#bucket tool

[terminallyautism]

do you use the bucket tool

yes

no

I use it interchangeably

Voting ended onOct 23, 2024

[1-800-roflmao]

Bucket tool hack/tip to avoid bleeding and missed areas.

[everythingfirealpaca]

Hi, So recently I was outlining a drawing of Kirby (very simple character basically a ball with two chubby arms and big vute feet.). What I was basically doing was that I pasted a picture of kirby on fire alpaca, then created a new layer drawing out the outside of kirby with Pink so i can use the paint bucket tool to fill the inside him in later.while doing hat i lifted my pen off the screen and suddenly the WHOLE figure was outlined in pink perfectly! I want to do that again but how?

If you had changed across to the Bucket tool to test it, it is possible to bucket fill an outline area (even if the outline is on another layer).

The Bucket fill is similar to the Magic Wand tool - it detects connected areas of the same colour (or lack of colour) and fills them. Connections/lines that are too small or not completely the same colour (due to antialiasing, for example), or not directly connected, will not be filled.

It is also possible to convert a scanned line drawing on white paper into line art with a transparent background by using the filter Extracting Lines (and other techniques).

-Obtusity

[everythingfirealpaca]

I've been having trouble with the Bucket Tool. When I color something, the program lags a bit before the selected area gets colored. It isn't much of a problem on older versions of FireAlpaca but with newer ones, the lag gets worse.

I can only reproduce anything like that on very large canvas sizes.

Limited memory might also cause this - try restarting your computer (to clear out working memory) and only running FireAlpaca, no other software (no web browsers, etc).

FireAlpaca might also struggle with other features on very large canvas sizes. 

When starting a new project, make sure to set units first (e.g. pixels) before typing in sizes, otherwise you might end up with a 1000x1000 inches (bigger than most raster software can handle well) instead of 1000x1000 pixels.

FireAlpaca is only a 32-bit program, so it can only access a maximum of 4GB combined graphics and system memory. It is best for working on screen-sized graphics (and remember, even the newest biggest Ultra HD 4K screens are only 4096x2160 pixel resolution. Most people have screens of 1920x1080 or less).

If you need to work on very large projects (poster prints, etc), I recommend you get a 64-bit program such as FireAlpaca’s sibling program, MediBang Paint Pro - very similar to FireAlpaca but available in 64-bit, so it can handle all the memory in your computer - 16GB or 32GB or larger (and if you are trying to make large posters on a 4GB Windows computer, well, good luck!). Might not always be faster, but it will be more reliable.

-Obtusity

[everythingfirealpaca]

Hi! Do you think you could link the tutorial for how to keep the color inside the lines/not draw outside the lines? I'm on mobile and can't get to the faq/find it...

Hello! We have a tag here about the Bucket Tool.Best tips: thicker lines or go in by hand.

-Squishy

See also here and here. -O

[everythingfirealpaca]

I've noticed in speedpaints, don't know if firealpaca has it, that some artists colour with purple/dark blue that changes to the colour they want. Is there any way to do the same for firealpaca? Or could you direct me to your colouring page?

That’s a selection colour, followed by a bucket flood fill (or sometimes direct brush painting) - some programs show the selected area with that purple/blue colour.

FireAlpaca does the inverse, it uses a purple/blue-ish colour for the non-selected area rather than the selected area, and leaves the selected area clear. If you are using the SelectPen tool to “paint” a selected area, FireAlpaca uses a pink colour for the selected area.

I have a small tutorial here using the MagicWand tool and a selected area for colouring inside the lines: http://fav.me/d8x3eli

While I end by demonstrating using a brush tool to paint in the selected area, you could also use a Bucket fill like many of those tutorials you are referring to.

Another fun technique is to use the shape Fill tool in FireAlpaca to draw in or around the selected area - only the selected part will be filled by the shape.

-Obtusity

For those not viewing the notes, jojimoans suggests an alternative possibility, one I haven’t seen myself in video tutorials (I’ve only seen the selection colour for line art):

aaaa actually leslielumarie did a video on this! people use their bucket tool to actually color an object a dark color, and then use the clipping tool to color it a lighter color. the reason they do this is because when working with lighter colors, its hard to see against a white background. therefore, coloring it a darker color allows the artist to clearly see the lighter tones. watch leslie's video here! https://youtu.be/e5L_pR2bFnI

Thanks jojimoans! 

Personally, I create a temporary different-colour background layer if I’m working with colours that are hard to see against the background (I also use this a lot when working with transparency, erasing scanned paper areas, etc), but it is great to learn how other artists work.

[everythingfirealpaca]

hi! everything seems alright except that my bucket tool doesn't work. it only colors one pixel and thats it. even in shapes that are perfect. how do i fix this?

If you are using scanned line art, or have a pencil-on-paper sketch in the background, the white paper is not pure white, it is many different shades of “almost white”. The Bucket fill tool will only fill an area that is all one colour.

If you have a scanned pencil sketch in the background (or a gradient fill, or another background layer such as a photo) and have inked line art on a different layer, turn off the scanned/background layer visibility (click the grey dot at the left end of the layer in the layer list)..

-Obtusity

[brushiibunny]

Literally, the only fill lasso bucket tool you'll ever need. No explanation needed.

Content ID：1759448