you can fly!?
PTB-Waffles

part 3: Loading an image file straight to Custom Brush
more PD Pro tutorials


Digital Painting has never been
so much fun: Learn to paint with Particle Brushes!


PD Particles - $19

A fun companion for your
digital photo image editor!
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Tutorials:
intro  - in the beginning, there was nothing but a blank sheet of pixels
part 1 - getting started with Twisted Brush Pro Studio
part 2 - Saving the image and alpha channel in a single file
part 3 - Loading an image file straight to PD's Custom Brush
part 4 - Loading two images: color and mask into one
part 5 - Discovering new brushes: Kaleidoscope!
part 6 - Painting into an AVI file to record as animation
part 7 - Mandala brush animation with animated multi-frame brushes
part 8 - The animated Brush Timeline edtor

 

Loading an Image as a Custom Brush
If you've saved an image from Twistedbrush with the alpha channel in the same image file, it's a snap to load it into the Project Dogwaffle custom brush system: Simply use the menu:  Brush > Open...



The procedure is the same so far whether the image file actually contains usable transparency values in the alpha channel or not.

If the image is in PNG format but there's many other image files, you may want to make it easier to find the image file by using a wildcard in the File name field:

and be sure to use Automatic type so it looks not only for Targa files.

Let's first look at an example where the image actually didn't get saved with the alpha channel for transarency masking.

Loading an image without Alpha:

Here's an example with an image of the number 5, which was saved with the background (plain white) and thus without transparency mask in the alpha channel.:



As soon as you've opened the image into the brush, you should store it in a place holder"

  Brush > Store / manage... 


( keyboard shortcut:  "  )

Using the stored brush to paint, for example at 50% opacity, you can tell that there's opaque white background around the blue number 5. Also, it doesn't show the standard checker board pattern that would indicate transarency on the background.

Turning the Brush Background Transparent:

After loading a custom brush, you can change the transparency keying. Instead of using alpha, or if there was no alpha transparency in the first place, simply right-click on the custom brush pickup tool icon. (the square-brackety thing next to the color picker aka turkey baster)

Select a pixel from the background region (white). This will make it key to white for transparency.


Adjust the high pass slider to the max and slightly increase the low clip value. This will reduce or remove the white edges along the borders of the opaque shape.
Now when you paint with it, the blue number 5 is the only opaque part.


Loading an Image with Transparency in Alpha
If the image actually was saved with the alpha, there's no need to re-key the transparency: by default, PD Pro will use the alpha channel to mark the transparent parts of the images as it gets into the custom brush system:


Select a PNG image which has the color and alpha channel, all in one file (32-bit file).


Once again, store this newly loaded brush to manage this new custom brush.

You can immediately use this brush. Use the sliders for scale, rotation angle, and various color or hue/saturation and brightness controls.


Next: part 4 - Loading two images: color and mask into one



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