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Define Brush Preset Question


GeorgeB

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Photoshop CC 2017 and a Mac.

Lately, I have been playing with creating brushes out of just black and white line art. I first will do a selection using COLOR RANGE...seems to be the best choice since the image is just black and white line art. Once I have the selection I then create a brush with DEFINE BRUSH PRESET. All works well so far. But when I go to use the brush 1) it is huge...much bigger than the canvas, and 2) when I tap it on the canvas it is a light grey...not black.

Any idea what I am doing wrong here?
 

gedstar

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Hi

You should be able to resize the brush as you would with any brush, here I created a brush from a line art of a bird with the same procedure as you, as you can see I can resize the brush
View attachment 75084

Also make sure that you're working in RGB Color mode and not Greyscale
View attachment 75085

Take a look here for more info
http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/photoshop-brushes/make-brushes/

Choosing An Initial Size For Your Brush
Photoshop allows us to create brushes as large as 2500 x 2500 pixels, but as they say, just because you can doesn't mean you should. At that size, you'd be painting with the virtual equivalent of a floor mop. Also, painting with very large brushes requires a lot more memory and horse power from your computer which can slow your system down considerably. For typical work, you'll want to create brushes much smaller.
The size at which you initially create the brush will become its default size, and it's important to note that brushes we create ourselves are pixel-based brushes, which means they're essentially images and behave exactly the same way as regular images when it comes to resizing them. Brushes will usually remain crisp and sharp when we make them smaller, but if you increase their size much beyond the default, they'll become soft and dull looking. The general idea, then, is to create your new brush just large enough to suit your needs, which may involve a little trial and error. The 200 x 200 pixel size I'm using here usually works well.
 
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GeorgeB

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So once I make a selection and then go to DEFINE BRUSH SET how do I then reduce the size to a smaller default?
 

IamSam

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So once I make a selection and then go to DEFINE BRUSH SET how do I then reduce the size to a smaller default?
You would need to reduce the size of the original line art that your using to create the brush preset.
 

MrToM

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To be honest you would want to keep the custom brush as large as possible when you create it.

Custom brushes are just images, and like any other image will degrade when scaled. Changing the brush size is technically scaling an image, scaling UP is never a good idea and, although not good either, scaling down is preferable.

Instead of changing the original brush size, keep it large and save a TOOL preset with the brush size you need as a default. You can create as many TOOL presets as you like, all of the same brush but with different sizes....if you need to.

This way, a larger brush size will hold its integrity better when scaled UP....(because it was probably bigger to start with anyway).

The size of a custom brush is displayed under the thumbnail when you create it....its really the diameter of the brush.

Without seeing the brush in action, (via a screenshot), its difficult to say why it isn't black but its probably because you are trying to use a small brush at a much larger size.....thus 'thinning' out the flow by PS interpolating more pixels.

Regards.
MrToM.
 

GeorgeB

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Screen Shot 5.png

MrToM,


Well, I am almost there. I have never defined a TOOL PRESET before and it makes sense...it just did not finish up correctly.

1. I created the brush and it was quite large...around 2700px. I then reduced it to 400px and hit it one time on the 400 x 400 document that you see in the screen shot...worked great so far. With that brush and size selected, I then clicked on the NEW TOOL PRESET button, named it PureHoneyL-400 > OK. However, when I went to use it on the 400 x 400 document I ended up with an 800 soft round brush as you can see.

So, the missing link for me is not creating the preset correctly...can you help?

George

 

MrToM

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...So, the missing link for me is not creating the preset correctly...can you help?...
I'll do my best for you.

From your screenshot you can see that the brush selected is indeed a large, soft, round brush.

You need to select your saved, custom brush "PureHoneyL-400" from the list of Tool presets...

custom_brush_MT_01.jpg

You will find that once you have selected that brush it will always be that brush that is used, even after closing and re-opening PS.

The selected brush should only ever change if YOU decide to change it.

Regards.
MrToM.

PS.
Dont forget the valuable info from gedstar...
...Photoshop allows us to create brushes as large as 2500 x 2500 pixels...
 
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GeorgeB

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OK...I see what I did wrong. Clearly, I did not save the preset correctly. I will delete and try again...and that worked. Basically, my error was is saving the preset incorrectly. Thanks, again, for your help.
 

MrToM

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No worries.

Its basically just a two step process...

1. Define your brush from your image. (This creates the brush so you can use it)
2. Adjust the brush properties and save it as a 'Tool' preset. (Properties like size, flow, opacity, spacing, shape dynamics, scattering, in fact any of the brush properties in the brush panel)

Saving the tool as a preset means you can save the same [custom] brush with as many combinations of properties as you like.

If you want to keep those tool presets, (yeah I know...more stuff...blame Adobe, they don't make anything easy!!!), then you will also have to save the current presets to a .tpl file...

tool_presets_MT_01.jpg

Note: It's in this list that your 'Tool' preset will be hiding.

You should really only need to do this as a precautionary measure in case you need to re-install PS but remember this IS Adobe software so its best to be safe and periodically save them, especially if you have many presets.

You should also, just to be safe, save your custom brushes as a 'Set' too...( .abr file), same routine as shown in the image but it will be 'Save brushes' in the 'Brush' dialog, as opposed to 'Save Tool Presets' in the 'Tool' preset dialog.

The only thing you cannot do with custom brushes is set the 'hardness', because they are image based, not procedural.

Regards.
MrToM.

PS. I fully understand if that is as clear as mud, blame Adobe.
 

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