Photoshop paint brush usage-PS tutorial

This article mainly introduces you to the panel settings, usage methods, and skills of the paint brush tool in Photoshop. the explanation is very detailed. let's take a closer look. In addition to setting the diameter and hardness, Photoshop also provides very detailed settings for the brush, which makes the brush rich and colorful, instead of just the simple effect we saw above. You can call up the paint board by pressing the shortcut key 'f5 '. Note that this paint board does not depend on the paint tool. this is the detailed setting palette of the paint. In fact, it is more appropriate to name it a brush palette.

Click "pen tip shape" on the left side of the paint board. if the following options (such as dynamic shape) are checked, remove them all first. Select a 9-pixel brush from the paint preset list. For example. From this we can see that the familiar diameter and hardness are used to control the size and the degree of edges, just as we have previously touched them.

A ripple at the bottom is a preview of the paint effect, which is equivalent to drawing an effect in the image. This preview chart changes every time we change the settings.

Now let's take a look at the spacing options below the hardness. the current value is 25%. what does this mean?

In fact, the brush we used above can be seen as a lot of dots arranged. If we set the spacing to 100%, we can see the dots arranged in sequence at the beginning and end, as shown in the left figure below. If it is set to 200%, there is a clear gap between the dots, and the gap is enough to put another dot. See the following picture on the right. From this we can see that the distance is actually the distance between the center of each two dots, the larger the distance between the dots is.

Why didn't we feel like a dot when we draw a straight line in front of it?

That is because the spacing value is a percentage, and the percentage reference is the diameter of the brush. When the diameter itself is small, the dot spacing calculated by this percentage is also small, so it is not obvious. When the diameter is large, the margin calculated by this percentage is also large, and the dot effect is obvious.

We can make a comparison experiment to keep the distance between 25%, set the diameter to 9 pixels and 90 pixels respectively, then draw a straight line in the image, and then compare their edges. The left figure is shown below. We can see that the edge of the first straight line is smooth, while the edge of the second straight line appears an arc, which is composed of many outer edges of dots, as shown in the right figure below.

Because of this, you need to reduce the spacing when using a large brush.

But the distance between the brushes is 1%, and the diameter of the brushes can be 2500 pixels. When the diameter of the brush is 2500 pixels, the minimum interval between dots is 25 pixels, which looks obvious. If this happens, simply draw a large rectangle instead.

Note that if the spacing option is disabled, the distance between the dots is subject to the speed of the mouse drag. the dots in the slow area are dense, while those in the fast area are sparse.

The previously used brush is a positive circle, and now we can set the shape of the brush to an ellipse with an extra roundness control. The roundness is also a percentage, representing the ratio of the length and diameter of the elliptic. 100% is a positive circle, 0% is the flat shape of the elliptical shape. The angle is the tilt angle of the ellipse. when the roundness is 100%, the angle is meaningless, because the positive circle is the same no matter how it is tilted.

In addition to changing the numeric value, you can also pull two control points (at the red arrow) in the center to change the roundness. click and drag at any time to change the angle.

After X and Y are flipped over, the shape of the brush is changed in actual painting, although the angle and roundness are not changed. As shown in the left figure below, X is flipped horizontally, and Y is flipped vertically.

It seems that the two flip effects are the same, both of which are rotated at a certain angle, but they are not. Flip and rotate are two very different concepts. As shown in the right figure below, you can observe the red, green, and blue points on the edge of the Oval, and you will see that this is not what rotation can do. Flip is also called an image. Draw the ellipse in the upper left corner of the image on the paper, take a mirror, and place the two lines in the mirror. The image is displayed in the mirror. You can do it by yourself to see if the image works.

We have mentioned the issue of the brush spacing, which is somewhat special under the ellipse. We set a brush with a diameter of 20 pixels, an angle of 15, a roundness of 50%, and a spacing of 200%, and hold down SHIFT to draw an effect similar to the lower left graph. Why is the distance between the two straight-line brushes different?

