Stroke gradient across width?

[Belifant]

I feel it’s not possible in AD, but just to be sure, is there a way I can apply a gradient to the stroke width? I mean, I know I can apply a gradient to the length of a stroke, but can I do it also to the width, so that gradient would follow the path of the stroke? My first thought that it maybe could be done via layer effects, but I couldn’t figure it out. 

[thatGuy]

In current public release you can do this using the outline effect, it's not a stroke however and more limited in regards of handling

[Belifant]

Thanks, but unfortunately, if the path is open ended, to contour follows on both sides

[lepr]

34 minutes ago, Belifant said:

Thanks, but unfortunately, if the path is open ended, to contour follows on both sides

Make the path's stroke extremely thin, like 0.01 pt, and give it the same colour as the last stop of the contour gradient.

[lacerto]

(...)

[G13RL]

If I understood the question correctly, you can create a brush that you then apply to the stroke.

[Belifant]

15 hours ago, anon2 said:

Make the path's stroke extremely thin, like 0.01 pt, and give it the same colour as the last stop of the contour gradient.

That still applies the contour gradient to both sides. 
 

 

14 hours ago, G13RL said:

If I understood the question correctly, you can create a brush that you then apply to the stroke.

I‘ll have to try to make it work with brushes, this is exactly what I’m trying to do, thanks. 

[G13RL]

You're welcome!

[lepr]

1 hour ago, Belifant said:

That still applies the contour gradient to both sides. 

Sorry, I misunderstood the problem.

[Belifant]

48 minutes ago, anon2 said:

Sorry, I misunderstood the problem.

Sorry if I wasn’t clear enough 🙂

[Belifant]

On 10/23/2020 at 7:59 PM, G13RL said:

If I understood the question correctly, you can create a brush that you then apply to the stroke.

sorry I have to come back to this @G13RL, how did you create these? did you create a small bitmap image with the gradient and then used that as a bitmap brush? 

In that case, I assume the gradient cannot be adjusted on the fly, if I needed to change the gradient, I would have to great a new image to use as a brush, correct?

Many thanks. I'm fairly proficient in AD, but haven't used brushes much for the things I do.

[G13RL]

@Belifant, You're right, I created a square with the gradient, I exported this square as a png and created a textured image brush from it.
Unfortunately the gradient itself is no longer modifiable. In the screenshot I attached to my first message, I used four different brushes.

[Belifant]

thank you. Not ideal, but at least a work around.

[GarryP]

You can change the gradient - up to a point - by applying an Adjustment to the layer you have used the brush on.
Again, not ideal, but it might be enough for what you need to do.

[G13RL]

Yes for the colour, but you can't change the position of the points in the gradient, nor can you add or remove any, that's why I said it can't be changed.

[GarryP]

As far as I can tell, Belifant didn’t say how they wanted to change the gradient so I gave them an option if they only wanted to change the colours (again, up to a point), but you are correct that the ‘construction’ of the gradient (gradient stops etc.) which was used to create the brush cannot be changed. I just didn’t want them to think that none of it was changeable at all.

[lacerto]

(...)

[Belifant]

On 10/27/2020 at 7:38 AM, Lagarto said:

For a bit awkward workaround, you could use clipped (halved) contoured outlines in open paths. They might work if you just need on effect and need not draw, and behave differently than brushes used as strokes so they might be useful in closed shapes as well.

 

oh this is actually not half bad, that could be a workable solution, thank you. Just means I'd have to have every curves twice, but that wouldn't be a problem. Thank you.

That leads me to a follow up question though, I assume it is not possible to mask parts of a layer effect, like we can in Photoshop?