Still confused about Vector brushes made with raster files.

[Otto Manuel]

Hi,

 I was considering buying some "Vector" brushes for Affinity Designer, and thought to look up some tutorials about making brushes to compare the value of purchasing a pack versus making a set of my own from scratch.

I was surprised to learn that all the tutorials seem to instruct you to make a png file as the basis for your Vector brush.

This inspired me to take a look at some of the "Vector" brushes in Affinity Designer and zoom in closely, which lead me understand that the brushes I assumed were vector are actually raster and exhibit aliased edges.

Are Affinity's smoother looking "Vector" brushes just based on incredibly high resolution png files? If so what sort of resolution are they using?

Thank you.

 

[Pšenda]

[MEB]

Hi @Otto Manuel,

19 minutes ago, Otto Manuel said:

Are Affinity's smoother looking "Vector" brushes just based on incredibly high resolution png files? If so what sort of resolution are they using?

Yes, they are based on raster images. There's no fixed resolution value, it depends on whoever created the pack. Usually around 2000 px height is enough for high quality artwork. Increasingly higher values may slow down the app/lag while you are painting. 

[Old Bruce]

1 hour ago, Otto Manuel said:

This inspired me to take a look at some of the "Vector" brushes in Affinity Designer ...

The brushes are poorly named. They should be named "Brushes for Vectors".

[Otto Manuel]

Thank you to everybody.

I started making a few engraving brushes, and realized how easy it is to make a brush. I also realized that a very good way to understand the suitability of a brush in a specific circumstance is to have a familiarity with the source files.

I think I will pursue making more brushes that are designed to be contextual to the goals I have.

Thank you!

[Otto Manuel]

Hi,

 FWIW, after trying to make some engraving styled brushes for a particular project I have been working on, I think a learned some basic concepts that I have not seen in the very limited "research" I have conducted while trying to learn about custom brushes.

1) It seems best if you begin making a custom brush with a specific display size in mind. This includes both width and length, as changing the ratio later will create distortions that may not seem desirable.

2) The width should closely match the stroke size you will most often use with the brush.

3) If you use the stretch function, and the brush has distinct shapes like many engraving brushes, the length should closely match the length you will use, or you may employ the repeat function to vary the length without too much shape distortion.

4) Once the basic size is determined, it seems like a good idea to prepare the source file at or about a 4x resolution. In other words if you for see using a brush with an 80pix stroke and a 300pix length, your source file can be sized 320 pix high by 1200 pix wide. This will ensure clean edge rendition when you view a brush that you intend to display with a clean edge.  I tried making the brush source file the same size as I wanted it to appear in the final project and the edge resolution was obviously fuzzy and soft.

 

That's it for now, I imagine there is lots more to learn.