Because an elliptic has two standard drawing radius (diameter), the longest one is the shortest, known as the long radius (diameter) and short radius (diameter ). As the brush spacing, the circle distance between the first and second dots is based on the short radius (diameter. Note that the spacing we set is 200%. if the long diameter of the elliptic is 10 pixels and the short diameter is 5 pixels, the circle center distance of the brush dot is 5 x 200% = 10 pixels. At this time, if you draw along the long diameter direction of the elliptic, you will see that the first and end of the origin are connected, because the distance between the 10-pixel circle center is equal to the long diameter of the 10-pixel circle itself. And only draw along the short diameter direction will really see the 200% spacing effect. As shown in the following figure, the two straight lines in the preview image are the long diameter and short diameter of the elliptic, while the left image is drawn roughly along the direction of the two straight lines.

If you set the roundness to a greater value, for example, 60%, it is impossible to draw an interactive or overlapping dot with a 200% pitch. See the following picture on the right.

If you want to connect to the top and end of a long radius, the roundness multiplied by the spacing must be equal to 1. If it is greater than 1, it will be separated. if it is less than 1, there will be overlapping parts.

Therefore, when the brush is elliptical, the actual draw spacing may be smaller than the configured spacing. This is not the case when the brush is positive and the diameter is equal. To ensure that the brush spacing is equal in any direction, it must be a positive circle brush.

In addition to the positive and elliptical circles, we will also learn to use any shape as a brush later.

Now let's take a look at the shape dynamics in the brush settings. First, set the distance to 150% in the pen tip shape setting. Then, click the "shape dynamics" option, set the size jitter to 100%, and set the control to off (if there is no drawing board device, select the pen pressure ), the minimum diameter, angle, and roundness are 0%. The left figure is shown below. The following figure shows the effect. Jitter means random, and random means irregular. For example, if a random single digit is used, the number may be 1, 8, or 3, which is completely irregular. Just as the sand in your hand falls onto the ground, the Sand Point is random, and the random number is unpredictable.

The size jitter is random, indicating that the diameter of the brush changes irregularly. Therefore, we can see that the dots are small and there is no change pattern. If you use this paint brush multiple times, the effects will not be exactly the same each time you draw.

Here we set the spacing to 150% to better understand the effect of the brush dot size change. if the spacing is set to the standard 25%, the effect is shown in the right figure below. It looks a bit like a worn-out seal edge.

The larger the value of jitter (random), the more obvious the effect of jitter (random. The larger the size contrast between the brush bullets. This percentage is the ratio of the brush diameter to the value difference between 1 pixel.

The minimum size jitter is calculated as follows: brush diameter-(brush diameter, jitter percentage ). If the answer is 0, add 1. if it is a decimal number, it is rounded to five.

If the diameter of the brush is 10 pixels and the size jitter is 100%, the change range is 10 ~ 1 pixel. If the size jitter is 50%, the change range is 10 ~ 5 pixels.

If the diameter of the brush is 12 pixels, the change range is 12 to 100% when the size jitter is ~ 1 pixel. The value ranges from 12 to 50% ~ 6 pixels. The value range is 12-30% ~ 8 pixels.

The above calculation process is boring, and it may be difficult for you to think about it in a short time. This does not matter. Here is only a demonstration of the derivation process and control principle. In actual use, such accurate calculation is rarely needed, as long as you think it is appropriate.

Note that there is also a minimum diameter option below the size jitter, which is used to control the smallest dot diameter in the size jitter. If the size jitter is 100% and the minimum diameter is 30%, the rendering effect is equivalent to a single size jitter of 70%. If both are 100%, it is equivalent to no size jitter. However, the formula has been used to calculate the minimum diameter. you can also use the size jitter value to control the minimum diameter. So why is there another option to "draw a snake?

Let's take a look at this problem. let's draw three straight lines.

The first line: Set the diameter of the brush to 10 pixels, with a spacing of 150%, a roundness of 100%, and a size jitter of 0%. Control.

The second line: based on the first setting, enable the "control" option under the size jitter and select "fade". enter 20 for the following number, with a minimum diameter of 0%. The left figure is shown below.

