Help smooth my lines!

[Aric]

It doesn't seem possible to draw a smooth line in Photoshop. I happen to know that I am capable of drawing a line that is not shaky and inconsistent. But in photo shop it's always wobbley and I can't seem to perfectly connect one line to another. I guess you have to draw lightning fast swoops, and it doesn't turn out quite as shaky looking?
So I've drawn many illustrations with lightning fast swoops, and they are still too shaky looking for my tastes. Can I smooth these lines? I heard you can "line trace" in illustrator. Does that mean illustrator can re-trace the lines so that I have more control of them? ANY way that I can smooth my PS CS3 lines in ANY program would be appreciated.

[Fiori]

On your brush menu (brush tip shape) , reduce spacing to something like 5 or below to get a smooth line. It will slow down your system more when drawing but your lines will be more consistent :)

[Aric]

I'm trying very hard to find this spacing option. The only place I can find it is in "dual brushes" (whatever that is) and it appears to do nothing. Searching has come up with no results.
I should mention that I CAN draw smooth lines with a smaller canvas, but I HAVE to draw at this certain, larger size. In this case the lines are very shaky and slow. They also don't look like those varied paint strokes I get w/ a smaller canvas. Just one size line that is shaky and slow. Is there any way to convert these finished drawings to vectors so I have control over these lines. then I can change the brush type in Illustrator, for example.

[Fiori]

Go to Window:- Brushes - and at the top under brush presets there should be brush tip shape (its the one without any lock next to it) and at the buttom of that menu there should be spacing which can be changed from 0-100. Im using CS2 so perhaps they may have moved it for CS3, but im sure it would be somewhere under the brush menu

[Metsys]

Wobbly lines are a very common problem for people using a tablet, so you are certainly not alone. The hand-eye coordination with a tablet is different than using pencil and paper and so it's more difficult to be accurate with it. A tablet may not be the best thing for doing sketches or line art, but using it for putting color down (i.e. painting) a tablet is a real time saver, and you don't have to be too accurate with it for that.

And remember that you don't have to use Photoshop for everything; just use it for what it's best at. It is nice to be able to do the whole process digitally, but it's not necessary. If you are doing line art, which seems to be the case, there's nothing wrong with sticking to good old fashioned ink brushes. In fact the nice thing about using an ink brush is that the bristles act as a suspension system between the paper and the brush handle so smother curves are easier to make.

Anyway, with enough practice you'll become more accurate with the tablet. You just have to get used to it. For my previous projects I'd do my sketching and inking outside of Photoshop and then scan in for painting within Photoshop. But for my personal projects, where time wasn't an issue, I'd try to do the sketching and inking process in Photoshop to train myself up. Now I've gotten to the point where I can do the whole process within Photoshop and feel pretty comfortable with it, but even with years of experience using a tablet it doesn't hold a candle to using a Cintiq, and it's all because of the hand-eye coordination.

For the most part my lines are pretty soft because I've gotten used to the fact that there's some things that Photoshop and a tablet just don't do as well for me. So when I do line drawings I'll slowly sculpt them, getting thicker and thicker while erasing stray lines. Alternately, I'll do a stroke, undo, stroke, undo, repeat about a dozen times until I get the right stroke and then move on. I've gotten better at it, to the point that using Photoshop to sketch and being able to move characters around, rotate body parts or other fancy editing tricks, and not needing to scan the artwork has offset the need for me to use pencil and paper to get stuff done quickly (not to mention that I don't have a drawing table anymore).

Now I don't do comic book style inking very much, but when I do I use calligraphic brushes in Illustrator.

Again, use your tablet and software for what it's best at and use something else when it doesn't get the job done. Do what gives you the best and fastest results. And keep on practicing.

[frog from itchy]

It's very hard to draw decent lined in Photoshop, I've never managed it in years of trying.

Painter and Illustrator both offer much better control, although I personally prefer Painter because the lines are little less perfect than the ones in Illustrator. Both programs offer options for damping the tablet jitters which cause the shaky strokes in Photoshop.

I have a very detailed article that explains all of the options here:

http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/lines.htm

[J Wilson]

Agreed with the above: Do it outside of Photoshop, either in Painter or on paper and scan it in.

[tw1tchy]

advertising or some crap

Can a mod please ban this man?

He has 8 posts, all the same.

He was made to advertise. :davi: