Help with brushes

[andyapc]

I'm trying to learn how to use brushes in PSCS and work my way through the beginner brush tutorial here at DSP, together with reviewing my notes from DSU110.

In the tutorial - the link to the planetshop.com brush tutorial does not work - says the URL was not found.

I'm working on an 8x8 canvas and I have my background flooded with color. I clicked on my brush tool, clicked the dropdown menu arrow, clicked on square brushes and clicked "append". I chose the largest square brush. In the brush dropdown menu, I changed the master diameter to 486 (couldn't get it to 482). Where am I supposed to change the spacing to 97%? Didn't see an option for that??

Then I clicked on Brushes in the pallette well and clicked on texture and chose my texture. But I didn't know how to change the mode to subtract (like the tut says). Also, there weren't a lot of textures to choose from - do I download more from the internet? Where do I save them?

OK - now I've got a textured brush (I think) - what do I do now? I tried clicking on my canvas but nothing is happening. I set the opacity to 30%. Do I have to change the color of my brush?

:eek:

[andyapc]

Well, I went into the color pallette and changed the color of my brush to blue (my background is light purple - I just wanted to see the contrast - I don't particularly care about what colors I'm using at this point as I just want to practice).

So I clicked away on my canvas and while I can see the blue square - there is no texture. I went back into my Brush pallette and changed my texture pattern to Bubbles and scaled it to 300. Still no texture in on my canvas.

Am I supposed to change the color of my brush as above, and why can't I see any texture?

[andyapc]

OK - hope it's OK to post some more questions I've come up with for brushes, in addition to the above:

So far, I've just been going into the dropdown menu, clicking on a brush type (like square brushes) and hitting "append". Then when I'm done, I hit Reset Brushes.

Should I be resetting the brushes when I'm done? When am I supposed to click on Load Brushes, Save Brushes and Replace Brushes?

[Betsy]

I haven't taken the classes or seen these tuts, but I think you're supposed to be clicking on the Brushes tab in the right hand corner of the light grey bar at the top - that'll give you way more options as far as spacing, mode, and whatnot. I don't really know about the texture problem you're having, but opacity of the texture may be in that tab as well.

If you like the brush you've created, you can save it. Replace is to go back to the default, standard brush set. load is to bring in a new set of brushes, either the standard brushes in PS, one you've downloaded and saved, or one you've created and saved in the past.

HTH! :D


ETA: I see you're in Roch-cha-cha! Went to school in Geneseo! How's the weather? Hip deep in snow yet? :) :p

[andyapc]

ETA: I see you're in Roch-cha-cha! Went to school in Geneseo! How's the weather? Hip deep in snow yet? :) :p


Hey! I went to SUNY Geneseo for one year (1985-1986) before I had a car accident, after which I had to drop out. I wound up finishing at SUNY Brockport.

I stayed in Onondaga North (I think, unless it was South!).

I loved the Geneseo campus, loved the cute little town. But I HATED the weather. Had to cross the "tundra" everyday. However, being from Rochester, I was used to it. Not "hip" deep yet - been pretty mild, so far. But we Rochesterians know not to let our guard down until at least mid-April, and then only slightly!

[Betsy]

Lived in Onondaga North about a decade after you!

Hated the Tundra!

Have you been back recently? They built THE CUTEST townhouses on the parking lot behind what used to be mental institution (I think? That wierd building kinda next to Welles).

And, really, you can't let your guard down till May, who you kiddin'? :p ;) Seriously, I remember snow two weeks before graduation one year...

[andyapc]

You got that right! Was the InBetween & The Vital still there? Those were the hot spots to go to when I was there.

Still unclear about clicking on Load, Save, Replace. If I just click on the brush dropdown menu, arrow over, and click on a set of brushes and hit "append", isn't that the same thing as Load? And Replace does the same thing as Reset?

Can you tell I'm too chicken to just clicking away on these things? I live in fear that I'm going to screw up all my settings and be completely lost.

And I still can't figure out why my brush has no texture to it. Ugh.

