After Effects CC Wacom pen pressure problem...

[thebobwolf]

Hello Experts 🙂

I am having a problem with the paint function in After Effects CC 2015.3 when using a Wacom tablet. Basically the pen pressure is not working.

Please note, this is only happening in After Effects, Photoshop and illustrator are fine with Wacom pressure sensitivity and are working as expected.

So far I have:

• Deleted and re-installed the Wacom drivers - No effect.

• Trashed After Effects Prefs  😞 - No effect

• Tried a new wacom - Still the same

• Tried new pen - still the same

OS: I'm on a new (late 2013) Mac Pro running OS X El Capitan

Device: Tablet is a Wacom intros Pro

Software: After Effects CC 2015.3

Any help in solving this is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Szalam]

What paint tool in AE are you trying to use?

[thebobwolf]

Hi Szalam,

The only paint tool that is in after effects...

It's also the same with the roto brush too, no pressure sensitivity.

Does the pressure controls work in your version?

[milesw39365254]

Same problem here...haven't found any solutions anywhere.

[AnimoMotion]

Same issue for me with Roto Brush. Plus many other more sporadic issues, dragging lag and wacom tablet occasionally seemingly believing that I'm holding down a modifier key. Becoming unusable for me.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

OS X El Capitan

Version 10.11.3

16GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon R9 M370X 2048 M8

After Effects CC 2015.3

Version 13.8.0.144

Also tried in CC 2014, same issue. If I use the trackpad the pressure works fine, but obviously that not ideal.

Thanks!

[thebobwolf]

AnimoMG - Now we're getting somewhere. The issue you're having with the modifier keys is happening to me too! You are not alone! (I've been banging my head off the table over this one thinking it was just me)

I've been trouble shooting this for weeks now and have found that it's not specific to After Effects, The modifier keys issue is happening in Illustrator too and also when using finder. More specifically it's like Shift is stuck on or the Command key or the Option key or any combination thereof.

Since my first post I have tried:

• Resetting NVRAM & SMC

• New apple keyboard

• Repairing lot's of things / permissions using OnyX (great tools for OSX El Capitan and Free too)

and last but not least, backed up the whole mac and did a complete clean re-instal, wiping the HD and STILL the problem persists.

This of course means that it must be a hardware issue.

I've been in touch with Apple Inc and they have asked me to do a Hardware test. Power off, when you restart press and hold the D button this apparently should give me an error message (if it finds any issues) If it does, back in touch with apple if not, it's going in to the Apple store or an authorised service provider... could be replaced if they can't find what the problem is.

If you find out any more let us know, I'll report back if I find out anything new

Good luck.

[shaunk83531422]

AnimoMG​ for what its worth AE does the same to me without the Wacom tablet so that particular issue could be software pacific and not hardware related.

[thebobwolf]

Nothing to report from the hardware test, now it's in the hands of the genius' at an apple authorised dealer.

It's baffling.

[AnimoMotion]

Great that you're trialling this, yeah my problems sound exactly the same as yours, and as I say, its becoming almost unusable. Regularly having to deselect things or use the trackpad to do what I want then the wacom seems to fix itself for a while. Painful.

[thebobwolf]

Very painful, not what you need in the middle of a fast approaching intense deadline with clients watching over your shoulder!!

Still nothing to report, but it's only been in a few working days, just hope they can replicate it at the lab! The chap I spoke to said it could be a problem with the logic board, but that's waaaay over my head.

I did find that when it was happening that a few rapid presses of the Tilde key seemed to stop it, well random. I wonder if it works on yours? I wonder if it's only our machines that are doing this, seems crazy!

[AnimoMotion]

Defo not just us! I have the same problem in work, on the iMac there, with their intuous 5 wacom too - makes me think lots of people are just assuming this glitch is a pen / tablet / interface problem and just putting up with it, but I think we might be the tip of the iceberg....!

[AnimoMotion]

Okay the Tilde key thing just worked for me too. THIS IS WEIRD

Cheers for the advice, but this is getting increasingly worrying as a bug / glitch / issue, finding it difficult to keep working like this!

