Is it all right to create a free to use brush package that have some brushes that are already packaged into Affinity?

[Frozen Death Knight]

I was in the process of wanting to make a free to use brush package of my most used brushes in an attempt to make it easier for other artists to jump into Affinity. However, some of them are from the brush packages already inside Affinity, so I wanted to ask and make sure if it's okay for me to distribute them for free like in the Resources section on these forums.

There are quite a lot of really nice brushes I have come to use in nearly every project, so I felt like taking some of the best ones and distributing them in a more condensed version would be something people would appreciate.

[Dan C]

Hi Frozen Death Knight

Apologies for the delayed response here! I've passed your query through to the team to check if this is something we can allow - in the meantime I'd just like to thank you for taking the time to create a brush pack for our beginners!

Could you please confirm for me, what Categories are these brushes from? Many thanks in advance.

[Frozen Death Knight]

@Dan C Thanks for answering back! I hope people will enjoy it once I am done. : )

The categories I am currently looking at are a couple each from Acrylics, Dry Media, Markers, Watercolours, DAUBs, and Pencils (tried to check all the categories to make sure where they came from). I have picked a small minority from each section, so they are a pretty condensed version of the currently available brushes. The amount of Affinity brushes are somewhere around 20-25 out of 69 in the current version of the brush pack. Most of the brushes are actually handmade that I used to have in Photoshop back in the day and are typical standard brushes with settings that don't require lots of tinkering.

The Affinity brushes in question are there to help adding a bit extra texture to break up the typical monotony of standard digital brushes like the round and square brushes. I would have made them myself if I could create brushes from a canvas selection in Photo, but I have to wait till 1.9 for that since it was a confirmed feature. It just takes too long to do in the current version, which is why I came here to ask about using the built in packages. ^-^

[jmwellborn]

@Frozen Death Knight I may be wrong, but should you be using DAUB brushes in your collection?  Paolo Limoncelli’s beautiful brushes are not Affinity’s, even though some may have been offered at some point as a free addition for purchasers of Affinity.  To include any of them as part of a free download when we now obtain them by purchase would surely be illegal?

[Frozen Death Knight]

3 minutes ago, jmwellborn said:

@Frozen Death Knight I may be wrong, but should you be using DAUB brushes in your collection?  Paolo Limoncelli’s beautiful brushes are not Affinity’s, even though some may have been offered at some point as a free addition for purchasers of Affinity.  To include any of them as part of a free download when we now obtain them by purchase would surely be illegal?

The way I recall it, there were DAUB brushes packaged into Affinity a couple of versions ago. Don't know what exactly happened to those, but I happened to have a couple of them at least. I'd rather get an answer from Serif for confirmation on what is and isn't okay here since they made all the programs and added these brushes. Either way, the DAUB brushes are like 2 or 3 at most and can be easily removed for the final version.

[walt.farrell]

These categories were part of Photo in 1.7, and are being redistributed by Serif as the "Legacy 1.7" brushes for users who missed them after the brush restructuring that occurred for 1.8:

(There are, of course, other DAUB brushes that are not directly part of any Serif product, and must be purchased.)

[Frozen Death Knight]

3 minutes ago, walt.farrell said:

These categories were part of Photo in 1.7, and are being redistributed by Serif as the "Legacy 1.7" brushes for users who missed them after the brush restructuring that occurred for 1.8:

(There are, of course, other DAUB brushes that are not directly part of any Serif product, and must be purchased.)

Yeah, those were the ones I was talking about. Where can I find those again? I remember there was one brush I absolutely loved for sketching but I forgot to add it to my personal collection before everything changed.

[walt.farrell]

1 minute ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Where can I find those again?

https://affinityspotlight.com/article/get-legacy-affinity-brushes/ should have them.

[thomaso]

On 8/25/2020 at 12:49 AM, Frozen Death Knight said:

my most used brushes in an attempt to make it easier for other artists to jump into Affinity. However, some of them are from the brush packages already inside Affinity

I might miss the point but someway it appears odd to offer a brush package which contains already installed brushes, in particular for beginners, which may get confused this way.

[Frozen Death Knight]

14 minutes ago, thomaso said:

I might miss the point but someway it appears odd to offer a brush package which contains already installed brushes, in particular for beginners, which may get confused this way.

