reuse brush nozzle for new or sub brushes - Affinity Photo

[z.liu]

Hello everyone,

is it possible to find and add an existing brush nozzle in affinity photo to a brush?  

[firstdefence]

There is no folder that is accessible with the brush textures in them, you can see them in the brushes Panel under the texture tab. There may be more than one texture and it is possible to get the textures, but, before you think about dismantling the brushes, it may breach copyright laws so I'd ask if this is allowable.

 

[z.liu]

@firstdefence thanks for the reply. That is a possible question to ask, and it does occur to me.  But what I mean is to reuse them inside the program. For example, procreate photoshop and Krita let you choose a existing brush tip from a in-programm library, when you modify a brush. But when I klick "Add" to add a second brush tip or a sub brush, Affinity doesn't show me the library of the existing brush tips, but sends me directly to Finder(Mac). Does affinity have a more strict copyright arrangement with their brush artists? 

If it is not possible to reuse them, it is a waste of resources in my opinion. But I don't think it is a deal breaker though.

[StuartRc]

Hi
 

Not a perfect solution.... but this may help you go some way to what you are trying to achieve...

You can drag/drop pre-existing brushes between brushes in same category or other categories!...So just drag an existing brush onto subcategory panel!

[Ray S.]

Hi z.liu,

you can duplicate a brush and then modify it to your taste. 

[z.liu]

10 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

Hi
 

Not a perfect solution.... but this may help you go some way to what you are trying to achieve...

You can drag/drop pre-existing brushes between brushes in same category or other categories!...So just drag an existing brush onto subcategory panel!

@StuartRcI have just tried it. I can add sub brushes this way, but sadly not nozzles. But thanks.

12 minutes ago, Ray S. said:

Hi z.liu,

you can duplicate a brush and then modify it to your taste. 

Hi @Ray S., that's not what I meant. What I am trying to do is adding a brush nozzle to an another, or replacing it. Kinda like this:

[firstdefence]

To be honest I find the sub-brush tab to be a bit misleading, you can add another "image texture" to the brush but I'm not altogether getting the reason it's there. For me it doesn't really make much sense.

You could stamp out the brush with a single click, or at least sample the nozzles and add as a texture.

[StuartRc]

I understand your query now...Don't think you can do that!...nice idea to be able to transfer existing nozzles from one brush to another

If you have your own nozzle sets (brushes).. Surely it would not be a problem..

[StuartRc]

9 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

To be honest I find the sub-brush tab to be a bit misleading, you can add another "image texture" to the brush but I'm not altogether getting the reason it's there. For me it doesn't really make much sense.

You could stamp out the brush with a single click, or at least sample the nozzles and add as a texture.

Yeah!....I have wondered the significance of the base texture in the sub-brush for sometime..! I tried using it but the parent brush seems to have all the control!... However... there is a lot you can do with the sub brushes

[firstdefence]

Correct you can do what you like with your own brushes.

1. Select a brush and duplicate it twice
2. Duplicates are added to the bottom of the brush category list.
3. Open the first duplicate brush and go to the texture tab - for the sake of ease lets say there are two textures.
4. Delete one of the textures
5. go to the dynamics tab and zero all the dynamics
6. Resize the brush to the size you want and single click, you now have the first texture
7. Do the same with the second duplicate and stamp out the other texture
8. You can now export these as png files to use as textures in other brushes

 

[firstdefence]

I think the brushes need a good ole rework, maybe ask the artists what they would like/want and see what they come up with.

[z.liu]

3 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Correct you can do what you like with your own brushes.

1. Select a brush and duplicate it twice
2. Duplicates are added to the bottom of the brush category list.
3. Open the first duplicate brush and go to the texture tab - for the sake of ease lets say there are two textures.
4. Delete one of the textures
5. go to the dynamics tab and zero all the dynamics
6. Resize the brush to the size you want and single click, you now have the first texture
7. Do the same with the second duplicate and stamp out the other texture
8. You can now export these as png files to use as textures in other brushes

 

A very helpful idea! It doesn't make trying things out much quicker, but it is applicable cross different programms. Nice! Thanks!

[StuartRc]

9 minutes ago, firstdefence said:

Correct you can do what you like with your own brushes.

1. Select a brush and duplicate it twice
2. Duplicates are added to the bottom of the brush category list.
3. Open the first duplicate brush and go to the texture tab - for the sake of ease lets say there are two textures.
4. Delete one of the textures
5. go to the dynamics tab and zero all the dynamics
6. Resize the brush to the size you want and single click, you now have the first texture
7. Do the same with the second duplicate and stamp out the other texture
8. You can now export these as png files to use as textures in other brushes

 

It is much easier if you have your own nozzles...( I must have 1000's now!)...

