Filters and effects
Blur, sharpen, shift colours, distort - which filters the new drawing program has and how to use them.
Published 2 min read
Diesen Artikel auf Deutsch lesen
Filters change a whole layer or a selected area at once: softer, sharper, more colourful, bent. They give a quick picture atmosphere in a few seconds.
How to apply a filter
- Choose the layer you want to change. If you have selected something, the filter only works there.
- Click the chosen layer once more: its menu opens. Click Filters there and pick one.
- Set the sliders - the preview shows you the result right away.
- Apply takes the filter over. Cancel,
Escor a click outside close without changing anything.
A filter is one step you can undo with Ctrl + Z.
The filters
| Filter | What for |
|---|---|
| Brightness / Contrast | Make a pale picture stronger, lighten one that's too dark. |
| Hue / Saturation | Shift all colours of a layer - a red fish becomes a green one. |
| RGB-Curves | Fine control over colours, for all channels or only red, green or blue. |
| Blur | Soft backgrounds, fog, glow. |
| Sharpen | Make edges clearer. |
| Tilt Shift | Drag the two points on the preview: the line between them stays sharp, the rest blurs - like a miniature world. |
| Distort | Waves, stretching or distortion by colour - for water, heat and anything wobbly. |
| To Alpha | Make the light or the dark see-through. Ideal for lifting a sketch on paper white off its background. |
| Invert | Turns all colours around - at once, without a preview. |
Good to know
- In a game the host decides whether there are filters. If Filters is missing from the layer's menu, they're switched off for this round.
- Filters need WebGL in your browser. Without it you see a notice, and the filters can't be used.
- Filters are part of the recording: in the video at the end you see when you applied which filter.
- A filter together with layers is especially strong: draw the background on a layer of its own and blur only that - and your figure stands out in front. More in Layers and clipping masks.
- filters
- effects
- blur
- colours
- new drawing program
More guides
- Drawing with templatesLay a pose, a grid or a shape into your canvas as a drawing aid - it's never part of your picture.
- Layers and clipping masksIn the new drawing program you reorder layers by dragging, set their opacity, merge them, and use clipping masks to paint only where there's colour already.
- Selecting, transforming and warpingSelect parts of your drawing, move, rotate, flip and clone them - and bend them with the grid.
- Drawing tools and shortcutsBrush, eraser, colour picker, shapes, fills and layers in ColorMari - with all keyboard shortcuts at a glance.