So anyways get a scan of whatever it is you wanna make a brush out of and open it in photoshop. before you start anything make sure you check the size of the image and be sure both the height and width ARE NO MORE THAN 2500PX. Photoshop will tell you to screw off and not let you save your brush preset if you don't have it that size or less because 2500px by 2500px is the largest brush size you can have (older versions of photoshop are smaller than that but we're not living in the stone age, I'm sure you have at least CS3).
Anyways.
Levels
Once you're sure you've got the right size image go to Image>Adjustments and go to Levels. First off you'll want to move the little arrow to the far right inward a little bit. This is for the highlights. I usually drag it to about 130ish. This will cut out any shadows in the paper that'd ruin your brush. Now go over to the slider thing (I don't even know what those are called) on the far left, and set it how you see fit, depending on your brush it may need more or less. Typically if my scan is already dark I don't set it more than in the 20-30 range. If it's fairly light and needs darkened up a but I move it up to the 50-60 range. The shadows are something you kind of have to judge for yourself based on your scan. There really isn't need to screw with the midtones but if you want to go for it.
Desaturate
Might I add you may want to desaturate (control (command for mac users) +shift+U if you didn't know) just to take any color out. You don't have to since your brush won't be made with any color but I just like to have my scans in greyscale so I have a better idea of what the brush will look like.
Curves
Next up you might want to check the curves in your image. All the stuff I'm going to tell you to check is in Image > Adjustments so just remember that, I don't feel like typing that 3 more times after this. Go to Curves. The bottom left corner is your shadows, the top right is highlights. Sometimes I don't even bother with this but it can help if you need to mess with your shadows and highlights. Clicking on the line will add a point on it you can drag around on the grid, adding one in the shadows towards the bottom left of the grid and dragging downward will darken your shadows, usually for highlights I add the point a bit more than between the middle and top of the line and drag slightly upward and towards the middle. You'll just have to do it by eye since your scan is more than likely going to be completely different than mine.
Contrast
Whatever adjustments you want to make to your image's contrast can be found in Brightness/Contrast. I never mess with brightness when preparing a brush but contrast can sometimes take a bit of adjustment. I never add more than around 35. Fix it as you see fit with your image.
Shadows/Highlights
This obviously is where you can edit your image's shadows and highlights a bit. The way you adjust these can affect how soft or hard the edges of your brush will be I've noticed, especially when you're messing with the highlights. I usually drag Shadows to around 15% and Highlights around 40%, again this is something that you can just adjust to how you see fit, don't use my numbers if they don't work for you, I'm just showing you the tools I use to prep my brushes.
Exposure
WATCH HOW YOU ADJUST THIS STUFF. Like in a camera if you over expose your image it's going to get washed out and look terrible/unusable. Adjusting the exposure a TINY BIT is usually all you need to do. The only thing I ever touch in here is Exposure and Gamma Correction, I don't even bother with Offset. I never go more than +0.90 in exposure, usually even less than that to keep from washing my images out, and no more than around 0.80 in Gamma Correction. Judge it by your eyes. I'm just leading the horse to the water, to hell with making it drink.
Making the brush and brush set
Once you're satisfied with all the adjustments on your brush, go to Edit>Define Brush Preset. Name your brush and you're done. There's no need to use the magic wand tool, eraser or select color range because anything that's white becomes transparent and all those adjustments should make the difference between your medium and the support (aka between your paint and paper or whatever you used) enough to give you a nice, clean brush.
So after you've made some brushes there's the off chance you'll want to be as awesome as me and make a set to share with people, but you don't know how to make the .ABR file to do so. Shut up and let me tell you how to do it jeez. Go to Edit>Preset Manager and Control (command)+Click all the brushes you want to be in the set. If they're all the newest ones clicking on the most recent and Shift+clicking on the first one will work just fine. Once you've got all your brushes selected, click on Save Brush Set, name it whatever you want and save it. That's all there is to it. And these tools aren't confined to making nice brushes, they can be great for editing and cleaning up pictures or scans of drawings too so try to make use of them and get your money (or more likely crack's) worth out of photoshop.
Now then, put all those steps together and multiply by 25, add 1 GB of RAM and one PISSY photoshop and you've got the next 2 hours of my day. Packs 3 and 4 will be up as soon as I get through all that. Enjoy.
No comments:
Post a Comment