Water Controls

Water controls work with Watercolor layers. A Watercolor layer is automatically created when you apply a stroke with a Watercolor brush. The layer can be edited from the Layers panel.

Wetness controls the dilution and the spread of paint. As Wetness is increased, the resulting stroke expands over a larger area, eliminating the appearance of brush hairs.

Pickup controls how much dry paint gets picked up during diffusion. Lower values mean that there is no mixing or leaching of paints. Higher values produce more leaching.

Dry Rate controls the rate at which water dries during diffusion. Lower values cause greater spread; higher values reduce the amount of spread.

The evaporation threshold (Evap Thresh slider) controls the minimum amount of water that can still diffuse. Lower values cause greater spread; higher values reduce the amount of spread.

The diffusion setting (Diffuse Amt slider) controls the amount of paint diffused. Using high diffusion creates soft edges that feather into the grain, as though you were painting on wet absorbent paper. Using low diffusion is similar to painting on dry paper.

The capillary factor (Cap Factor slider) controls the grain’s effect on diffusion. Lower values result in a smoother edge.

The grain soak-in (Grn Soak-In slider) controls the amount of paint that soaks into the grain when paint is drying. You can lower both capillary factor and grain soak-in values to reduce grain effects.

Enable the Accurate Diffusion check box to use a smaller diffusion window. Disabling Accurate Diffusion results in a larger, less accurate window being used.

You can specify the amount of wind force exerted on the diffusing particles. Set the Wind Force to zero to turn off directional diffusion.

You can specify wind direction, which controls the direction in which the particles diffuse. This can be used to simulate tilting of a wet watercolor image to introduce the paint migration effects of gravity.


To	Do the following
Adjust wetness	Move the Wetness slider to the left to create a more uniform brushstroke, or to the right to have the water flow more in the direction of the wind.
Set paint pickup	Move the Pickup slider to the right to increase the amount of leaching, or to the left to reduce it.
Set the dry rate	Move the Dry Rate slider to the right to reduce the amount of spread, or to the left to increase it.
Set the evaporation threshold	Move the Evap Threshold slider to the right to reduce the amount of spread, or to the left to increase it.
Set the diffusion amount	Move the Diffuse Amt slider right to create soft edges that feather into the grain, or to the left to emulate painting on dry paper.
Set the effect of grain on diffusion	Move the Cap Factor slider to the right to create rougher edges, or to the left to create smoother, more continuous results.
Set grain soak-in	Move the Grn Soak-In slider to the right to create rougher surfaces, or to the left to create smoother, more continuous results.
Set accurate diffusion	Click the Accurate Diffusion check box.
Set wind force	Move the Wind Force slider to the right to increase wind force, or to the left to decrease it.
Set wind direction	Move the Wind Angle slider to the right to increase angle.
Delay diffusion	Enable the Delay Diffusion check box. Diffusion begins when you finish the brushstroke.