Line 3: set the minimum diameter to 20% based on the second setting. As shown in the following figure. The effect of the three straight lines is shown in the right figure, which is arranged from top to bottom.

What exactly is this? First, you can understand what it is called "fade away.

"Gradual hiding" refers to a state transition from large to small, or from many to few. Just like a drink in a cup, the process of drinking is equivalent to the gradual process of drinking a drink.

Now let's look at the first line. that setting actually makes the entire "shape dynamic" option look like a false one, because there is no effective control setting.

The second straight line opens the gradient control, which means that from the size of 10 pixels, "gradually disappear", to how much? Until 0 pixels. So we can see that the brush dot gradually shrinks until it disappears completely.

How can we control the length of this gradient? That is, the value 20 entered later. This 20 represents the step size, which means that 20 brush dots are passed. You can count it carefully.

The third straight line opens the minimum diameter control, and 20% of 10 pixels is 2 pixels. at this time, the gradient option cannot completely hide the brush, and the minimum value of the blanking is 2 pixels. The step size is still 20 steps, so the process from 10 pixels to 2 pixels is 20 brush dots, 20 brush dots are kept 2 pixels after the size of the 2 pixels will never disappear.

When you and your lover go to McDonald's for dinner and buy a can of drinks, then:
If you are not interested in this can of beverage, you have never touched it from start to end. That's like the first line.
If you have a mouth-watering drink, just leave an empty cup when she or she goes to the bathroom. That is like the second line.
If she (him) marks a cup and tells you that when she (him) returns, the water level of the drink cannot be lower than this mark, it means your lover knows you too well, and you are just like the third line, because the other side's foresight and control your own limits.
The process of drinking a drink is gradual, the time you drink is the step size, and the sign your lover engraved on the Cup is the smallest diameter.

In addition to fading, you can also use the pen pressure, pen slope, light pen wheel, rotation. The three options require additional hardware devices. The figure on the left below shows the effect of using the pen pressure. A pen is an input device called a digital drawing board. Use an electronic pen to move the mouse on the matching baseboard. See the following picture on the right.

The bottom plate can sense the intensity of the pen tip contact (generally speaking, it is the difference between the severity of the hand), the advanced drawing board can also sense the tilt degree of the electronic pen and the pen tip rotation angle. These effects cannot be simulated by a common mouse. The pencil wheel is the thumb wheel attached to some electronic pens. Without such a device, these control options are invalid.

Note that the pen mentioned here is totally different from the vector plotting tool pen in our later tutorial.

In "shape dynamics", the other two control options are "angle jitter" and "roundness jitter". as the name suggests, they are used to control the angle and roundness of the flat Oval Brush. The definition process and the corresponding relationship are the same as the size jitter mentioned above. here we will not introduce the detailed definition process. we will test the results by ourselves. To make the effect more obvious, it is best to first change the brush used earlier: angle 90, roundness 50%, spacing 300%. The left figure is shown below.

The so-called angle jitter is to let the flat Oval Brush irregularly change the angle during the painting process, so that it looks like the brush will be "twisted and twisted. As shown in the following figure.

The roundness jitter is to change the roundness of the brush irregularly, so that the brush looks "fat and thin. You can use the "least roundness" option to control the variation range. The principle is the same as the minimum diameter in the size jitter. See the following picture on the right.

Note: When the roundness of the paint brush is set to 100%, angle jitter alone is ineffective. Because 100% is a positive circle, the positive circle looks the same at any angle. However, if the roundness jitter is enabled at the same time, the angle jitter will also be effective because the roundness jitter gives the brush a variety of flat Ovans.

The jitter options of flip X and flip Y are the same as those in the brush definition. It does not have much practical significance under the positive circle or elliptical brush. it works only in other shapes.

So far, we have used positive circles or elliptical brushes, which are boring. Now let's use other shapes of brushes.

For example, if you select a maple leaf shape (at the red arrow) in the pen tip shape, the sampling size of this brush is 74 pixels, if you manually change this value, click "use sampling size" to restore it. The sampling of the brush will be described later. Change the diameter to 45 pixels and set the padding to 120%. The left figure is shown below. This setting is suitable for the current X image size. You can determine other values by yourself or create images of other sizes.

