Tips on using some of Deviney's Brushes.
Kev914
Posts: 1,115
I have quite a few, but I am looking on some tips on using some of the water brushes and the broken glass.
For the water brushes, do you set the color to white? Do you have to then paint some highlights and transparancy? I was going to do this, but when I control clicked to create a mask, it looked like the selection was smaller than what I expected it to be. Does photoshop have a preserve transparancy like Painter does? Do you need to paint (click I assume as some of the bruses are quite large) on the same layer as the water or on a separate layer. (I was trying a separate layer.) Or should I be doing something different?
Likewise with the broken glass. I have a background layer and a second layer with my figure and a mask. I wanted to use the brush that looked like the glass had been broken with a rock. (Hole in the middle.) I created a new layer. I tried some dark colors and some light colors and then clicked where the hole should be. Only the dark colors really showed up. But the center was dark too. I would have thought the center would have remainded clear, as that is where the glass has fallen out. So I obviously don't have the concept down right.
Thanks.
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Comments
Can you show pics? Usually just using a white brush on a separate layer works...
For the glass I often use gray but you can experiment with layer effect styles. Some of the water or ice ones might work. I find a good thing to do is use layers in Photoshop. You want glass to look real so if it breaks some will be in front and behind the figure using canvas or a separate layer with the character in front will give this illusion of depth.
I just experiment.. using lots of layers and colours, I also apply shadows and styles .. I just go crazy sometimes!
so, experiment with all of Ron's brushes and see what happens
A few things that haven't been mentioned yet are that some brushes work best when you experiment with different blending modes (typically Screen, Multiply, Color Dodge/Burn, Linear Dodge/Burn, Overlay, and Soft Light); duplicating your brush layer a few times can result in a stronger effect (works well with building up the effect for things like glass when using Multiply or flames when using Color Dodge, for example). Also, tweaking the layer effect's Blend If sliders can make a huge difference...just be sure to use Alt/Option to split the triangular control handles to get smooth transitions.
...fortunately the recent versions of Gimp support .abr brushes. This is a huge plus for those who don't have PS. Still cannot use the backgrounds though.
Used on top of a Bryce seascape. (I suppose would work the same in a seascape done in another program as well.
This penguin shower was made use Ron's Water brushes, 18 different layers for the water and all I used was white, drop shadows and layer opacity.
dA link for full size http://itiseyemeeszark.deviantart.com/art/Form-an-orderly-queue-please-528637971
Nicely done, Szark!
Thanks it did take me a while to test different approaches but this was by far the best looking. Oh I think I may have put a couple of the water layer a mid light grey to add a little variation.
Thank you, Pete. I struggle with post effects...perhaps I am overthinking it
My pleasure. Many do, I did at first but for me slowly building effects up on top of each other works. It takes time but I soon zone out and get a flow going. Don't be scared of whipping out the eraser on a low opacity and remove parts of the brush stroke. I did with this. Removed parts, flipped, duplicate, moe and rotate. Doing each brush stroke on one layer helps to keep control of the effect.
I learnt this by doing, playing to see what I could do. I am not an expert but so far it has done the job.
...nice.
Thanks, all.
I think I figured how to do the bullet hole (or rock through the window). There was a brush that had cracks around a hole. I added a layer and then added a layer mask and painted the brush stroke (actually clicked several times in the same place) on the layer mask. Then I tried different colors, opacities and blend settings. Now I think I need to paint "accents" on the glass, ie, reflection etc., so the glass looks more like glass. I'll look and see if there are any tutorials on youtube for paint glass in Photoshop.
Just wondering...in Chohole's picture and Szark's picture some of the foam and splash is somewhat horizontal, but all the brushes I've tried are vertical. Is there a way to rotate and squash the brush? Or did you use that tool. Can't remember it's name, but you get these squared that you can pull around and deform what's on the layer.
Also, I was wondering...do you need to be careful of how many brushes you load into the brush library? Will loading too many make Photoshop slow, or anything?
Thanks again.
Very interesting image @stezza. I need to learn to do things like that. I guess I've sort of a realist. If I paint a bowl, I always wanted it to look like a bowl. But maybe I need to just cut loose and let what ever comes out of the brush come out.
