Direction option for Angle Jitter on brushes broken

[mlettis]

For Photoshop brushes, I've been using the Shape Dynamic > Angle Jitter > Control: Direction for painting hair and fur. I've been trying to fix it for a month now.  I've updated my photoshop application and restarted my computer, neither of which helped.  It also doesn't seem to be an issue with my pen nib, as I don't have the same issue with other direction settings.  Here is an image of the problem

This has never been a problem in the past.  I've successfully used this setting on many brushes, including this one.  It only started giving me trouble this weekend.  Now this setting doesn't work for any of the brushes.  They all have a similar issue, but it's especially noticed with this one.  I reset all preferences, and it's still not working.  Angle jitter control:pen pressure also has the same bug (I never use that one though, so I didn't notice it).  I don't have any screenshots of the settings while the brush settings were working.  It does the same whether or not "smoothing' is checked.  I don't know what else to check or change. 

Also, in the brush preview, the lines are disjointed.  When it was working, and for the other angle control settings, the lines are smooth.  I'm using a Microsoft Surface Pro 4 with Photoshop CC.  I'm including some more images of the settings below:

Please help.

[mglush]

Hi!

You mentioned that you updated the application--did it start happening after this? What were you using and what are you using now? If you undated to a newer version of PS, do you still have the older version on your machine?

Michelle

[mlettis]

I noticed it around the same time that I updated, but I hadn't used the angle jitter for a few days before that.  I can't remember if I noticed it right before the update though, and thought it was being weird because I hadn't updated recently, or if I noticed it just after the update 😕   It also didn't fix in the latest update which I just installed this morning.  I'm currently using Adobe Photoshop Version: 20.0.3 20190130.r.57 2019/01/30: 1204598  x64  Which I believe is the most recent Photoshop CC.  I'm not sure which version I had before that update, nor do I know if it's still on my computer.  😕  Sorry, that's probably not especially helpful.

[mglush]

I was just thinking that if it's a glitch in 20, you might be able to go back to your previous version to work until it's resolved.  I really like the brush stroke feel in the image above--have you tried the steps that Trevor.Dennis noted above?

[Trevor.Dennis]

I mostly use the Castrowchew brushes.

Hairbase  i turns out not to use Direction, but check out the next screen shot

What he has done is use a clever arrangement for the basic preset, which does not depend on direction.  I've never looked at this before, so I'm glad you prompted me to do so.

Hairbase 2 uses parallel lines, so has to use Direction.  I have a feeling this would work a lot better than single dots aligned

I've just knocked up this preset.  The dots are strong for the sake of demonstration.

I also have opacity and fade set to Pen Pressure under Transfer

Initially a 10% spacing gave me broken lines on the outside of curves, which was predictable

Hmmm...  1% Spacing didn't fix it.  Something seemed to break while I was doing this, and I had to reset the Brush tool and restart Photoshop, but I still have the broken lines.

I also use LL Perfect Brushes, which you can see are _very_ similar to Castrowchew's settings.  No opacity control though, so I did this with brush opacity set to 50%

And Hair Rake 2, which we can probably guess  at how it works

No, I did LL an injustice.  Hair Rake 2 uses the same ideas as Hair Rake 3.  

So I'd say Castrochew's method with Hair base 2 is the way to go if you want to set angle to Direction.

BTW  I also have some home made presets which are single pixel fully hard using a range of size/fade values.  The strokes are still too hard, so you need to set layer opacity really low (10% ish).  These are excellent at painting in flyaway hairs, and great for fool people into thinking you can do magic tricks with difficult selections. 

Looking at your post again, I think it might be the jagged strokes that are more of a problem, but I wonder if using parallel lines would even that out?  I've made a number of parallel lines with the pen tool

And stroked with a 1 pixel brush set to Pressure/Size with Simulate Pressure checked.

A bit thin perhaps?

I've copied the layer and set it to Multiply.  Merged those layers, copied again and flipped vertical and offset them.

Made the selection

And added a layer mask which I have feathered in Mask Properties

Applied the layer mask and defined as a brush preset

Right, getting close

Spacing 5%

Size to Pressure

Angle to Direction

Opacity and flow to pressure

Right click and define the preset complete with tool settings

Moment of truth

Yep. Worked OK

A long post so I hope it helped.  I certainly learned a new trick or two doing it, which is always nice.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Whoops.  I meant to ask what operating system you are using?

Are you using a tablet and which one?

If Windows, are you using Windows Ink or WinTab

[mlettis]

I'm using Windows 10 Pro.  The Mircrosoft Surface Pro 4 I'm using can draw directly from the screen, so I don't have any additional tablet.  I'm not sure if I'm using Windows Ink or WinTab.  I seem to have both on my computer, but I'm less familiar with those. 

Also, I have successfully used the direction option for Angle Jitter often in the past without this problem, on these same brushes.  I'm including an image of what the stroke looked like when it was working.  It's a little bit pixilated, but you can see it wasn't jumpy/wiggly like it's currently doing:

[JJMack]

If you are using a surface pen you are most likely using Microsoft ink unless you  using a perpetual version of Photoshop.  Old versions of Photoshop like CS6 do not have  INK api support. To use  cs6 on a surface you need to install a special device driver to have the Surface Pen support WinTab API. Also Make sure you disable touch and hold right click windows support in windows pen and touch control panel. Smoothing may have some effects and Trevor uses a plug-in for smoothing.  Are you sure the canvas size and resolution is the same as you used in the past.  And you are viewing at the same zoom percentage. Your screen capture looks zoomed way in.