[thebobwolf]

The latest...

Back from Apple Care and a clean bill of health for every part! BUT after taking my stuff down to the shop and spending some time with the chap trouble shooting, we traced it to the Wacom, who have released a new update for their plugin. a few days ago... Fingers crossed....

[AnimoMotion]

Interesting -yeah I've traced it to Wacom too - I uninstalled everything and all was fine, but before I did when it was getting to be completely unsuable, constantly selecting things I hadn't selected etc, it was doing it in Finder too.

So - I downloaded the install patch 6.3.15-2 and that seems to have helped, no issues as of yet, so going to hold fire on any new installations! 

Let me know how you go man, good to get somewhere with this....!

[thebobwolf]

Several days of testing later.... the Selecting issues are not happening in After Effects now but the brush pressure is not fixed and unfortunately the selection issues are still happening in Illustrator, which is a pain-in-the-A$$!

I've contacted Wacom so shall see what they have to say, I'll give them a call tomorrow too.

How you getting on Animo?

[AnimoMotion]

So all good on my end in terms of none of the glitchy crap I was having - to confirm -

suing El Capitan Version 10.11.3

And Wacom Driver 6.3.15-2

After Effects 2015.3

Illustrator 2015.3

Recently got a new iMac up and running and thats a later OS 0 El Capitan 10.11.5 but still seems fine.

Just checked Brush Pressure - working well on my iMac for both Paint and Roto Brush.

For Illustrator: Just did some rudimentary playing around and didn't find any issues...

So hopefully this set-up may work for you guys?

But very reluctant to upgrade anything at the moment!

[estherloop]

Thanks for posting guys. I've been having these issues for a while in Illustrator and I just downloaded the latest driver (is that what you meant by the patch?) and still isn't working. I'll be interested to hear if anything happens with the Wacom call - I may have to call them soon it's driving me nuts!

[thebobwolf]

Thanks for the Breakdown Animo. All the same except El Capt, I'm running 10.11.6 but I can't see that being the problem.. Although at this stage I would be happy if the problem turned out to be Adobe not liking my stripy coffee cup!

Estherloop - Sorry to hear you're having the same issues. I tried a few things this morning that may or may not help.

I uninstalled and deleted the Wacom drivers that I had and then re-downloaded the latest ones from the Wacom site for a 'clean' install Following these instructions.​ (Remember to have a mouse to use whilst your Wacom isn't working or trackpad obv!)

And, probably completely unrelated... I turned off the Keyboard shortcuts for Spotlight in the system prefs, but this was more because I use the same shortcut in Illustrator to zoom and El-Capt kept on opening Spotlight.

I've not heard anything from Wacom yet, although this still could be either Adobe or El-Capt causing problems. AARGH!

[thebobwolf · Accepted solution]

Good News Wacom have got back in touch and sent a link to an older more stable driver, which has solved the Pen Pressure problem in After Effects, and so far no problems in illustrator! Let's hope it stays that way.

Link to the driver

Link to Pdf on how to uninstall old drivers

If this doesn't work I suggest getting in touch with Wacom, the driver they send could be specific to your configuration of software / OS.

Good luck!

[Tim Kurkoski]

Good News Wacom have got back in touch and sent a link to an older more stable driver, which has solved the Pen Pressure problem in After Effects, and so far no problems in illustrator! Let's hope it stays that way.

Bob, does this resolve the issue you filed a bug about?

[thebobwolf]

Hi Tim, yes, this solved the pen pressure problems. I'm hoping it will take care of the other intermittent command key issues also. Thanks for getting back to me.

[kkc19350854]

It works!
I got my pen pressure back~

[Joshua_Nativo]

I`m still having the same isuue, but I`m on Windows 10. Im working with a intuos and is a mess with brushes... Any one solved this? Is it also the driver?

[thebobwolf]

Hey Joshua,

I'm not sure about Windows, but you could email Wacom directly and describe what's happening, they're really good at getting back to you. Hope you manage to get sorted.

[estherloop]

My issues seemed to be resolved as well - thank you!!