Another one about brush angle

[Chris Beatrice]

Is there anyway to customize the bar above the working space to include the "angle" field (like the size, opacity, bleed, and resat are automatically there)?

[Jin]

No. We can't customize the Property Bar.

Instead, keep the Brush Controls' Angle palette open to make on the fly adjustments.

Close all other palettes you don't need to use, and save that Palette Layout. Use Window > Arrange Palettes > Save Layout and give your saved Palette Layout an appropriate name.

Now you can use that Palette Layout anytime you're painting with a brush variant that needs to have the Angle palette controls adjusted frequently.


Jinny

[Chris Beatrice]

That sounds great but I don't know exactly what you mean. What is the "Angle palette?" Isn't the Brush Creator the palette? I don't know how to separate the Angle sub-panel from that, to just display it (if that's what you mean), and also not display the scratch pad, etc.

I'm using Painter 8, if that makes a difference.

Thanks again.

[Jin]

Hi Chris,

I'm so sorry. It's hard to remember who's using which Painter version.

Painter 8 doesn't have the Brush Controls palette present in earlier versions as a single palette with multiple sections or the Brush Controls' palettes present in Painter IX that can be docked together or displayed individually.

I guess until you upgrade to Painter IX you're stuck with using Ctrl/Command+B to open the Brush Creator, then open the Angle section of the Stroke Designer tab whenever you want to adjust those controls.

That was a big mistake for Corel to leave out the Brush Controls palettes in Painter 8 and believe me, they heard a lot of hollering from all of us who've been using Painter through several versions. No doubt it's why the Brush Controls palettes are back again in Painter IX. That Brush Creator is a pain in the derriere, the way it interrupts the workflow and separates the artist from his/her work.

Maybe as an alternative, you can:

1. Save several custom variants with the angle controls set differently for each one and naming each custom brush variant to indicate its settings.

2. Create a custom brush category for each custom brush variant using the same name for the custom brush category as was used for the custom brush variant.

3. Copy those custom variants into the appropriate custom brush categories then restore the original brush variants to their default state.

4. After all that's done, you can drag all of the new custom brush categories into a Custom Palette and when you click on one of the custom brush category icons in the Custom Palette, the single custom brush variant it contains is available to use.

It'll take some time to set this up, but once it's done, the rest is easy and fast and you won't have to open the Brush Creator to change the Angle settings for these custom brush variants as they're set already.


Jinny

[Chris Beatrice]

Thanks, that's a great solution to try out. Hopefully I'll be upgrading to Painter IX soon.