Putting the BRUSHES into the Spotlight


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Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 7:39 pm

Putting the BRUSHES into the Spotlight

Hello to all,

I am currently trying to get familiar with the brushes. I have something of an idea what those brushes can do that were explicitly mentioned and introduced in Taron's tutorials, but I am completely at a loss with the others.
And when I tried to get to know them a bit, some brushes completely baffled me by themselves and pretty much all when it comes to their reaction to the "Blending-Parameter." (More about this below.) :shock: :?
So I made a little experiment with varying bristle sizes and counts to get the beginning of a feeling what does parameters do for each brush and also how different brushes with the same settings might compare to each other. But of course, here lies another problem: Because I don't know about the strengths of most of the brushes, my first experiment might have gone in completely the wrong direction. Or the direction might have been not the bad, but I should have changed parameters that I didn't change... Or used stipples instead of strokes. <- You get the idea... :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

For my little experiment, I tried out all the brushes with Build-Up 50%, Bristle Size and Bristle Count each one taking one the values 0, 12, 37, 62, 88 and 100. (Except for Brush #1.) I did this both for Blending = 0% and Blending = 1%. I chose full opacity and bias = 0. Size was always about 170 and Min. Size about 75% (though for some brushes this might have slipped to 0).
Interestingly, Switching from 0% to 1% for Blending makes a huge difference for the appearence of each brush. :shock: But it doesn't make any difference at all whether I set Blending to 1% or 100%. This was one thing that amazed me very much about Blending. The other thing was that, as soon as it is set to 1%, it strongly flattens the material. But I thought Blending would be about "changing" the color while "changing the shape" of the material would be smudging? :?

Afterwards, I did think that it might have been not the best idea to choose full opacity because, with strokes this would be bound to make me lose a lot of detail concerning the "inner structure" of each stroke. But I did another short test and after a certain degree of build up different values of opacity don't make any difference anymore.
On the other hand, a build up value of 50% might have destroyed the differences between the different brush strokes. But it's hard to guess for which parameter settings the appearence suddenly fundamentally changes. (I tried that out for Brush #5, too)

So I thought I'd sum up everything I know (or think to know so far) in this post and afterwards every brush gets his own post where I attach the "experiment"-pictures and pose my specific questions.


Brush #1:
For this brush, there is no controllable bristle size or bristle count. It's best for blending smoothly and is, in one of the tutorials, referred to one of the "best" brushes for warping (together with brush 6). I did not yet try out different bias-settings for this brush.

Brush #2:
Brush with adjustable bristle count and bristle size. I did not yet try out different bias-settings for this brush.

Brush #3:
Brush with adjustable bristle count and bristle size. It has a continuous bristle randomness. The appearance of this brush is strongly dependent on the speed with wich I move the pen of the tablet: the slower the movement, the more point-like and closer to each other the bristle marks are. The faster, the more elongated they become and the further apart they are set.
Different bias-values give you different "moon-shapes".

Brush #4: :?:

Brush #5: :?:

Brush #6: :?:

Brush #7: :?:

Brush #8:
Fractal Turbulence Brush. <- The one that is really great for treebark.
For this brush, bristle size and count have an adapted meaning. But Taron made that clear in the manual.

Brush #9:
This is the brush that is able to see the canvas texture already during the painting/drawing process. It randomizes bristles per stroke and instead of the parameter "bristle count" it's got the parameter "bristle hue" that makes for really nice color effects.
When used for dapples, this brush gives that cool "fireworks" effect. (If Minimum Size is distincly smaller than "Size". #9 is the Brush where the value of the Min.size-Parameter has the strongest effect on the appearance. but the importence of this parameter can really only been seen when the brush is used for dappling - when used for strokes, it doesn't make such a difference. <- Which always makes me wonder which important parameter I might completely be ignoring for each of all those brushes because I simply have no idea how to bring out their meaning.) :(
Brush #9 furthermore has two additional parameters: "Oscillate" (which makes for great smudging/blending (?) effects) and "Oscillate chaos". <- And about "Oscillate chaos" I have another question, Taron: When you introduced them in one of your tutorials you demonstrated that high values for mouse speed (or low values?) would even out the squiggliness. But I tried different Mouse-speed-values (while using a pen) and it didn't make any difference at all?

Brush #10:
Image Brush. I didn't try that one out yet...

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:24 pm

Brush #2 with Blending = 0

Here goes... I guess this thread is most strongly centered around the questions for which parameter ranges differences between the different brushes are most notable. And what parameters that I have ignored yet may make an enormous difference.

For a combination of high bristle count and high bristle size, Br#2 looks pretty much like Brush #5
Br-2---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-2---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (157.28 KiB) Viewed 13742 times

Br-2---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-2---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (209.86 KiB) Viewed 13742 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:26 pm

Brush #2 with Blending = 1%

And this is the stronly flattened version, achieved by changing "Blending" from 0% to 1%:
Br-2---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-2---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (100.82 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Br-2---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-2---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (162.27 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:31 pm

Brush #3 with Blending = 0

When I look at that Brush stroke's beautiful and rich inner structure for small counts compared to the larger counts, it really makes me wonder what I miss by choosing the wrong parameter settings... :PP

Br-3---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-3---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (181.46 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Br-3---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-3---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (238.74 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:34 pm

Brush #3 with Blending = 1%

But of course, even the higher bristle counts give you something of a strongly structured stroke with Blending = 0%
But a little change in one parameter makes for such a drastic change. What else might I lose??? :?
Br-3---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-3---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (124.21 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Br-3---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-3---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (193.74 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:38 pm

Brush #4 with Blending = 0%

For smaller bristle sizes, there is a clear difference between a middle part of the stroke and two side sections. But for higher bristle sizes, this totally gets lost and suddenly Brush #4 looks pretty much like #2...
And I also wonder: what was the idea behind this brush...

Br-4---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-4---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (166.8 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Br-4---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-4---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (234.46 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:40 pm

Brush #4 with Blending = 1%

Br-4---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-4---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (120.18 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Br-4---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-4---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (175.81 KiB) Viewed 13740 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:49 pm

Brush #5 with Blending = 0%

Brush #5 seems to be something of a mixture between #3 and #4: roundish bristle imprits like #3 but the stroke has three different sections like #4.
But what is the unique characteristic of this brush?

Br-5---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-5---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (177.33 KiB) Viewed 13738 times

Br-5---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-5---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (238.44 KiB) Viewed 13738 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:51 pm

Brush #5 with Blending = 1%

Br-5---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-5---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (126.37 KiB) Viewed 13738 times

Br-5---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-5---Bl-1---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (191.14 KiB) Viewed 13738 times

Posts: 27

Joined: Fri Oct 13, 2017 4:11 pm

Post Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:01 pm

Brush #6 with Blending = 0%

I don't understand Brush #6.
AT ALL. :shock:
A brush that only acts as a stamp for circles? Why? This brush kind of consists of one bristle? :? :? :?
I love circles, I do. But what strength does this brush have?

And the bristle size acts totally unexpected - It doesn't influence the circle radius (which is, of course set by the Brush size anyway.)
If you say that this brush consists of one bristle, than it should be fully defined by the Brush size (so the bristle size should not have any effect) and the bristle count should not have any effect either, since it would always be one.
Only the bristle size and the bristle count both do influence the number of circles. But in different ways, it seems. :shrug: :shrug: :shrug:
Br-6---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg
Br-6---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-62-88-100.jpg (82.34 KiB) Viewed 13737 times

Br-6---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg
Br-6---Bl-0---Count-0-12-37-62-88-100---Size-0-12-37.jpg (91.85 KiB) Viewed 13737 times
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