Set brush and paint opacity

In the Paint Panel or Brush Options window set Min Opacity and Max Opacity, and in the Brush Options window set Color Opacity.

See also Sketch on a Cintiq.

Opacity is a way of representing how “see-through” a brush’s paint is. (Opacity is the opposite of transparency.) You cannot see anything underneath paint that has an opacity of 1. The lower the opacity, the more you can see through the paint. Paint that has an opacity of 0 is perfectly clear and invisible.

Note

You can also control the opacity of layers.

See Change the opacity of an image layer.

Most brushes in Alias have two types of opacity: brush opacity (controlled by the Min Opacity and Max Opacity options) and paint opacity (controlled by the Color Opacity option).

The difference between brush opacity and paint opacity becomes noticeable when you paint more than once over the same spot. If the brush opacity is less than 1, the paint will build up and become more opaque. If the paint opacity is less than 1 (and the brush opacity is 1), the paint will not build up.

In addition, you can make the brush opacity change based on how hard you press the stylus on your tablet. The Min Opacity is the minimum opacity for the brush (when you press lightly with the stylus) and the Max Opacity is the maximum opacity for the brush (when you press hard with the stylus). If you do not want the opacity to vary with stylus pressure on the tablet, set the Min Opacity and the Max Opacity to the same value.

To set brush opacity

Do any of the following:

In the Paint Panel or Brush Options window, set Min Opacity and Max Opacity.
In the Brush Options window, move the two sliders in the linear Opacity Scale (next to the Brush Preview image). The slider to the left is the minimum opacity; the slider to the right is the maximum opacity.
With the brush tool active hold down the O key and drag:
- up to increase the minimum opacity
- down to decrease the minimum opacity
- right to increase the maximum opacity
- left to decrease the maximum opacity.

To set paint opacity

In the Brush Options window, set Color Opacity.

Tip

To make any brush erase paint, set the Brush Color to black and set the Color Opacity to 0. (To keep these settings for the brush, turn on Preserve Color.)