is it possible to have the Paint Bucket Tool apply feathering?

[ElementX]

I'm trying to fill various shapes and I was wondering if the bucket paint tool could be used, in such a way, that it would leave the edges of the fills feathered; I guess it would be like applying an alpha-finish to the edge of the object(s) 

Can this be done?

Is there a way to do this that I'm not seeing?

Is my question making sence?

Basically, I'll draw something and then bring it into PS to add color.  But the edges never come out smooth when I use the bucket tool to fill areas, they are always pixelated.

So, I'm either not doing something correctly, I can't use the bucket tool this way, or I'm an ediot; I guess it could also be all three. 

Peace,

ElementX

[Bojan Živković]

Perhaps you overlooked the Anti-alias option in the Options bar (located just below the menus). Additionally, the Paint Bucket tool is quite old and likely hasn't been updated in some time.

[ElementX]

Bojan,

Thank you for your reply.

I'll have to go with the tool is quite old.

Peace,

ElementX

[Trevor.Dennis]

Experienced users tend not to use the Paint Bucket tool because it does not do well fill to edges.  It's better to fill to a selection in a layer beneath the area you want to fill. 

You could select that area with the magic wand, and expand it a fe pixels.

You fill and apply a Layer Style > Stroke chosing Center.

To answer your question more directly, you can feather a selection with Shift F6

[ElementX]

Trevor,

Thank you for your reply.

I wasn't aware of this issue but I have experienced the color not filling to the edge.

In my ignorance, I simply thought it was one of those things that you had to deal with until it got fixed or updated.

Now, I realize it should have been fixed a long time ago.

I'm learning, always learning, so I'll try the Shift F6 approach.  I did try playing with the feathering settings but to no success, I'll keep working at it.

Peace,

ElementX

[Trevor.Dennis]

Try this:

I have a square with a diagonal splitting it into two triangles.

I have used the paint bucket on the upper triangle aplied to the same layer (Layer 1)

Zoom is set to 600% making the unfilled pixels stand out.

I have used the magic wand to select the lower triangle, and using the Contextual Task Bar I have expanded the selection by 10 pixels.

I can now fill that selection in a new layer below the black outline, because it overlaps, it will completely fill the black triangle.  

But this is how an experienced user would actually create this sort of shape.

When possible, we'd use a vector Shape layer and use a Stroke for the outline.  You can even radius the corners by either dragging the handle (my yellow highlight at the top of the triangle) or by using the Properties panel (bottom right).

[ElementX]

Trevor,

Again thank you, and I apologize for the very late reply.

You'd think that it would as simple as click to fill any area.

I mostly use Animate to draw... anything, as I haven't yet truly commited to learning Illustrator.

In Animate, there are times when certain areas of an object aren't filled at all with the paint bucket, mostly when they are small so you I'd have to zoom in to fill them.

I also like using the paint brush and painting behind an object but that too has had it's issues.

Thanks again for taking the time, much appreciated.

Peace,

ElementX

[jane-e]

You'd think that it would as simple as click to fill any area.

By @ElementX

In addition to Trevor's excellent answer, try this: make a selection and use a keyboard shortcut to fill:

• Ctrl/Cmd + Backspace/Delete = Fill with Background Color
• Alt/Option + Backspace/Delete = Fill with Foreground Color

Jane

[ElementX]

Hi Jane-e,

Thank you for your suggestion.

Apperently, there seems to be a number of ways to accomplish what I'm trying to do, which is a good thing, just wished these were additional options and not workarounds to something that should be as simple as ...

Peace,

ElementX

[jane-e]

@ElementX 

You also mentioned feathering, which you can do with a selection in the options bar. 

• When you have an active selection, the feathering is applied to the current selection
• When nothing is selected but you have a selection tool, the feathering is applied to all future selections across time and across documents until the feathering is changed again.]

Jane

[melbendi]

The Paint Bucket tool will fill your selection with whatever feathering the selection has. You could first use Quickmask. Hit Q and pick the brush tool with a Hardness of 0, or whatever you like, and paint it in what you want to fill, then hit Q again to leave Quickmask mode, and click once with the paint bucket tool, or just hit Alt-Backspace, but only once, because if you do it twice, it will fill twice and sharpen your edges.