Because not all of them are installed brushes and some people prefer to have one list rather than multiple ones (I do wish Affinity had brush folders for additional brush management like in Photoshop however). I don't even use the majority of the brushes packaged into Affinity, so just having a smaller list of the same brushes is a decent starting point without having to manually search every brush category.

Also, many of them are tools specific and some are duplicates because they are used for different purposes. Right now there are 3 Smudge Tool brushes, 2 Sponge Brushes, and 2 Pixel Brushes (for those who like to work with pixel art) just to name a few examples.

[thomaso]

2 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

some people prefer to have one list rather than multiple ones.

Indeed, me too (and I am still confused by the default, pre-installed brushes).

But I was wondering if beginners in particular would just remove / delete all installed and potentially confusing presets and replace them with just the ones you offer - I'm assuming they are more likely to get into even more brushes and confusion simply because they are beginners, not knowing which brush is a duplicate and which may be or become unnecessary.

So just one idea: Instead of offering a download in the resource forum, you could discuss the pre-installed brushes in the feedback forum and in this way achieve an improvement for the default set(s)?

 

[Frozen Death Knight]

11 hours ago, thomaso said:

Indeed, me too (and I am still confused by the default, pre-installed brushes).

But I was wondering if beginners in particular would just remove / delete all installed and potentially confusing presets and replace them with just the ones you offer - I'm assuming they are more likely to get into even more brushes and confusion simply because they are beginners, not knowing which brush is a duplicate and which may be or become unnecessary.

So just one idea: Instead of offering a download in the resource forum, you could discuss the pre-installed brushes in the feedback forum and in this way achieve an improvement for the default set(s)?

 

Well, there are in fact multiple changes I want to see for brush management in Affinity that would help with that:

1) Be able to sort your brush categories. It feels bad having to scroll to the bottom to access your personal and bought brushes. On Windows this is even worse since Affinity does not remember which category was open last time on start-up. However, on Mac this works for some reason.

2) Folders. Being able to sort your brushes into folders with names would make it so easy to manage brushes per tool and purpose.

3) R click for brushes and erasers to access the brush list. More convenient than having the Brushes panel always shown.

4) Affinity needs to remember which brush you picked even after changing your brush size/hardness, etc. Right now the Brushes panel deselects your picked brush after doing something as simple as changing the brush size, so changing that would be much appreciated.

5) Be able to create your own brushes by selecting things on the canvas like in Photoshop, since regardless of what basic brushes you make you will eventually have to make your own for specific effects once you get more advanced. This is however confirmed for 1.9.

I don't think there is much that is inheritenly wrong with the installed brushes with the exceptions being the Basic category with round brushes that have poor defaults, especially the smooth brushes (also it lacks any default square brushes which are a cool addition that Photoshop lacks). If the devs want to take a look at my round brushes settings and recreate them they are free to do so, since they are really only there to help emulate the typical Photoshop experience.

My starter pack is simply meant to make things easier for newcomers that are familiar with Photoshop to jump into Affinity without too many hiccups as well as provide some flavourful tools to add some variety into your paintings. Nothing more, nothing less.

[firstdefence]

As far as I understand it Daubs Brushes licence would stand: https://www.daub-brushes.com/license_agreement.html unless Affinity have purchased all rights to the brushes included in the 1.7 version in which case Affinity T&C would apply but the Daub brushes T&C doesn’t appear to disallow your question.

Quote

1. Scope of permission for use of the brushes

Users can import the brushes, use for their own works, and transmit publicly, upload, distribute, rent, and lease the works created with.

• Users can transmit publicly, upload, distribute, rent, lease artworks created using the brushes.
• Users can use the brushes without a limitation of period and number of times.
• Users can use the brushes for any commercial purposes.
• Users cannot sublicense the brushes.
• Users cannot duplicate/rename/modify the brushes for reselling purposes.
• Users cannot include the brushes (entire sets or even single ones) in their commercial products.

Why not ask Paolo Limoncelli directly? There is a "contact me" link in the T&C link above.

[RNKLN]

An alternative could be to publish a small guide on how to take existing brushes, save them in a new category, andmake some changes. This would newbies give a little insight in how to manipulate brushes as an extra.

