Modulating Color Within a Brush Nib

[Synthetik]

I sometimes get asked about how to modulate a color within a brush nib (nib = dab of paint on the brush). You could think of this as trying to simulate painting with multiple colors of paint on a single brush. One approach is to use Multipen nib modulation to modulate the color. The Multipen Nib is a modulator that modulates based on which multipen nib is drawing. S if you had 9 nibs then you'd get 9 different modulation values from 0 to 100 % as you cycled through the set of nibs. An easy way to do this is to use the Path Gradient in the Paint Color Modulate control panel. If you set this parameter to Multipen Nib and use a preset that uses multi pen mode, then as the individual nibs in the Multipen brush draw the color they are drawing with will modulate from the original source color to the setting of the Gradient End parameter in the Paint Color Modulate control panel. I put together a small set of paint presets to show this off. They a re all build off of the 'Thick Rough Paint' preset in the Defualt : Wet Paint category as requested. I started with that original preset for Stroke 1 and then edited some variations to the stroke that try to provide a little mode dimensionality. These were actually pretty simple edits. Stroke 2 changes the fill algorithm in Paint Fill Apply to a simple Apply setting to fill in the stroke. Stroke 3 uses a Lighting Effect Brush Load as an input in Paint FIll Setup to add some raised roughness. Stroke 4 then switches back to a dual Fill Algorithm in Paint Fill Apply for a wetter stroke. Stroke 5 changes the composite 2 setting in paint Fill Apply to blend for a softer look for the second fill algorithm. Stroke 6 uses a different brush load setting that is not as raised but can built up some nice visual complexity.

Bob'sPresets1.zip