I will give you a detailed analysis of the effects of Chinese calligraphy for the users of Illustrator software.
Tutorial sharing:
I. INTRODUCTION to required tools
Now everyone has a perceptual knowledge of writing calligraphy with a computer. Let's take a look at the tools we need.
How to choose a pen
To write calligraphy with Illustrator, you need to prepare a tablet supporting the press. At present, many Chinese tablet support 256 or 512-level pressure sensing, and the price ranges from 300 or 400 to Yuan. The pen I use is a computer distribution product, with a 512-level wireless pressure and USB port. It is easy to use and wireless, but it must use a dedicated battery 9th produced in Germany, if the power is used up, it is very difficult to buy.
Generally, the higher the pressure level, the better the feeling, can reflect a slight pressure change, but it is still limited by a "lightest pressure" in actual use, some inferior pen may require you to write a stroke with the power of both the ox and the Tiger. If you are lucky enough to purchase such a tablet, I am afraid you will have a hard time enjoying writing. Of course, it is best to buy a WACOM tablet.
Why do I select Illustator?
After using several different vector software, I found that Illustrator's paint brush tool has the best support for the pen.
Note that other vector software also supports the pen, but only the AI paint brush can generate strokes of different thickness according to the pressure changes. We also know that other bitmap software, such as photoshop and painter, can support the injection pen very well. However, Illustrator automatically modifies the strokes to produce a very elegant and smooth effect, the feeling of writing is really amazing.
Therefore, if you want to write calligraphy in Vector Software, Illustrator may be the best choice at present. Good! Now let's start our calligraphy journey in Illustrator!
Illustrator (AI) has many menus and tools. It is not easy to learn all about it. But now we use it to write Chinese calligraphy, so even if you know nothing about it, don't be afraid, we only need to learn about it as a simple paintbrush tool.
II. Important settings for paint brushes and strokes
From the Wacom website, we found that the AI paintbrush version 7.0 has a long history. Unfortunately, you only need to buy a tablet to understand its powerful functions. You can find this famous tool on the toolbar of AI. Of course, you can also use the keyboard shortcut (B) to enable it.
Before writing, you must make some important settings on the paint brush and stroke. Note that the default settings of AI will directly affect the writing effect. Therefore, make sure to modify the settings as follows. The latest Illustrator10 is used as an example:
Paintbrush settings
Double-click the paintbrush tool of the toolbar to open the default properties dialog box, as shown in the following figure:
Paint brush attribute settings
The top frame is Tolerances, including:
Fidelity (precision setting): the tracking precision of AI on the writing trajectory of the pen. The Precision ranges from 0.5 to 20 pixels. The smaller the value, the higher the precision, the more realistic the strokes are. It is generally set to the highest (0.5 pixel ).
Smoothness (smoothness setting): indicates the smoothness of the generated strokes, ranging from 0 ~ In the range of 100%. Smooth can effectively modify and beautify strokes, but excessive smoothness will lose the charm of calligraphy. Generally, it can achieve good results if it is set to 0 or 1.
The following options are also important:
Fill new brush strokes: the true meaning of Fill new brush strokes is to Fill the open path. We don't need to fill the color because we don't need to draw a picture now, so we can cancel it.
Keep selected paths: Keep the selected path. This option keeps the written strokes in the selected state. In AI, you only need to select a stroke, and you can easily modify it with a paint brush. However, this will cause a great deal of interference to your writing of the next stroke. Instead of writing the next stroke, you have modified the previously written stroke so that we can't write any more, so you must cancel it.
The bottom slider is the modified sensing range. After a stroke is selected, the stroke is modified as long as it is within the specified sensing range. Generally, it is enough to set it to 6 pixel.
Modify calligraphy pen brush settings
The paint brush has been set and cannot be written directly. We also need to select a calligraphy brush for modification. First open the brush panel (F5) and see the elliptical brush? Double-click it to open the calligraphy pen option dialog box as shown in the figure below:
Modify calligraphy pen brush settings
Default option for 20pt elliptical calligraphy pen
You can see that the flat circle with a cross arrow under the paint brush name 20pt Oval is the shape of the paint brush, and the three shapes on the right are the previews of the different states of the paint brush, the minimum and maximum shapes, inclination, and flat degree of the brush are displayed.
