Painter 7 - Mac - Strange Artifacts appearing

[Swan]

Hey guys, I'm hoping someone here might be willing to help a noob out. I'm using Painter 7 on the Mac, updated to 7.1.357 and recently backgrounds on some (but not all files) have been corrupting on my computer. I can literally work on a painting, save and close the file, realize I forgot something, open it again - presto - the background is garbage. At first I thought it was just the canvas layer, but I just had it happen on another layer. Usually there will be some kind of offset color band, something a blue box.

Needless to say, it's beyond annoying. I've already checked on Corel's help site, and there wasn't much there.

Anyone had this happen to them? How did you fix it? Should I just reinstall everything?

Thanks.

[Jin]

Hi,

I doubt this is the problem, but make sure your screen colors are set to 24 bit or higher.

You might try running the last saved script to see if you can retrieve your work. Be sure to stop the script before it saves the file, though. This sometimes works.. for some people.. though it often doesn't.

More likely, you just have a corrupted RIFF file that's not retrievable.

To help prevent this:

Save your RIFF files Uncompressed. You'll need to check the Uncompressed box when saving.

Save frequently.

Save in a numbered series of files. For instance...

waterfall01.rif
waterfall02.rif
waterfall03.rif

... and so on. Then, if one of the files becomes corrupted, you can at least go back to the previously saved version.

[Swan]

Thanks. Yes, color is set to higher than 24.

Actually, what's got me mystified about this is that I regularly make extra copies of files because I've had Painter crash in the middle of a save one too many times...I opened up those copies and whaddya know...they all have the exact same corruption, which is, I think, bloody odd.

I don't think I can save these files (or at least, the layer on this file) but I'm hoping to keep this from happening again. This is the third time in a week, which is three times too many.

I'm going to back and do some housekeeping, re-installs, etc., and see if that helps.

[MGH]

Hi Swan. I'm a little late to this, but here goes. I had a similar problem about a year ago w/ Painter 7 when I was working on a big finished illustration saved as a RIFF. I talked to Painter support who mentioned everything Jen did, short of the uncompressed part. Since then I always save files as photoshop docs. For some reason they are larger in Painter than in Photoshop, but at least I've had no problems.
It also makes it easier when switching back and forth between the 2 apps as Painter's editing features are pretty dodgy.

[Swan]

*nod* *nod* Yeah, good advice, I suspect. And I'm starting to go back and forth between Painter and Photoshop more than I used to (because Painter's grasp on masking is also a little dodgy, in my opinion) so that's probably a most excellent compromise. Thanks.

[Jin]

Hi again,

Several important things I forgot to mention that other users have found helpful in preventing corrupted RIFF files and other nasty problems:

First

Learn how to use the Script Mover utility to create a new Scripts library and move any special scripts you want to keep into that Scripts library. Name it something other than what Painter uses for it's default Scripts library, Painter.ssd (Windows) or Painter Script Data (Mac).

Close Painter and delete the default Painter Scripts library. Again, that's:

Painter.ssd (Windows), or

Painter Script Data (Mac).

A new, empty Scripts library file is automatically generated the next time you open Painter.

Open Painter and, in Edit > Preferences > General, change the number of days Painter Auto Saves scripts to one or two days if you have it set to the maximum, 10 days. It takes up memory for Painter to save each script.

Now Painter will record each Painter session automatically, but for only one two days, depending on what you specified. You'll find those scripts listed by date in the Scripts palette list.

Close Painter to ensure your Preferences are "recorded" and open Painter again to begin working.

Second

Use File > Save As instead of File > Save.

Third

The Pre-built Brush File ("PBF") is used by Painter 6, Painter 7, and Painter 8 to store brush information and make brush building faster (Painter has to build the brush).

While it's not sure whether an overly large "PBF" has anything to do with corrupted RIFF files, it may play a part.

Working too long in Painter without closing the application and reopening it also may play a part (memory is used both for the image and each Layer it contains as well as for currently loaded brush and art materials libraries).

In any case, when the Pre-built Brush File is file becomes too large, it can negatively affect Painter's performance.

You'll find the "PBF" in the following folders:

Corel > Corel Painter 8 > Brushes

Painter 7 > Brushes

Painter 6 main application folder

Earlier versions prior to Painter 6 did not have this file.

Always remember to delete your Pre-built Brush File after each Painter session if it's become large. I delete mine if it's over 1 MB just to be safe, but that may be overkill depending on your system.

The "PBF" can grow very large very quickly, depending on the brush variants you've been using. The Impasto category variants are an example, and when I was testing all of them one day, my "PBF" file which had been at its base size of 113 kb when I began, in less than 20 minutes grew to well over 60 MB.

Pay attention to which brush variants you were using in the just ended session while noting the "PBF" file size and you'll soon learn how often you need to close Painter and delete it. A general rule is to close down Painter every hour or so no matter what you've been doing.

Another important thing

Never use Impasto settings with Liquid Ink or Water Color.

It can immediately, and permanently, corrupt your image!

Warning about saving in PSD format

While this may be safe for a lot of people depending on how they work and what their images contain,

it's not always safe to save your images only in PSD format!

Photoshop doesn't recognize some things from Painter, so be sure to first save your file in RIFF format, then save it again in PSD format.

Otherwise, you may risk losing Painter specific information and find yourself in a pickle when you want to work on the image again in Painter.

Hope this helps!

[Swan]

*laugh* Nothing's ever easy, is it?

Right now I'm still saving in uncompressed riffs, and I'd found your advice to someone else about the brush and script files, so I've been doing that too....and so far *fingers crossed* no corruptions.

So I think the combination of compressed riffs and insanely large brush file was probably the ticket. At least I hope so.