Brush Texture// Randomization

[sagramor]

So I had this idea, but was unable to figure out a way to implement it in photoshop. I wanted to paint some decay onto a surface, so I turned a selection of a black and white concrete surface into a pattern. You do this by highlighting the area you would like to select and then go to Select>Save Selection.

The issue I am having is as follows. When I enable a texture on any given brush and then proceed to paint a surface, it patterns the texture in a basic repeated grid, even if you pick up the brush and start painting again. There IS a texture each brush option, but this doesn't achieve the desired effect either.

Does anyone know of a way to randomize the texture for each brush stroke? Would the best way to achieve this to be just create your own brush using the saved selection? I would rather not, as I would have to use the scatter option to preserve the detail.

[Metsys]

It sounds like your textures will need to be seamless or tileable. The quickest way to do that is to copy the area that you want to turn into a selection into it's own document, and then use the Filter > Other > Offset. When you shift the image over you'll start to see those seams (be sure to offset both vertically and horizontally). Then take the stamp tool or whatever and paint over the creases. Don't paint on the edges though because that will cause another seam to appear. You'll need to do the offset at least once more to catch any other seams. When they are gone, then you can define the pattern, and the tiling pattern will be gone.

The other thing you can do is to turn the pattern into a brush tip shape by Edit > Define Brush Preset. Before you do that though you'll have to paint white around the edges so you are not stamping down a bunch of boxed shaped stamps. Then you can scatter and use angle jitter to create a random pattern based on the brush tip shape. There's other options you can use as well to randomize the stamps, like the roundness, size, and scattering.

The texture each tip changes how the repeated texture is applied to each stroke. By default the texture is applied on the entire stroke, but with texture each tip on it blends it with each stamp. It's the same difference between opacity and flow.

[sagramor]

Ok, offsetting the texture works nicely. Still see a little bit of tiling but its a much more acceptable amount and with a little tweaking, i think I can completely get rid of it. Thanks Metsys.

While I have your attention though, I would like to see if I understand texture each tip correctly.

PS Help says: Texture Each Tip Applies the selected texture individually to each brush mark in a brush stroke, rather than to the brush stroke as a whole (a brush stroke is made up of many brush marks, applied continuously as you drag the brush). You must select this option to make the Depth variance options available.

Basically what this means is you can have some sort of opacity jitter applied to the texture, right?

[Metsys]

I've attached an image that shows the difference between textured each tip and normal, and what depth does. Both lines are continuous strokes. I've spaced the tips out so you can clearly see what happens when the tips overlap.

The Depth is how strong the texture is. If the depth is at 0% then it's as if the texture is turned off completely. When you turn Texture Each Tip on, it's now possible to jitter the Depth because now the texture calculation has moved to the brush tip level.

Here's what's going on under the hood in Photoshop when you use textures with brushes:

1: Draw brush tip (Flow sets the opacity of the brush tip). 2. Repeat step 1 while you draw and then merge into a single stroke "layer". 3: Apply texture to stroke as if it was a layer mask (Depth defines how strong the texture is). 4: Opacity sets the opacity of the entire stroke.

With texture each tip on you change the order in which the texture is applied in this sequence:

1: Draw brush tip (Flow sets the opacity of the brush tip). 2: Apply texture to each brush tip (Depth defines how strong the texture is). 3. Repeat steps 1-2 while you draw and then merge into a single stroke "layer". 4: Opacity sets the opacity of the entire stroke.

So that's what is going on.

I've never used Depth jitter in any of my brushes. If you paint over an area long enough the effect of the randomness caused by the depth jitter would be gone anyway, so it's really only useful for lines that you want to have look broken. What would be more useful is if you could randomize the position of the texture instead of just how much influence it had, then it might be more useful. But that's what we use angle jitter and scatter for in brush tips.

[sagramor]

What would be more useful is if you could randomize the position of the texture instead of just how much influence it had, then it might be more useful. But that's what we use angle jitter and scatter for in brush tips.

Yeah.. I always wished it was easier to runs scripts in photoshop for such a result. Thanks for the screenshot, makes perfect sense now.