You can adjust the rotation and width of any brush by going to the Brush panel (Window > Brush) and adjusting the Angle and Roundness parameters. Of course, you can always tweak your paint layer afterward using any combination of Transforms (that's where those little square transform handles come in). Using Warp gives you some great manipulation options to conform your paint layer to complex shapes.
Loading a lot of brushes can affect performance in Photoshop.You can create any combination of brush sets and load them in as you need them, switching between sets as often as you like. You can even combine your most frequently used brushes into one set.
1: I put all Ron's Brushes in a separate folder on my HDD and load them from there.
2: I don't use the rotate brush. I just paint one brush stroke or stamp on on Photoshop Layer and then rotate, rezise etc.
I've created a few mixed sets for particular purposes that span multiple creators, but, in general, I also prefer to keep mine organized by vendor.
And that's the beauty of PS...there's always at least 3 ways to do something. :-) In all honesty, I tend to use brush rotation more when using the Clone Stamp, but there are certain instances where I prefer to rotate basic brushes rather than rotating the layer after the fact. One such instance is when I apply a brush stroke along a path and want the brush shape to remain constant at a specific angle. For sure, if you are using a brush like smoke, water, fire, etc. and stamping a single instance of it on the canvas it is way more intuitive (and faster) to rotate the layer after putting down the paint!
Oh cloning is way different yes...then brush dynmaincs come in to play. I had Photoshop Elements for about 3 years before getting in the 3D (Bryce and DS) and I pretty much pulled the software apart doing all sorts of things, mainly photo manipulation etc. Now that I got hold of CS2 when they were giving it away I find it better and easier to exapnd the functons I use. I'll probbaly get the new Photoshop Elements soon as it has had Masking for a few years now. Mine never had it.
Taking of smoke...did this with Ron's Smoke Brushes in Photoshop Elements 6 some years ago.
That's a nice effect with the smoke, Szark! And the skin texture on your subject is pretty amazing, especially considering you rendered this six years ago.
LOL Thanks that was Photoshop Elements 6......some years ago. November 2011 is when I finished it.
Yes, that's a very nice image, Szark. It even looks like the smoke is coming out of his mouth.
Does Photoshop Elements have the ability to make normal maps?
When I bought Photoshop CS6, I bought the regular version. I wish I had bought the extend version now. I would like to buy the latest version, but they don't sell it. I bought every update since version 4, but now I can't buy the newest version. And I don't like the idea of renting it for 2 years, and then I decided not to keep it and then I can't even use the program anymore.
And @stezza, when I said this...
Very interesting image @stezza. I need to learn to do things like that. I guess I've sort of a realist. If I paint a bowl, I always wanted it to look like a bowl. But maybe I need to just cut loose and let what ever comes out of the brush come out.
I just wanted to clarify...I was referring to the background which is very busy with smoke and explosions, and even a banana. I have never tried anything like that, but I will.
As far as I know PSE didn't do Normal maps. I use GIMP and http://registry.gimp.org/node/69 to make Normal Maps from Grayscale bump map. Not always prefect as some manipulation may be need on the grayscale map before converting into a Normal Map. It isn't a one hit wonder but works quite well. I have also noticed in Iray that mesh resolution or should I say small polys, plays a part in good normal map feedback when rendering.
I have read that this GIMP plug-in does Nvidia standard Normal Maps using the Sobel format. Invert on the Y to when converting. I have tried other plug-ins like the Nvidia one for Photoshop but for me it takes more work on getting the grayscale map ready for converting in that plug-in.
What generally has to be done to the grayscale map before converting, Szark?
Levels, Contrast and Brightness are the main 3 I use. But the great thing with Iray is that we have control of how strong the Normal Map effect is. In 3DL we haven't, well not with the shaders we have by default, like Uber Surface. So with this control most quality bump maps convert ok in that GIMP plug-in using Sobel 3 x 3 and Y invert. You do enough of them you soon get the idea. Black down White up etc. The other plug-ins I have tried seem to convert the same maps at a lower level of effect. I would surmise it reads the grayscale differently.
For my Iray renders I am always making Normal maps from Bumps, if the subject matter is close to the camera. I find it catches the light better. I would prefer to use Displacement but these are the next best thing to proper mesh based baked Normal Maps.
Thank you kyoto kid