You can set three options for a paint brush:
Angle: the default dip of the brush. The dip of the brush directly affects the shape of the stroke, except for the positive circle.
Roundness: the Roundness of the brush. The higher the value, the closer the brush is to the circle.
Diameter: the Diameter of the brush. This attribute is very important, because it directly determines the width of the strokes you write. For calligraphy, that is, the size of your brush is selected. If the diameter is small, you can also simulate the pen, note Pen and other writing effects.
The dip, roundness, and diameter of the brush can be dynamically changed. You can select the change mode in the drop-down box on the right: Random (Random), Pressure (Pressure), and Fixed (Fixed). You can also drag the slider to limit the change range.
The setting of this brush is very free. It depends entirely on your writing habits and the desired effect (pen or brush, pen, etc.). Of course, another important factor is the performance of your tablet. Therefore, everyone has different settings. We recommend that you try more to find the setting that best suits your writing habits.
The best settings on my tablet are as follows:
Adjustment
Well, after simple settings, we can show our skills! You don't need to worry about writing well. You can do your best to graffiti on the top, because the first thing you should practice is to coordinate with your hands. The most important difference between writing with a pen and writing with a pen on paper is that you can't look down at the word, you should look up and look at the screen to write, at the beginning may be a little unaccustomed, but soon you will find that writing on a computer is a pleasure.
3. Further modification
Different from writing pen and pen on paper, you can make further modifications if you are not satisfied with the words written on your computer. For example:
Modify the length ratio of a stroke
In the paint brush state, press ctrl to switch to the arrow-like selection tool. Do not open the ctrl key and click unsatisfactory strokes, A blue square box is displayed around the stroke, and the stroke length and size can be changed by clicking the node on the box.
Modify the length ratio of a stroke
Modify strokes
If you are not satisfied with a part of a stroke, but want to retain the rest of the stroke, you need to use the paint brush correction function. Similarly, press and hold the ctrl key to select the stroke and then press ctrl. Then you will find that the stroke remains in the selected state. Now you can use the paint brush to correct the part of the stroke, until you are satisfied. You will find that the painting at this time does not produce new strokes, but only modifies a part of the strokes.
Adjust stroke width
If the stroke width of a word is uneven and does not coordinate with the whole, we can modify it further. Open the Appearance panel (Shift + F6) of Illustrator, double-click its Stroke attribute, and you will find that the paint brush attribute is displayed. The difference is that you modify it here, it only applies to this stroke and does not affect other words and strokes.
Although the modification function is so powerful, we still need to tell you the correct word, which can not be changed by modification. In many cases, it may be much faster to re-write several times. You can practice your words only when you write more and practice more.
After writing it, you can output your work. You can print your work in AI directly. However, note that only the part in the box can be printed. If you want to publish the image to the Internet, you can also select File/Save for web (ctrl + alt + shift + S) to output the network Image. Generally, it is best to Save the image as gif with the minimum size, and the most important thing is not distortion.
4. Notes on writing calligraphy works on a computer
First of all, the pressure pen is a hard pen. Although there is a change in pressure, it only has a center. Unlike the brush pen, it can be pressed and written with a front, so now I have to use it to write the grass, if you are writing a huge book, it is hard to write even a pen drawing. From this point of view, it is a defect that I must accommodate the handwriting.
Second, it is difficult to write a pen that is as free as a brush, and there is no flying white. They are all smooth strokes and cannot show the true charm of Chinese calligraphy.
The Chinese calligraphy art is profound and profound. It is a small attempt to use a computer to show Chinese calligraphy. My calligraphy skills are very limited and my understanding of the software is just superficial and inadequate, please do not hesitate to give us further advice. Finally, download the. ai sample source file that I used in the example.
All right, the above information is the detailed tutorial on drawing the effect of Chinese calligraphy for all the users of Illustrator's software, you can see the users here. I believe that you are very clear about the drawing method. Then, you can draw the effect words of Chinese calligraphy according to the tutorial of the small series.
