[Designer] Brush creation for stitch spacing

[jordanf]

Hi there, 

I have been teaching myself designer in order to create my own template/patterns for leatherworking (wallets etc), and am wanting to create some custom brushes to mark out stitching spacing along my stitch lines. Similar to what this reddit user has done here in illustrator.

I started by taking the above users .ai file and opening it in photoshop. I am using the 4mm stitching line and thought I would try create a repeating brush by saving an 8mm section with two stitches as a png as below and importing it as a new 'textured intensity brush'.

However I am having trouble getting it to conform to its original spacing of 4mm between each stitch. Is there an easy way to make it conform to 4mm spacing each time? Any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

Thanks in advance

Edited October 4, 2019 by jordanf
clarifying designer in title.

[jordanf]

Anyone? (cheeky bump)

[Wosven]

Hi @jordanf ,

If You want different spacing between "/", the best way is to export only one "/" and play with the spacing parameter of a repeating brush:

 

I played with those to create brushes with approximate spacing for 300 DPI document.

stiches_tests.afbrushes

[jordanf]

Thank you so much @Wosven

Thats a good idea  

However I am having trouble importing the brush you attached for some reason - getting an 'unexpected brush format' error.

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by jordanf

[R C-R]

1 hour ago, jordanf said:

However I am having trouble importing the brush you attached for some reason - getting an 'unexpected brush format' error.

I get the same error on my Mac. 

[jordanf]

Also @Wosven, after trying and trying i still havent managed to get it to work

[Wosven]

Strange, but the brushes exported from the Bêta can't be imported in the regular AD.

Try creating vector brushes with the option "New Textured Intensity Brush". The "New Textured Image Brush" will paint the image (black slash on a white bachkground), and is more usefull for real images to paint patterns.

With transparent background:

Here some versions made with non Bêta AD: (You'll have to adjust the spacing, and it's easier with the vector brushes since you can set it in pixels, than with the pixels brushes in percents. Perhaps for those using 2 slashes images would be better).

Brushes_stitches2.afbrushes

stitches_pixels_tests2.afbrushes

Try to use inverted (white slash on black background) images  for vector brushes, or black slash on transparent background for pixel brushes (New Intensity Brush option).

On the brush panel, if the brush is a white pattern, you'll be able to use a colour when painting. If it's a black pattern, it'll paint in black (black pattern on white: it'll paint this black pattern on white).

 

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Wosven said:

Strange, but the brushes exported from the Bêta can't be imported in the regular AD.

I am guessing you created the file using the new Windows 1.8 beta, yes? I don't see anything on the 'Fixes' list that would suggest a new & backwards incompatible .afbrushes format but maybe it is an unlisted fix/improvement that causes this.

Anyway, since there is as yet no Mac 1.8 beta I guess that is why I got the 'unexpected brush format' error.'

[Wosven]

4 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I am guessing you created the file using the new Windows 1.8 beta, yes?

Yes, and like you, I didn't read about modifying them, and until now it was possible to importe Beta brushes to regular app. I've got the same error tryingto import in the regular app.

And I had a bug creating some of them: I couldn't apply "repeat" instead of stretch with some PNG images exported from AD.

[jordanf]

21 hours ago, Wosven said:

Here some versions made with non Bêta AD: (You'll have to adjust the spacing, and it's easier with the vector brushes since you can set it in pixels, than with the pixels brushes in percents. Perhaps for those using 2 slashes images would be better).

Brushes_stitches2.afbrushes

stitches_pixels_tests2.afbrushes

 

Thanks again for your continued help @Wosven however as much as I try I cant seem to manage to get the brush to space evenly at 4mm. Maybe I am just missing something... Did you manage to space them so they dont drift further and further apart?

Is it because the / is angled that it stops the pattern from repeating consistently?

Would it be easier if it was just a line with dots 4mm apart? 

[Wosven]

On 10/7/2019 at 8:11 AM, jordanf said:

Is it because the / is angled that it stops the pattern from repeating consistently?

Would it be easier if it was just a line with dots 4mm apart? 

I don't think it's the angle, and you can try with more than 1 slash. But the problem will remain: at some point they'll need to repeat with the same amount of space between repetition.

[Dazzler]

Hmmm this seems to highlight a problem (I'd call it a bug?) with the way the brushes are working. I've made a test brush as a PNG, in a similar way at an exact pixel dimension, and exported it (it's 200 pixels height). So I then bring this in as an intensity brush with a width of 200px to match the height of the exported brush image. Things aren't looking too bad, but with just a two point line you can see a problem - if you grab the node tool and slowly drag one end of the line out to make it longer you'll notice that the brush gets stretched, until it reaches a certain length, then it snaps back to allow another repetition to creep in, which then looks squashed. So rather than just extending the brush pattern and repeating it's actually affecting the brush right back up the path. This seems wrong to me - I think there's an issue with the maths in there somewhere. I can only imagine what a nightmare this is to program, but ultimately the brush should IMHO run consistently from the start point and be aligned with the length of the line, so when working on the end of the path it doesn't affect the beginning of the path. Affecting the brush width should really be the only thing that has an affect on the pattern position along the entire length of the path. Also, if my line is the exact length of my original brush graphic and has a brush width that matches the height of the orginal graphic, I'd expect it to align perfectly - it doesn't even come close.

Edit: I've reported this as a bug. I have discovered that using Butt Cap on the stroke makes it align perfectly with the original so long as it is the same length, but upon pulling out the end node it still stretches the brush rather than repeating it as I think it should.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Dazzler
further info

[Ramsesm]

On 10/4/2019 at 7:53 PM, jordanf said:

Jordan, did you ever get this to work? 
 

Looking for exactly the same brush.

 

[jordanf]

On 11/30/2020 at 12:52 PM, Ramsesm said:

 

I didnt unfortunately :/

I ended up mucking around with it and trying a bunch of things but never found a solution that worked.