Adjusting the opacity of your layers and brushes lets you decide how opaque or transparent you want different elements of your digital art to be. This is SO important for creating the effects you want for your art. Luckily, Clip Studio Paint makes it easy to adjust the opacity of your layers and brushes.
To adjust the opacity of a layer in Clip Studio Paint, select the layer within your layers panel and use the opacity slider to adjust the opacity from 0 to 100. To adjust the opacity of a brush in Clip Studio Paint, use the opacity slider in the “Tool property” or “Sub Tool Detail” menu of your brush to adjust the opacity from 0 to 100.
To get started, let’s talk about adjusting the opacity of your layers.
How to Adjust the Opacity of Your Layers in Clip Studio Paint
In Clip Studio Paint, you can adjust the opacity of existing layers or brand new layers. Simply navigate to your layers panel and select the layer you want to adjust the opacity of. Use the opacity slider to adjust the opacity of your layer from 0 to 100.
Let’s walk through it, step-by-step.
1. Navigate to your layers panel in Clip Studio Paint
If you haven’t done so already, navigate to your layers panel. This is where we’ll be able to access the layer opacity slider.
2. Click on the layer(s) you want to change the opacity of
In your layers panel, scroll through your list of layers until you find the layer you want to change the opacity of. Click on it.
You can also change the opacity of brand new layers. If you haven’t created this layer yet, go ahead and do so by clicking on the new layer button.
Important note: you can’t change the opacity of invisible layers. Your layer needs to be visible in order to adjust the opacity of it, so make sure the eyeball icon is next to your layer if you want to adjust its opacity.
If you want to adjust the opacity of multiple layers at once, you can!
First make sure all of your layers are visible. Then, hold down the command button and click on the additional layers you want to select.
3. Use the opacity slider to adjust your layer opacity
Once you have your desired layer(s) selected, look at the top of your layers panel to find the opacity slider.
Slide your opacity slider to a value between 0 and 100. At default, your slider will be at 100, which is full opacity. 0 is full transparency. You can see the percentage you’ve adjusted your layer opacity to within your layer thumbnail.
Of course, be careful if you move your layer opacity to 0 and suddenly wonder why you can’t draw on your layer anymore! It’s still there, it’s just fully transparent and can’t be seen.
If you have multiple layers selected, the opacity of all of those layers will change at the same time according to how you adjust your opacity slider.
Be mindful if your layers are already at different opacity levels. Once you start moving the opacity slider, all of your selected layers will adjust to be at the same opacity level.
For example, if I have two layers selected and one is at 100 and the other is at 60, if I slide the slider to 80, both will end up at 80.
There you have it! That’s how to adjust the opacity of your layers in Clip Studio Paint. Now, let’s talk about adjusting the opacity of your brushes.
How to Adjust the Opacity of Your Brushes in Clip Studio Paint
In Clip Studio Paint, you can adjust the opacity of your brushes within the “Tool property” menu or the “Ink” settings of the “Sub Tool Detail” menu for each brush. Use the opacity slider to adjust the opacity of your layer from 0 to 100.
There are two ways that I regularly use for changing my brush opacity in Clip Studio Paint. Let’s talk about using the “Tool property” menu method first.
1. Select the brush you want to adjust the opacity of
It’s important to note that brush opacity is brush specific.
When you adjust brush opacity, it won’t be universally applied to all of your brushes. Instead, you have to adjust opacity, brush by brush.
Once you know what brush you want to adjust the opacity of, click on it.
2. Navigate to the “Tool property” menu
Once you have your brush selected, click on the “Tool property” menu, which is the one that has the gear in the icon.
3. Adjust the opacity slider
Within the “Tool property” menu, you’ll see an opacity slider.
Use this slider to adjust the opacity of your brush from 0 to 100. 0 will make your brush fully transparent, while 100 will make your brush fully opaque. Be careful you don’t lower the opacity to 0 and wonder why your brush disappeared!
There you have it!
Adjusting brush opacity within the “Tool property” menu is the quickest way to adjust brush opacity manually. But, there’s another way to adjust brush opacity in Clip Studio Paint, which actually has a nifty shortcut via the Clip Studio Paint’s shortcut settings.
So, stay tuned and keep reading! Here’s how to adjust brush opacity using the “Sub Tool Detail” menu.
1. Select the brush you want to adjust the opacity of
Again, adjusting brush opacity is brush specific, so make sure you’ve selected the brush you want to adjust the opacity of.
2. Navigate to the “Tool property” menu
Once you have your brush selected, click on the “Tool property” menu, which is the one that has the gear in the icon.
3. Click on the wrench at the bottom of the “Tool property” menu to open the “Sub Tool Detail” menu
In the bottom corner of the “Tool property” menu, there’s a little wrench on it. Click on it to open the “Sub Tool Detail” menu.
4. Click on the Ink category in the “Sub Tool Detail” menu
There are a lot of neat options within the “Sub Tool Detail” menu. These give you a ton of ways to customize your brush.
For this tutorial, we’re going to resist the temptation to check out all of the other options and focus on opacity. To do this, click on the “Ink” category within the list of options in the “Sub Tool Detail” menu.
5. Adjust the opacity slider
Within the “Ink” category, you’ll see an opacity slider.
Use this slider to adjust the opacity of your brush from 0 to 100. 0 will make your brush fully transparent, while 100 will make your brush fully opaque. Again, be careful you don’t lower the opacity to 0 and wonder why your brush disappeared!
Within the “Ink” category, you’ll also see settings for the amount and density of paint. While having different effects than the opacity slider, they’re cool to play around with if you’re looking for opacity-like effects.
But, wait wait wait. Before we sign off, let’s talk about setting up a shortcut for your opacity settings.
Clip Studio Paint allows you to set up shortcuts for various functions, and opacity is one of them!
How to Set Up a Brush Opacity Shortcut in Clip Studio Paint
In Clip Studio Paint, you can set up a shortcut within the “Shortcut Settings” for increasing or decreasing the opacity of your brush. You can also set up a shortcut to set your opacity to a specific value.
Shortcuts make it really quick and easy to access the Clip Studio Paint functions you use most often.
Here’s what you need to do.
1. Open the “Shortcut Settings” menu
Click on the Clip Studio Paint logo in your top toolbar and then click on the “Shortcut Settings” button.
2. Choose the “Options” category
Once you’ve opened the shortcut settings, open the drop down menu of categories. Choose the “Options” category.
3. Choose the “Tool property palette” option
Within the “Options” category, choose the “Tool property palette” option.
4. Set up a shortcut for opacity within the “Ink” category
When you click on the “Tool property palette” option, you’ll see a dropdown of options. Within the “Ink” category, you’ll see a number of shortcuts you can establish relating to opacity.
Choose the opacity function you want and the shortcut you want to assign to it!
Have fun creating transparent and opaque brushes in Clip Studio Paint!
Diana has been an artist for over 27 years and has training in drawing, painting, digital drawing and graphic design. Diana’s latest obsession is digitally drawing with Procreate and Procreate Dreams. Diana has experience selling her art across a number of platforms and loves helping other artists learn how to make money from their art as well.