First success with Studio Artist - changing brush size

[David Kater]

I want to change the size of a brush. Not by holding the b key and dragging. I want numerical control.

Brushes are really presets. So, looking at the editor for a particular preset, I saw about a dozen or more options including  Brush modulation, brush type, brush source, and many more. It took a while, but I finally noticed that when I change the brush size with the b key, the horizontal and vertical sizes change in Brush source. And sure enough, changing those parameters changes the brush size. 

One small step toward understanding. . .

[Synthetik]

The Brush Source is the main master brush that can then be modulated by the controls in the Brush Modulation control panel. So say your brush size is 64 x 64 in Brush Source control panel. You could then modulate the brush size by 2 different modulators in the Brush Modulation control panel. The modulation occurs between specified min and max values. Pen pressure is something that is often used to modulate the brush size.

Here's a tip on adjusting the brush size. The long answer section talks in more detail about what i'm describing above.

It is possible to build virtual brushes in Studio Artist. By virtual brush, i mean something that looks and behaves to you like a single brush, but internally it's composed of many different individual brush nibs spatially modulated to emulate a larger brush size. So the brush might look to be 128 pixels in size, but when you look in Brush Source it only says 16x16. This can be done with path randomization, or by working with multi-pen mode (which simulates a multi-bristle brush). Using the b hotkey for interactive brush size adjustment (as opposed to option b hotkey adjustment) tries to also adjust controls that would affect a virtual brush). Option b hoteky adjustment only adjusts the horizontal and vertical sizing in the Brush Source control panel, nothing else.

Here's a tip on understanding the paint synthesizer.

If you are coming from a program like photoshop, studio artist's paint synthesizer offers a much more flexible approach to building dynamic digital paint tools. The flexible paint synthesizer can be programmed in many different ways, as opposed to a totally rigid rendering path like you see in other digital paint programs.

[Francis Stellitano]

The brush and its attendant adjustable parameters can be daunting when looking under the hood the first time, however there is enough documentation in the pdf manual to help, but to me, it is most effective when used in conjunction with an actual Preset open in SA.

Realizing that everyone learns via a different process, the following works for me and may be to others of similar ilk.

Specifically for the Brush/Presets I pick a relatively, low complexity Preset and set the Paint Synthesizer palette to Edit mode. Then start at the top at Pen Mode and have the pdf manual open to the appropriate page. Then work down through the parameter list on both the software and the manual. I do this on the 'puter, optimizing the window sizes and mousing back and forth as needed between pdf manual and SA.

For every selectable and adjustable parameter listed there is a corresponding description in the manual. Not every selectable item has to be read to gain an understanding of a given editable page.

Start changing the items/values/parameters to test the result on the brush/path/stroke/color/size/ etc... by auto and manual painting on either a white canvas or a canvas with an image. Some brushes require a texture, luminance value, or specific color to run. That is one of the things learned in this process.

I have also used the supplied tutorials but that follows another process for me. When I first got SA about 50 to 60 were viewed on the Paint Synthesizer, Regions, and Alpha channels; they are mostly short and concise. Now that it has been 7 to 8 months since, I am viewing them in more depth and looking into more complex operations.

Do not know if this will help but it works for me. And strange as it may be, I actually enjoy the challenge and process of putting all this together.

[Synthetik]

The old tip on Adjusting the BrushSize has been expanded a little.