Post Cryptcrawlers blending brush please

[sharprm]

As far as I know, Photoshop elements 6.0 won't let me customise brushes (other than hardness, spacing, hue jitter face) but will let me import customised brushes.

Cryptcrawler has a DVD (which I can't download unfortunately). However, from the trailer, I have figured out how he does it and brush settings like size and opacity (eg. use impressionist brush to smooth things out). However, using the smudge tool is a big part of the process and it is pretty tedious. I wonder if I am using the wrong brush to smudge with.

I imagine he shows the exact settings for his smudge brush. Could someone please upload it for me? Thx.

Ps. what I have so far in case someone is interested.

[Monsieur]

Why don't you ask Cryptcrawler for the brush? He has several threads in the finished section and is pretty active on the forums. He seems to be a really nice guy.
On a sidenote, I don't think he uses ONE brush. He has lots of textured brushes and goes in with dodge and smudge and all that jazz. If you think the smudge process is tedious, maybe you'll want to look to another artist than Cryptcrawler for inspiration. I saw the download and he spent a hundred hours on that painting. The results are amazing but if there's one message that he tries to deliver it's that you have to be willing to sink lots and lots and lots of time into your work.
One thing I do remember, however, is that he really likes wet edges.

Good luck!

[sharprm]

I asked him before and he said he used default brushes and not custom brushes (but at the time i didn't realise elements might have different brushes). Maybe I'll go pester him again.

[MatejaPetkovic]

I asked him before and he said he used default brushes and not custom brushes (but at the time i didn't realise elements might have different brushes). Maybe I'll go pester him again.

If he said that he use default brushes, then you have to believe him.
Btw i don't know what kind of brushes are in ps elements, but maybe there is some difference, because he use ps

M

[Arshes Nei]

It's very possible he uses default brushes. The reason is, once you go into the advanced brush settings you can do a lot more with them. You can change the jitter, run dual brush, angle and textures through the brush.

[Reedux]

While I don't know EXACTLY what type of brush settings he is using.
I know something that works similarly to his videos.

Regular Hard-Round brush.

Size - off
Scattering:
Scatter: 20-40% (mix and match)
Count: 5-11
Count jitter: Try anything.
Other Dynamics - Pen pressure or off, Test it yourself.

Change brush hardness for different results.

This is very CPU intensive so I suggest you start out with relatively small brushes.
Not bigger than 70pixels.

The lower your scattering settings are, the less CPU intensive it is.
Find what works for you.

The result is something similar to a Corel Painter Blender.

p.s it's also cool to try with many custom brushes and things like Shape and rotation jitter.

[jgwong]

As far as I know, Photoshop elements 6.0 won't let me customise brushes (other than hardness, spacing, hue jitter face) but will let me import customised brushes.

I feel your pain! I own Photoshop Elements 2.0 and not being able to customize brushes is a total downer. The brushes engine is there, tho. You just have to get the right brushes from the web.

I know for sure that brushes of Photoshop 5.0 work with it. You can install a trial version of Photoshop 5.0, create brushes there and then import them on Elements. Do a full set before the 30-day trial expires! Or you can search the web for brushes created with PS5.

I don't have Cryptcrawler's brushes, but here are mine. I have one opacity-set-to-pen-pressure brush which is what I think you're looking for. Hope you find them useful.

http://jgwong.org/dropbox/jgwong-brushes.abr

Maybe one day I'll have enough cash to buy a full version of Photoshop. It's waaaay too expensive. :(

Oh! And check out this page, http://www.hiddenelements.com/elements6_tools.php