blur tool - not enough effect

[msbunbury]

open the brush settings window and choose the scattering tab, set some higher values - I don't use it very frequently, but for me it seemed much stronger than basic blurring brush.

[mache]

Thanks for yor reply.
I tried scattering (with the blur brush) and set Scattering to 650%, on both axes, with a Count of 10 and a Count jitter of 4 and still got the same amount as without any scattering at all (at least it seems the same, if there are differences, they're too small to notice).

Anyone got a better idea?

[Vall]

Well the only idea that comes to my mind is to decrease the spacing to 1%. I'm not sure if you get get it more blurred than that...

Cheers and good luck!

[mache]

Thanks, but that doesn't seem to do much (if anything).

So i'm still open to suggestions
Cheers

[pgraham]

duplicate the layer, apply a heavy blur filter, and paint a mask on the layer wherever you want blur. If you don't get a good transition between the sharp and blurred layers, add a layer in the middle with a lighter amount of blur and paint a mask for that one so the transition is smoother.

[mache]

duplicate the layer, apply a heavy blur filter, and paint a mask on the layer wherever you want blur. If you don't get a good transition between the sharp and blurred layers, add a layer in the middle with a lighter amount of blur and paint a mask for that one so the transition is smoother.

Well i'm sure everyone knows another, more time-consuming method of acheiveng the desired result. I'm not really just discovering photoshop, and in some cases maybe your idea could work. But i need this kind of blur dynamically, and while drawing free hand. Stoping everytime to duplicate a layer (assuming i am using layers, which i'm not really when coloring in), applying blur etc is very tedious and not something i'm looking for at all.

Let me rephrase the 2 questions:

1st - can the blur tool be changed in any way so it will blur more? I need such a tool while i am drawing.

and 2nd - is there any plugin that will add/modify a tool, and not a filter?

[tomstools]

Hi,

I think the most efficient way is to just pick the relevant colours you want to blend, set a low opacity on your brush, and blend them manually. Or make a selection and use a gradient fill.
I found the same problem with the blur tool and tend not to use it.

[capdigital]

tomstools has one of the best ways to do it. Just low opacity brush and blend back and forth. The blur brush is pretty lousy - really works just to antialias edge.

There are two other methods you can use. You can try the smudge brush - in the brush settings, use a round brush turn off shape and other dynamics. Turn on scattering and set the count to something like 10. The brush can be slow but has an interesting effect. You can try different brushes as well and change angle jitter, etc... for different types of blending.

The one that is like more likely close to what you want is a trick Don Seegmiller gave out in his great book - Digital Character Design and Painting (although I have the older version of the book which is for painter). Credit where credit is due. I've also seen similar ones posted online here:

Make a small white 32x32 image. Select all (Ctrl + a), Edit Define Pattern. Now you have a solid white pattern. Then choose the healing brush tool (not the spot healing brush). Turn on pattern in the tool (top bar) and select the white pattern that you made. This should give a very blurry brush when you paint with it. There isn't a control for the opacity of this tool - so to make a less blurry brush you need to make a semi transparent pattern. For this I use the same white 32x32 image with a single floating layer (not the background). Set this layer to 20% opacity and define a new pattern. When you use this pattern you'll have a 20% effect. I have a 10, 20, 30, 50 and 100% pattern defined.

Note that with this brush it doesn't play well with transparent layers. So if you're painting over an area that is transparent strange (read bad) things will happen - bloches of colour and pattern will show up. In that case you'll have to merge layers around the area where you need to blend.

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