was blowing smoke and Adobe wouldn't do this to their customers behind their back. We also need someone who can figure out why his tools are still not behaving, now that he understands the changes. All I can think of is corruption, either in the tool itself, or with Preferences.

He shouldn't be having a problem, and I'd still like to see a video, if possible, of the brush not maintaining size and acting like it's dynamic. Or at least screenshots of the Brush Settings panel with the Eraser and tip active, as well as the Options bar settings, to see if anything there might be messing with the results he's expecting. Those changed too, especially with the Smoothing options, though unless set very high, well above default, I tested that, too, and couldn't cause a problem—not if I was anywhere near the default for it.