Brushes are transparent when created

[Tok Tok]

Hi all,

I have a problem when creating a brush in photoshop. Maybe this is a basic problem but I almost never work with brushes so I don't know how to solve it. I have this file with some waterdrops:



When I create a brush from the drops, Photoshop takes the black and white values from the drops and uses it as a alpha map. I get drops that are partially transparent, but I want them to be opaque.

Can anyone help me with this? It seems like a simple problem but I can't find the solution...

 

[Tok Tok]

I'm sorry let me be more clear. I mean the second image.

When I make a brush of the drops in the image that I posted, the drops get transparency according to the b&w color they have. But I don't want them to be transparent, the drop itself needs to be just b&w and the area around it needs to be fully transparent. Now I get this:



I need the drops to be b&w and the background transparent.

BTW I'm doing this tutorial: http://viscorbel.com/condensation-shader-vray/

 

[Tok Tok]

I saw the link you posted but that is not what I need, unfortunately. I want to use the drops as a brush and use the scatter tools so that I can create many drops very fast.

The guy in the tutorial is using an older version of photoshop, i think. The topic starter of the topic you referred to also said something about this not being as it used to be...

 

[MrToM]

I think I can see where you are going wrong.....but its totally understandable...thats a really bad tutorial.

At 2:50 the guy says...
"...and to create a brush I'm going to merge these all-together..."

This he does......finishing it with '"and we're done."

What is completely missing, and probably on the cutting room floor, is several seconds in-between these two sentences which probably goes something like...

"...and INVERT the image..."

If you notice, the image becomes inverted at the same time as being merged, but no reference to this is made.....just that "we're done"....well he might be but what about the poor souls trying to follow him!

So....INVERT the image BEFORE creating the brush.......the image is kind of backwards to what you would expect to do, in the fact that you are indeed creating an alpha mask, not an image. this means that wherever the image is BLACK will be the solid colour......WHITE will become the transparency.

Its done like this for the fact that creating a black image on a white background is more 'natural'....like writing in ink on paper as opposed to chalk on a blackboard.....therefore anything you want to be the 'brush' needs to be in BLACK.

Try that and see if it doesn't work a bit better.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[Tok Tok]

Thanks for the response! You are right, inverting them will have a better effect, although the drops still are transparent. But now it's at the edge of the droplet and not the center, which is much better. I think this is also the case with the guy in the video but it is not noticeable especially on a grey background.

This still doesn't solve my problem but I think I have a workaround: when I have patterned all of the drops I need, I ctrl+click on the layers thumbnail and fill the selection with a solid white. I add a black background and now have a mask which I can use to isolate the drops.

I think I have what I need, thanks!

 

[IamSam]

.....I get drops that are partially transparent, but I want them to be opaque......The guy in the tutorial is using an older version of photoshop, i think. The topic starter of the topic you referred to also said something about this not being as it used to be...

I need to know this for myself!!! I've never thought that this was possible!!!

Is there anyone who can verify that this was once a capability of Photoshop? Anyone please answer! Is there a way to do this?

No other layers, no other groups, just one brush, one stamp, on any color of background.......

 

[IamSam]

Found this: http://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/57556/how-to-make-full-color-brush-in-photoshop

 

[MrToM]

As far as I can remember its never been possible.

Brushes have always been alpha masks which can only ever be one colour.

The thing that catches people out is that they work the opposite way to what you may expect....you have BLACK where you want solid colour and WHITE where you want it transparent.....grey gives you varying transparency.

I've not known it to be anything else to be honest.

Regards.
MrToM.

 

[colleague]

maybe this plugin is also interesting
http://www.mightydeals.com/deal/superspray.html

 

[Tok Tok]

I need to know this for myself!!! I've never thought that this was possible!!!

Is there anyone who can verify that this was once a capability of Photoshop? Anyone please answer! Is there a way to do this?

No other layers, no other groups, just one brush, one stamp, on any color of background.......

I don't think it is possible as there are no settings to change this nor is there a set of options you can change when the brush is created. I think this is very strange photoshop not having this option... kind of obvious people could need this..

 

[IamSam]

I don't think it is possible as there are no settings to change this nor is there a set of options you can change when the brush is created. I think this is very strange photoshop not having this option... kind of obvious people could need this..

Of course it's is not possible to do with the Brush Tool and a Brush Preset. I'm very glad that MrToM was able to find the mistake made in the tutorial and that you did find a work around.

Good luck with the project and do come back to post the results. We would love to see it!