I have used that technique a few times...to create a stamp of an old brush so I could redraw it!...as the early brushes created were mostly raster...but later learnt the error of my ways and create all nozzles as vectors including, the base textures in the the first instance=much more flexible, better nozzle quality... and easier to modify when you find it is not working!

[firstdefence]

14 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

It is much easier if you have your own nozzles...( I must have 1000's now!)...

I have used that technique a few times...to create a stamp of an old brush so I could redraw it!...as the early brushes created were mostly raster...but later learnt the error of my ways and create all nozzles as vectors including, the base textures in the the first instance=much more flexible, better nozzle quality... and easier to modify when you find it is not working!

Yes and you make some cracking (means very good, top shelf, excellent) brushes.

[StuartRc]

Just now, firstdefence said:

Yes and you make some cracking (means very good, top shelf, excellent) brushes.

Thanks!...Use the same term in Yorkshire!
It has taken some time to 'evolve' the brushes...been updating some of them steadily!

Maybe give some direction to the the resources section!..hadn't really given any thought to including some nozzles...there are some resources for the base textures but that is 3 years old now!..

You can achieve a lot with a small number of nozzles and just adjust the dynamics
 

[Alfred]

4 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

Use the same term in Yorkshire!

When did Cheltenham move to Yorkshire?  (Asking on behalf of a native of Sheffield!)

[z.liu]

16 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

It is much easier if you have your own nozzles...( I must have 1000's now!)...

I have used that technique a few times...to create a stamp of an old brush so I could redraw it!...as the early brushes created were mostly raster...but later learnt the error of my ways and create all nozzles as vectors including, the base textures in the the first instance=much more flexible, better nozzle quality... and easier to modify when you find it is not working!

I am relatively new to this stuff. But I would assume, after saving the nozzles stamps and/or textures as png files, you could convert them to vector graph, right? I mean, if I like a brush, it's a pity to throw them away. If I can make them my own, it would be awesome. Could you perhaps show me the basic steps, how to do this? I will search for tutorial by myself.

[StuartRc]

Just now, Alfred said:

When did Cheltenham move to Yorkshire?  (Asking on behalf of a native of Sheffield!)

I wondered if some would pick up on that!...I just live here but from Leeds

[firstdefence]

Aye happen as much as mebe love. lol!

I have a customer from Sheffield, Peter and he's always calling me "My love" bless little cottons.

[StuartRc]

34 minutes ago, z.liu said:

I am relatively new to this stuff. But I would assume, after saving the nozzles stamps and/or textures as png files, you could convert them to vector graph, right? I mean, if I like a brush, it's a pity to throw them away. If I can make them my own, it would be awesome. Could you perhaps show me the basic steps, how to do this? I will search for tutorial by myself.

hi,

When I first started I just used to create brushes by  'drawing/painting' shapes (bitmap/raster) [Nozzles] onto a predefined grid. Then exporting as .png. Over time I realised it was much more efficient to draw the shapes as vector and export to .png. So you do not need to convert to vector as they are now already vector!

I use a lot of the shapes and patterns in vector drawings....for adding texture to shapes with vector rather than painting with a brush!

I started to write up a lot of the work but have not completed it.. The 'sister' tutorial for 'vector' brushes is here
There are are some nozzles you could try here! as well

Nozzles
The process for nozzles is pretty simple
Set up file (with required grid) and export slices. (Mine is quite simple! the 20x 200x200px rectangles)
Export as .png
Nozzles are built using vector shapes (black usually) but can use greyscale or colour!
Base Textures
For base textures I just use a 'symbol' containing a single rectangle into which the repeating pattern is placed and exported same way (size and resolution varies) There is some information on how to do this here
and samples of the results here
If you want to experiment there are some simple base textures here

basically you set up a seamless pattern using a symbol to you can test the result!

[z.liu]

4 minutes ago, StuartRc said:

hi,

When I first started I just used to create brushes by  'drawing/painting' shapes (bitmap/raster) [Nozzles] onto a predefined grid. Then exporting as .png. Over time I realised it was much more efficient to draw the shapes as vector and export to .png. So you do not need to convert to vector as they are now already vector!

I use a lot of the shapes and patterns in vector drawings....for adding texture to shapes with vector rather than painting with a brush!

I started started to write up a lot of the work but have not completed it.. The 'sister' tutorial for 'vector' brushes is here
There are are some nozzles you could try here! as well

The process for nozzles is pretty simple
Set up file (with required grid) and export slices. (Mine is quite simple! the 20x 200x200px rectangles)
Export as .png
Nozzles are built using vector shapes (black usually) but can use greyscale or colour!
For base textures I just use a 'symbol' containing a single rectangle into which the repeating pattern is placed and exported same way (size and resolution varies) There is some information on how to do this here
and samples of the results here

basically you set up a seamless pattern using a symbol to you can test the result!

Thank you very much!