BRUSH HELP

[JQuinn]

Hello TVPainters out there

I wounder if any one out there can help us. We have made a brush but it's not quite working how we want it to and we've checked all the tutorials but are still stumped. We have designed a brush and we want to be able to adjust the power/flow (like on the airbrush tool) to get a soft gradient that goes right up to 100% opacity using pen pressure. At the moment we have to layer the pen strokes to get to 100% opacity even though the tool is set to 100% opacity. ie we'd like to press hard to get 100% not to take the pen off and redo until it builds up to 100%. Does this make sense?

Thanks so much

Joanna

[slowtiger]

Hi Joanna,

1. You need to set the Power to 100%, otherwise you'll never get 100% opacity.
2. Click on the "P" besides Power, select "Profile Editor", and adjust the curve to something like my attached screenshot.
3. Done.

Bildschirmfoto 2018-04-26 um 12.31.19.png (12.26 KiB) Viewed 26876 times

[JQuinn]

Hi slowtiger,

There doesn't seem to be a power option on the custom brush panel, only Size, Jitter, Opacity, Angle and Step. Is the option to change the power elsewhere? Or is it just a limitation of creating custom brushes? I've attached a screenshot of the settings

Thanks!

Screen Shot 2018-04-26 at 11.55.35.png (27.14 KiB) Viewed 26872 times

[slowtiger]

Is it possible that you exported the wrong brush? When I install the file you attached, I get this:

Bildschirmfoto 2018-04-26 um 13.20.07.png (16.52 KiB) Viewed 26870 times

It's just an airbrush setting, not a Custom Brush.

Anyway, try the same profile trick with the Pressure in Opacity in your Custom Brush.

[JQuinn]

Oh yes, the wrong brush got exported! Here's the correct brush:

Photoshop brush test.tvpx

(2.07 MiB) Downloaded 1245 times

Will try with the opacity now

Thanks!

EDIT: Tried copying your curve but still not getting the desired effect

[Svengali]

Doesn't the curve have to end at the TOP of the graph to get 100% Opacity?

[slowtiger]

Ah, mistake in the same area: you can't get 100% opacity from something which isn't 100% opacity, like the bitmaps in your brush.

Have a look: I made this brush from scans of a real sponge, the bitmaps are 100% each. I've sorted them from light to strong pressure (on paper), set the animation to pressure, and the opacity, with that profile, as well.

sponge.tvpx

(2.01 MiB) Downloaded 1086 times

[slowtiger]

Svengail:
This depends very much on the bitmaps you use, and the spacing (step) of the brush. The more overlap, the less opacity percentage you need because it will already add up to 100% in the overlapping areas.

The first example with the airbrush uses a relatively small step size, so even 75% pressure give 100% opacity while drawing.

[Svengali]

I see your point.

I Downloaded the brush and tried several things... I tried doubling the opacity (copied the layer then merged them) but I still can't get 100% opacity without redrawing over strokes. One thing I tried that seemed to work: I changed the color mode to Luma Invert. Many of my own brushes use Luma Invert for easy A B color assignment...

Sven

[slowtiger]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the last missing percentage of opacity might come from using a Paper texture?

[JQuinn]

Thanks for all these suggestions! We tried the Luma Invert mode but it gives a smeary effect, which isn't working for us unfortunately, although it definitley fixes the 100% opacity problem.

Slowtiger, we're not quite sure we understand what you mean about the paper texture?

[slowtiger]

Uhm, the Paper on/off button? Right in the Tool panel?

[JQuinn]

Ah, I see. The paper texture button is definitely off so it would't be caused by that...

[Svengali]

Another thought... could it be as simple as adjusting the wet profile curve up to 100%? similar to the gradual spline curve that slowtiger suggested for Power, but applied to the wet profile curve instead...AND which peaks at 100%?

Sven

[JQuinn]

Thanks Sven, that's definitely helped the 100% opacity issue, but still not looking quite as soft and fluffy as we'd like thanks so much for all these suggestions though, it's been really helpful to us