So I'm still using SA 3.5, since I don't have the funds for the 4.0 upgrade, but there's a particular style of drawing I want to achieve.
Awhile back I found an really cool app for the android called sketcher pro, which does something called "procedural" line drawing. For those of you who are curious but don't use a droid, there's an online drawing page called Harmony. If you google "MrDoob/Harmony" you can find it. Harmony was coded in HTML 5, and then ported over as Sketcher Pro to work on Android phones and tablets.
Unfortunately neither Harmony or Sketcher Pro let you open existing images to trace or work from, and neither of them support layers. This is really frustrating, because I love the graphic quality and delicacy of the line work it creates.
I'm hoping that someone will either already know about and have played around with the above mentioned programs, or will after reading this. If anyone could suggest ways to make a specific tool for drawing in SA 3.5 that mimics the tools in Harmony and Sketcher Pro I'd be very appreciative, as I have no idea how to write code.(Harmony is to all appearances open source, but I'd rather just make art.)
One other thing, I don't want to make an automated action. I want to make tools that I can use with my wacom tablet.
I've attached some png images. Let me know if they don't display.
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I've reposted the png images as jpegs.
image_2011-12-18_171121.jpg
image_2012-03-22_152431.jpg
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The 'procedural' line drawing algorithm is actually pretty simple. It basically just auto-draws lines from where the cursor is currently located at to other close locations on the existing paint path, or on any of the previously drawn paint paths on the canvas.
So you would probably want an auto draw interactive pen mode that has the ability to draw lines to any point within a set radius that has already been drawn to on the canvas. Stopping the auto-drawn line when it gets to a point that has already been drawn on.
I'm not sure whether you can get the exact effect you are looking for in version 3.5 or not. Although i'm sure you can generate some other kinds of interesting procedural style line brush effects that work with hand drawing. I just ran a few quick experiments, will think about it a little and try some more later.
I'll also take a look at the development code and make sure we have a way of directly supporting this kind of drawing style in the future. Assuming there's not a way to get there using the current paint synthesizer controls.
Thanks John, I appreciate it. I'll cross my fingers........
I'm halfway through adding what you want as new paint synthesizer options. Via a new Load Type option in the Path Load option for the Path Type parameter in the Path Shape control panel. i also added a new Path Angle option that randomly generates an angle based on where the cursor currently is relative to a random position on the current existing paint path.
So you can use either of those approaches with autodraw interactive pen mode to get what you want. These are new features in the next version Studio Artist development code.
Since the new settings can interact with any of the other paint synthesizer option, there are all kinds of other interesting procedural drawing special effects you can generate in addition to the particular one you are looking for.
But i was also thinking about the particular properties of the paint stroke that you like with this kind of procedural drawing. And i'm wondering if you can actually get what you want by doing it a different way using the existing 3.5 features. So you'd use a wacom tablet and pen, with pressure to modulate the maximum path length, and pen tilt orientation to control the path angle, and autodraw interactive pen mode. With a relatively small max path length, maybe 20 pixels. And a really small brush size with a soft blend. And you'd set the Color Mode in Paint Color Source control panel to be black only.
So depending on how you hold and manipulate the pen while drawing, you could duplicate the thickening effect you get with that procedural style when drawing a curve in a paint stroke. And by working with tilt and pressure, you could generate the soft threads to existing line structure that the procedural algorithm generates. You actually have more control, because you can position them where you want them to be as you build up your sketch.
So that would be my suggestion about how to generate the look you want to achieve in version 3.5. By interactively using pen pressure and tilt with an appropriate auto draw interactive pen mode paint preset.
Thanks John. I really appreciate the help. I'll experiment with your suggestions and s up with.:-)