@Voronwe13 Hey, I had an Idea.
It maybe what you are already thinking about but…
It would be useful to make the hypothetical “clone smudge engine” have one standard option in which it samples the area of of the brush and paints it like PS’s Mixer brush and as @Mythmaker demonstrated masterfully a basic clone brush.
And another option, in which it would use the active brush for the contour shape of the brush but it would sample to paint not as a color limited option but that the sampled information as the RGBA part of a RGBA brush. That second option even though not representing the usual workflow artists are used to from other software would take Krita’s functionalities one step ahead of the ones in PhotoShop’s mixer brush in which you are always limited to the color you already have on canvas.
If I understand well - I’m sure I don’t - the functionalities of an RGBA brush something like what was suggested should be in the realms of possible. It would elevate the possibilities of the “clone smudge engine”. But then since you are the one buried in RGBA brush code you’ve probably had this Idea already, I’m just making sure.
PS: A hypothetical “Reload Original Preset” button to clear just the newly sampled RGBA information and revert back to the original RGBA information of the brush without reverting back the rest of the brush preset information could work as a “Clean Dirty Brush” idea that I’ve seen circulating around the forum.
Thanks for taking the time to read.