Piano Keys

[Jinbrown]

Hi,

Though they do come in handy on rare occasions, the rather gimmicky F/X variants really are for special effects (Effects = F/X)... Furry Brush, Fairy Dust, Piano Keys, Hair Spray, Shattered (broken glass effect) to name a few. ;)

Congrats on making a discovery! Thanks for sharing it with us, too. :)

This is yet another case showing how, with a little imagination and beginning with any brush variant, we can change it slightly.. or at the other end of the spectrum, change it completely into another default brush variant. For example, we can change the settings for a default Chalks variant (dry) so it becomes a default Water Color variant (obviously, wet). Not that you'd want to, just to point out the flexibility we have.

If you haven't already played around with these adjustments.. and on the chance you might want to try one or more of them:

• In the Color Variability palette, move the H, S, and V sliders all the way to the left. Now you'll paint with a single color.

• Or, in the Color Variability palette, where it says "in HSV", choose "from Gradient" and in the Gradients palette, choose the Two-point Gradient, then pick the Primary Color and Secondary Color you want for your gradient... or choose a default Gradient with more than two colors. Test this first because you'll find that each stroke is made with a new color from the gradient.

• In the Brush Creator, Stroke Designer tab's General section, change the Stroke Type to Multi. Now when you paint, you'll see a thin "ghost line" and be able to place your brushstroke more precisely. You'll also have a smoother brushstroke as long as you paint with 100% Opacity color. As you lower Opacity, the fanning "piano keys" will become more obvious.

• In the Brush Creator, Stroke Designer tab's Spacing section, move the Spacing slider all the way to the left, to 1%. If it's not already there, move the Min Spacing slider all the way to the left, to 0.1. Now the fanning "piano keys" shouldn't be evident as long as you paint with 20% to 100% Opacity color.

It's great to see people making Painter's brush variants do something new and useful.

[Lunatique]

Actually, I've only been working digitally 100% since end of 2001--that was when I finished my first all digital painting (Snow). Prior to that, I was always traditional, and the only digital I used was Photoshop for game textures and a bit of concept art. I didn't even learn Photoshop until the end of 1998. Before that, I barely knew my way around a computer. . .. :D

Cool tip BTW, I should try that out. My palette knife brush is still broken at home. Maybe I should just reinstall the whole thing.

[Nolita]

Maybe you should reinstall.
At least with painter you don't lose much. Not like with some other apps. Wanted to ask someone who has an intuos, as I'm planning to get one once I have upgraded my machine's power, just the guts mind you, no sense buying a whole new computer when I can get mine up to amd xp +2000 for a little less than $200.00.

Do you use just one stylus with your Intuos? I'm wonderring because I know you can buy more than one and use them like with brushes with regular painting(a different brush for each brush so to speak). Is it worth buying extra pens? Does it really save that much time? Or is it another one of those situations where some folks just have to have more toys than anyone else in the sandbox?

A question for Jinny since the server's been going all haywire and I'm not sure if you got the pm. I'm needing to know if you have come across or written any tutorials which will let me use the brush as basically a gradient, much like One Stroke painting, only I actually can draw, and do understand how light and shadows work. I'm wonderring if there's a way to set up say the smeary round, or round camelhair, to paint strokes that way. Thanks for the info about getting a different color with each stroke. I had asked a bunch uf people in chat, and they couldn't tell me, funny, I don't even have to ask you, and it just pops into your head.

Don't take this the wrong way, but it's like your our Painter mom, if we have a question, you almost always have the answer, and when we need support you're there for us. Thanks for that.

[Nolita]

oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys something, it's not all that hard to change the piano keys brush from the broken color/dimensional color, that's the default for the variant. I changed it accidentally, and it was just a matter of clicking a color in a non dimensional color set. Was flesh tones. A pleasant surprise indeed.

[Jinbrown]

Nolita,

It would take some fiddling to come up with a One Stroke brush, if it can be done so painting with it is as easy as what we see demonstrated on TV.

Try this:

In the Painter 8 Brush Creator, Stroke Designer tab, go to the General section and change the Oils' Smeary Round variant's Dab Type to Cover. Then, in the Size section, adjust the Size and Min Size sliders so your brushstroke can begin small and end large.

It'll take some practice to get the brushstrokes right and depending on what you're doing, it might help to use the Rotate Page tool. Click the E key to activate the Rotate Page tool, then click and drag in the image to temporarily rotate the image. To return it to it's normal upright position, click in the image with the Rotate Page tool.

There may be other brush variants either in the default Painter 8 brush library or available to download on the Web that could do this better.

If you haven't already, download Chris Cimonetti's Fine Art 2 brush library to see if there's something you can adjust a little to do what you want. You'll find it at my PixelAlley site on the following page (read the instructions if you're not sure what folders and files to use after the ZIP file is extracted, and where to place them):

Painter 6, Painter 7, and Painter 8 Custom Brushes (http://www.pixelalley.com/Painter7/painter6and7_brushes.html)

signed,

Mom


;)

[Nolita]

I've been fiddling around with brush settings, to no avail. I like the default variants, in the fine art brushes by the way. I realized something though, it didn't occur to me untill today. I forgot that when people load a brush with two colors it's because it's faster, me I can just switch colors and brushes with the tap of a button, or click of my pen. I'm wanting more than I need, that's silly of me.

[Jinbrown]

Hi,

I don't think it's silly at all to want something from Painter. After all, that's how some of the best things are found.

If I happen upon something that does what you want while playing with Painter or reading other lists, newsgroups, and message boards, I'll try to remember to let you know.

Keep experimenting in the meantime. Maybe you'll find it yourself and then be able to share it with us.

Good luck, :)

[Nolita]

thanks,

I fiddle around with the brush controls, quite a bit. I do it when I'm taking breaks from my painting(specific pictures). I'm going to mess around with the (correct me here, I know somehow it's the wrong name) stroke designer, since it records strokes, it may be able to help. Also I'm thinking there just has to be a way to get multi, to work with this, possibly rake. Something in the brush controls, you know the part where you control, type, and then I think one panel down from that is the part where you specify, things like number of bristles, and clumpiness? Also I'm thinking adjusting the bearing may help.

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