Building a brush from scratch? Which parameters affect certain pen modes?

[Troy Oxford]

I recently purchased version 4 and I'm finding the learning curve is very steep for custom results. Yes, running the Action button from presets is nice but I want to build a brush from scratch and see how the multitude of parameters react.

Is there a way to start from scratch or do I need to select a preset and dismantle all of the parameters to reduce the effects and behavior to a simple brush?

Some other newbie questions...

Do Path Start, Shape, Angle and End settings affect only Autodraw Pens (opposed to Interactive Pen)?

I'm using the Preset Clone Brush from the 3.0 Tutorial set as a starter brush. I've noticed that changing the Paint Color Source and Paint Color Modulate settings don't affect the Clone Brush. Is this normal? I assumed that this settings would affect a clone brush.

I'm sure I'll have more questions later, but as a Painter and Photoshop user, I'm having a hard time understanding the foundations.

Thanks

[Synthetik]

You should check out the paint synthesizer macro edit commands. You can access them in the integrated Help browser in version 4. One in particular is called reinitialize, running that will reset the paint synthesizer to a rather coring default setting that paints with full color. So you can use that as an initial starting point if you wish to.

I often tend to start by grabbing a factory preset either in the ball park of what i'm aiming for or containing something i'd also like to see in my custom preset and then modifying that.

The macro edit commands are also a quick way to edit at a fairly high level. We have added quite a few more macro edit commands in version 4.02, which we're finishing testing on right now. So when we release that to the version 4 user base we'll be including a new doc folder that contains a new expanded set of macro edits.

Another approach to building new presets i mingle evolution. The paint Synthesizer Evolution help page is another set of command links. These let you do all kinds of mutation and evolution operations on paint synthesizer preset. Mingle evolution can be really useful for generating new presets. You load paint presets you choose in the 4 paint synth patch memories, and then run the mingle commands to generate mingled variations off of 2,3,or 4 of the patch memories. Mingle evolution tends to generate better results more often than morph evolution. Morph will generate more duds, but also more variety, so it can be a tradeoff.

I'm going to break up my answers into different posts that focus on specific thing. So i'll answer the pen mode and clone brush questions in different posts.

Here's a tip on getting started with digital painting.

[Rondan]

What steps do I need to do to record etc?

I have tried both the pulldown record and the help record and then hit the action button. When I attempt to play it back nothing happens.

I have also tried to hit record with just the preset selected but not playing. Nothing happens.

[liveart]

Ok it is first necessary to make sure that the preset is loaded.
I do that by selecting the preset and then painting a little.

you do not want the preset running when you hit record.

once you have the preset loaded using the help menu as pictured above is my preferred method.
The only "trick" is that one must click on the ARROW before the action not the word itself.

have fun

[Synthetik]

You're recording the current preset into one of the 4 paint synth patch memories. You can either use the record active command links in the paint synth evolution help page i showed above, or you can use the appropriate record menu commands in the edit : paint synthesizer : patch memory menus.

When you play back a patch memory, all it does is take the parameter values stored in the patch memory and load the paint synthesizer with them. So nothing will happen that is noticeable until you press the action button to do some automatic painting, or use the pen to paint manually. It's basically like loading a new paint preset. the only difference is that the preset is stored in the patch memory as opposed to being stored in a file on your hard disk.

[Rondan]

Thanks liveart and John! Now I have it working.

[Synthetik]

Do Path Start, Shape, Angle and End settings affect only Autodraw Pens (opposed to Interactive Pen)?

Path start, path shape, path angle, and path end parameters affect automatic drawing. Those control panels determine how the automatic drawing paths are generated. So, they are going to affect any painting done by pressing the action button. The autodraw one click, autodraw interactive, autodraw multi pen, auto region fill as brush, and particle pen modes all incorporate some form of automatic drawing. So those control panels are also going to affect how these pen modes work, even when you are using them for manual drawing.

The paint synthesizer chapter in the user guide gets into very extreme detail about the different pen modes and all of the control parameters available in the different control panels.

Here's an introductory tip on the different pen modes.

[Synthetik]

I'm using the Preset Clone Brush from the 3.0 Tutorial set as a starter brush. I've noticed that changing the Paint Color Source and Paint Color Modulate settings don't affect the Clone Brush. Is this normal? I assumed that this settings would affect a clone brush.

If you look in the Paint Fill Setup control panel, you can see that the 3.0 Tutorial : Clone Brush is using the Source Image for the Fill From parameter option. And, Fill To is set to the canvas. The brush for this particular preset is a single sphere, so the black part of that sphere is going to map to the Fill From setting, and the outer part of the sphere is going to map to the Fill To setting. So you get a smooth brush that paints the source image directly. That's why it's a source cloner brush.

If you switch the Fill From setting to Paint Color, then the interior of the brush will be filled with the current paint color as opposed to the source image.

The Paint Color Source and Paint Color Modulate control panels affect the Paint Color. Since your clone brush was ignoring the paint color and just painting with the source image those control panels did not affect it's painting.

[Synthetik]

Here's the 3.0 Tutorial Intro pdf manual. The interface pictures are going to be from version 3 and will be different than what you see in version 4, but most of the getting started conceptual information still applies to Studio Artist 4. Especially the information about getting started with editing the paint synthesizer control panels to modify and edit paint presets.

3.0 Tutorial Intro.pdf

[Troy Oxford]

Thanks much, John! I've been going through the 4.0 manual and trying to get a grasp on things, but it's more technical than to what I'm accustomed.

Your tips should help me on my path.

Thanks again

[Synthetik]

I just sent you a download link to the version 3 tutorial movie disc #3, which gets into paint synthesizer editing in great detail. The interface in the tutorials is going to look different since you do all the paint synthesizer editing in the standard Editor palette in version 4. But all of the controls in version 3 are still there with the same names, so the tutorial movies should be helpful to you in getting started with more advanced editing.