[Frozen Death Knight]

59 minutes ago, RNKLN said:

An alternative could be to publish a small guide on how to take existing brushes, save them in a new category, andmake some changes. This would newbies give a little insight in how to manipulate brushes as an extra.

Don't know if I have the time to do that right now. Plus, I would rather do it when 1.9 comes out, since you will then be able to create your custom brushes directly from the canvas. Feels like kind of a waste without that feature in place.

[Frozen Death Knight]

4 hours ago, firstdefence said:

As far as I understand it Daubs Brushes licence would stand: https://www.daub-brushes.com/license_agreement.html unless Affinity have purchased all rights to the brushes included in the 1.7 version in which case Affinity T&C would apply but the Daub brushes T&C doesn’t appear to disallow your question.

Why not ask Paolo Limoncelli directly? There is a "contact me" link in the T&C link above.

Can ask him after I get an answer from the devs if needed. I am in no real hurry to release it, since I might change the contents.

[firstdefence]

3 hours ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

Can ask him after I get an answer from the devs if needed. I am in no real hurry to release it, since I might change the contents.

Agreed, I think it’s always nice to speak to the creator of such things, they are generally very helpful.

[Dan C]

@Frozen Death Knight Thanks for letting me know! This shouldn't be an issue but I'd like to request a copy of the .afbrushes file so I can confirm this with our documentation team to ensure everything is Kosher. Could you please upload this to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/mRNxK5Qsef8eBa1WprNe

[Frozen Death Knight]

16 minutes ago, Dan C said:

@Frozen Death Knight Thanks for letting me know! This shouldn't be an issue but I'd like to request a copy of the .afbrushes file so I can confirm this with our documentation team to ensure everything is Kosher. Could you please upload this to the below link for me?

https://www.dropbox.com/request/mRNxK5Qsef8eBa1WprNe

Great to hear! I uploaded the current version just now. Looking forward to sharing it to the public once everything is in order. ^-^

[Dan C]

Thanks for your file, I've been manually going through this and trying to 'match' brushes to the ones provided within Affinity, however I'm having a hard time identifying which have been copied 'as is' and which have been edited by yourself. Do you know which brushes specifically have been copied from previously provided brushes? My apologies for the slow process here, but I have to involve several different teams when copyright is involved!

[Frozen Death Knight]

30 minutes ago, Dan C said:

Thanks for your file, I've been manually going through this and trying to 'match' brushes to the ones provided within Affinity, however I'm having a hard time identifying which have been copied 'as is' and which have been edited by yourself. Do you know which brushes specifically have been copied from previously provided brushes? My apologies for the slow process here, but I have to involve several different teams when copyright is involved!

Sure, no problem! Well, there is only one brush I have actually changed the name of from the Affinity section and that one was just adding "(Subsurf Scattering)" to the brush name "Scatter Chalk". All other brushes that share the same name as the Affinity versions are completely unaltered from their original brush packages, names and all. All round, square, and soft brushes were made by me. The beginning section and bottom section are of my own creation with a couple in the middle section also being mine. The rest are Affinity brushes.

If you want I could compile all of the Affinity brushes into a single file and separate them from my own collection to make it a bit easier check each of them.

[Dan C]

21 minutes ago, Frozen Death Knight said:

If you want I could compile all of the Affinity brushes into a single file and separate them from my own collection to make it a bit easier check each of them.

That would be amazingly helpful, as it's part of the manual process that I've been doing myself... thanks in advance

[Frozen Death Knight]

1 minute ago, Dan C said:

That would be amazingly helpful, as it's part of the manual process that I've been doing myself... thanks in advance

All right! Will try to send them over later today. Right now busy making dinner. Just give me a Dropbox link and I'll drop them there when I am done. ^^

[Dan C]

I've reopened the previous link for you now  https://www.dropbox.com/request/mRNxK5Qsef8eBa1WprNe

[Frozen Death Knight]

5 hours ago, Dan C said:

I've reopened the previous link for you now  https://www.dropbox.com/request/mRNxK5Qsef8eBa1WprNe

Just uploaded the brushes. Had a friend over, so took a bit longer than originally planned. At least you have them in one place now. ^-^