[elane]

I'm still learning myself, but believe when you are hitting reset it is reloading the original PS brushes therefore the ones you had appended are no longer available...which means because they were appended and below the original ones your selection is no longer valid therefore nothing shows up.

That is my understanding...Again, I COULD BE (and very possibly AM) wrong.

HTH,

Elizabeth

[Emma]

Andy, you're so awesome! I love the way you keep after this, you are so determined and learning so much!

Yes, hitting Reset puts all the brushes back to the default PS ones. Hitting Append when choosing a new brush set is just adding that set to the brushes already in the menu. If you choose Replace only the new brush set appears in the menu. Load is to browse to a brush file you've downloaded.

For your other questions, did you find them in the Brushes Palette? The Mode: Subtract is on the Texture options, sounds like you found it.

As to WHY there is no texture? Not sure. I need more info on the other settings. Are you saying when you brush there's a solid swatch of color with no Bubbles on it?

To access more patterns for texture, click the little triangle arrow in the circle when you open the pattern menu. You'll see a list there of patterns included with PS you can load. To download patterns, just save them anywhere and load them via Edit>Preset Manager>Patterns>Load and browse to the file.

[andyapc]

Hey Emma!

Yes, my brush has no texture to it - when I click on my canvas, it's a solid blue square. I've tried a couple of different textures and it's still a solid blue square.

Nope, I haven't found the Subtract Mode either. I think I'm going blind.

[Emma]

I wonder if you're trying to get the TExture in the wrong spot? You should in the Brushes Palette, click on Texture (the word, not just the checkbox). YOu should see a menu for the patterns, a Scale slider, the option Texture Each Tip, and below that Mode: Open that Mode: menu and choose Subtract.

I'm too lazy to take a screen shot, especially since I have no idea where else you could be, so you must be in the right place. Does the little brush preview in the brushes palette show texture on the brush?

[andyapc]

Got it! It actually worked. I was in the brush pallette and I was finally able to find my way around. And I finally got texture to my square brush - I just had to keep playing with the slider for awhile and changing my texture choice and increasing the size of my brush. And I realized that some brushes don't allow the option for texture or mode. Of course, I can't rememeber which ones. Is this right?

Now, am I supposed to change the color of my brush in the Color Pallette (I think that's what it's called - it has Color/Swatches/Style all together but it stays open on my workspace - it's not docked to the pallette well. Is this right?)

When else am I supposed to use that Color Pallette? I don't think I've ever used it before - I just usually use my paint bucket and the eye dropper.

[Gumavi]

Hi Andrea -

I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread - I'm trying to work my way through that tutorial, too, and getting mighty confused in the process!

[andyapc]

Well, I've done the Brush Tutorial and while I'm not quite happy with the end result, at least I got through it and it looks semi-decent. I'm attaching it below.

What exactly does "jitter" mean? Maybe if I knew what it meant, I would know how to use the scales under shape & color dynamics.

[Kristen]

What exactly does "jitter" mean? Maybe if I knew what it meant, I would know how to use the scales under shape & color dynamics.

Jitter means "bounce back and forth" (more or less<g>) My brother-in-law gets jittery when he thinks it's time to go and Kelly isn't ready yet. He paces, he packs the car (and the kids,) he fusses...

What it means in terms of brush dynamics is similar.<g> 0% color jitter means the brush stays the same color. 100% jitter means you get lots of colors. I'm online at work, so I can't double-check - but there are settings there to make the color jitter back and forth just between the foreground and background colors. So you can set the two colors to two shades of pink and get a really subtle variation or choose opposites and get serious variation.

[Emma]

Hi Andrea -

I just wanted to say thanks for starting this thread - I'm trying to work my way through that tutorial, too, and getting mighty confused in the process!
Gumavi: how's it going? Still confused? Have any questions?

[Gumavi]

Hi Emma!

I haven't had a chance to play with it more (I got sidetracked with some other layouts - don't you hate it when that happens? :) ) But, I'll be referencing this thread to try it again soon!

Andrea - your brush work looks great!