Is it because I have been using black plotting to feel depressed? In Photoshop, the foreground color is the color of the drawing tool. Note that even if the foreground color is changed, the preview image below the paint palette is still black.

Now let's compare the result of flip XY. in the figure below, the first line is the result of no flip jitter. The second line adds the flip X and flip Y effects. We can see that the maple leaf in the second row (3rd and 4th from the left in the figure below) is upside down, which is the flip effect, also known as an image.

Now we can set more options: size jitter 70%, angle jitter 100%, and roundness jitter 50%. In this way, it looks like "The size is different, the angle is different, and the flattening is different. And then set the spacing to 100%. Don't draw boring straight lines this time. is she still angry because you have stolen a drink? Then draw a heart and give it to her (him. See the following picture on the right. But now we only talk about how to draw and how to print, so you can only show your mind on the monitor.

Do you think the color is too single? Let's make some changes to enrich the color. We use the "dynamic color" option to achieve this goal. Set "foreground/background jitter" to 100% in the left figure below. This option is used to change the color between the foreground color and the background color. the default background is white and can be selected by yourself. See the following picture on the right.

5 background colors are replaced in the painting: yellow, gray, green, blue, and purple. In addition, the foreground color is orange, which is 6 colors in total. But if you observe it carefully, you will find that there are actually more than 6 colors. why?

This is because the jitter effect is within a certain range, not limited to two extremes. Like the size jitter of the front brush diameter, there is not only the maximum and minimum diameter, but also a series of diameter sizes of the intermediate transition. Here, the jitter is the same. the selected foreground color and background color only define the two ends of the jitter range, and a series of intermediate transitional colors are included in the jitter range. For example, the two color blocks at the beginning and end are the foreground color and the background color, and the intermediate is the transition between the foreground color and the background color.

There are also control options in the foreground/background jitter. the usage is similar to what we have previously touched. if you choose to fade away, in the specified step, the foreground color is switched to the background color. if you continue to draw the step, the background color is kept. Disable foreground/background jitter (set to 0% ). The color phase jitter, saturation jitter, and brightness jitter are shown in the figure below. In fact, the color phases, saturation, and brightness are equivalent to the HSB color model. the related concepts have been mentioned in course #01. here the jitter is implemented using this color mode.

Now we need to transfer the previously drawn heart-shaped image to Photoshop, as shown in the left figure below. Then, use the shortcut key "image adjustment hue/saturation", and then start a color adjustment function, as shown in the right figure below. Try to change the color phase, saturation, and brightness (that is, brightness) to see what the effect is. The specific usage will be described in later tutorials.

You will see that when changing the color, the Orange will change to red, blue, and so on. Changing the saturation will make the orange Gray or colorful. Changing the brightness may result in blackening or whitelist.

Now we still use the maple leaf shape brush in front to set the size to 30 pixels, the roundness is 100%, the spacing is 100%, turn off the shape dynamics, turn off other options in color jitter. Select a pure red foreground color, set the color jitter to 20%, 50%, 80%, and 100% respectively, and draw a straight line. The result is as follows.

As you can see, the higher the color jitter, the richer the color. Why? What is the standard percentage of the color jitter?

First, let's answer the second question. this percentage is based on the color range. Course #01 we have learned about the color phase and know that the color phase is a ring. for convenience of viewing, we cut out the area of the color ratio of 180 degrees and pull it into a red circle, the two sides are blue color bars, as shown in the right figure below.

The selected color is red, which is at the center of the color bar. Then, the percentage of the color jitter refers to the range centered on the red color that is stretched to both sides of the left and right sides at the same time. Therefore, the color ranges of the four maple lines are as follows. The larger the percentage, the more colors it contains. The first problem was solved.

In addition, we can use this picture to roughly determine which colors appear: 20% is only red and orange; 50% is more purple and yellow than the previous one and has a foreign red color; 80% is a little more green and blue than the previous one, but there is no blue. The most obvious change of 100% is the more blue. You can check the picture on the top left.

Saturation jitter can make the color light or thick, and the larger the percentage, the wider the variation range. As shown in the left figure below, after other jitter is disabled, the effects are drawn using 50% saturation jitter and 100% saturation jitter respectively.

Brightness (brightness) jitter can make the image light or dark, the larger the percentage, the wider the variation range. As shown in the following figure, after other jitters are disabled, the effects are drawn using 30% brightness jitter and 100% brightness jitter respectively.

There is also a final option in the dynamic color: purity. This is not a random item, because there is no jitter at the end. The effect of this option is similar to saturation, which is used to increase or decrease the color saturation as a whole. The value range is between plus and minus 100%. when the value is-100%, the gray colors are drawn. When the value is 100%, the color is completely saturated. If the purity value is these two extreme values, saturation jitter will lose effect.

Before that, we made changes to the shape and color of the paint brush. although there are various random elements in the learning content, they are all such as spacing, color, and size. The trajectory can still be clearly understood. To achieve the random distribution effect, we need to learn distribution. First, set a paint brush: 5 pixels, 100% mm (roundness), and 150% mm (spacing. Turn off the shape dynamics, dynamic colors, and all other options, enter the scatter option, set the scatter to 500%, as shown in the left figure below.

In this case, the figure on the right is shown as follows. we can see that the dots of the brush are not limited to the mouse track, but randomly appear in a certain range around the track. this is the so-called distribution.

Note that there is an option of "two axes". what is the purpose?

To make the effect more obvious, we changed the brush diameter to 15 pixels, with a spacing of 100% and a spreading of 100%. then we drew a straight line under the option of closing and opening, as shown in the left figure below. It looks a little different, right? Let's take a look at the grid, as shown in the right figure below.

We can see that if the option of disabling the two axes is disabled, the distribution is only limited to the vertical direction. it looks like there are high and low, but the horizontal distance between each other is fixed, that is, 100% in the brush setting. If the option of the two axes is enabled, the distribution will be effective in both the horizontal and vertical directions. Therefore, the dots on the second line are not only high and low, but also have different spacing.

Under the scatter option, there is a quantity option, which is used to multiply the number of brush dots and the value is a multiple. Now we use a 5-pixel, 150%-margin brush to scatter 500% axes. Use numbers 1 and 4 to draw two straight lines, as shown in. We can see that the number of dots on the second line is significantly higher than that on the first line. Theoretically, it is equivalent to drawing the first line four times.

The quantity jitter option below the quantity option is to randomly change the multiples in the drawing. The reference value is the value of the quantity. Just as the size jitter of the earliest learning is based on the diameter of the brush itself. In jitter, the values will only decrease, but will not become larger. That is to say, it will only be less or equal than 4 times, but not greater than 4 times.

Now let's take a look at the Miscellaneous options in the paint brush settings, as shown in the left figure below. it is used to generate a complex edge on the edge of the paint brush, that is, the Burr effect. There is no numerical adjustment for the color, but it is related to the hardness of the brush. the smaller the hardness, the more obvious the effect of the edge. It does not have any effect on hard brushes.

The wet edge option is to deepen the edge color of the brush and looks like a watercolor pen. As shown in the following figure.

The role of the spray gun is exactly the same as that we have learned before. Since they are the same, why set two? This is because the spray gun method can be saved with the paint brush. In this way, the spray gun mode will be automatically opened when you use this storage preset.

The smooth option is mainly used to allow the mouse to draw a smoother line segment while moving quickly. The lower-right figure shows the comparison between closing and enabling smooth options. However, enabling this option will consume a large amount of processor resources, and the operation will be slow on computers with low preparation.

Finally, let's briefly introduce the differences between Illustrator's brush and Photoshop. The left figure is shown below. Due to the relationship between vector graphics, Illustrator can easily twist the brush into any shape, so it can imitate the drawing effect similar to the Chinese brush.

In addition, you can easily create dotted lines that are hard to implement in Photoshop in Illustrator. you only need to enable the dotted line option in the stroke palette and fill in the dotted line interval. See the following picture on the right.

The above is all about the tutorials for using the paint brush tool in Photoshop. have you learned this.