A perfect blender?

[Blue]

Hey all.

I've been doing a lot of painting in painter lately and have every brush i use perfectly tweaked how i like it. One thing has been eluding me, however. I am struggling to create or find a blending tool which would allow me to make smooth transitions in skin tone.

Basically i need a blender to clean up my brush. If you click the link in my sig you can see an example of a girl whose skin i am having trouble smoothing out. Its "almost" there, but if you look carefully you see the edge of the brush strokes. Basically, i want a transition a lot like this (http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65655).

Thanks guys! :teeth:

[nafa]

Have you tried Robert Chang's Bleed/Resaturation trick? His skin rendering is ultra smooth. Links here:

http://www.ethereality.info/ethereality_website/goodies/painter-goodies/painter-tips_tricks.htm

[Blue]

Great link, Nafa! I applied this to "Tinting: Blending Bristine 10" brush and i think i may have made an acceptable tool. I will need to tweek a lot more, but i think i may be onto something here.

Gracias! This has been annoying me for far too long! :)

[rogfa]

I use a setting that Chris Beatrice uses. It mimics how I would paint in real life, Press hard to put down a dark stroke, press lightly to blend. He goes into detail on his tutorials (LINK (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=2959&page=))

But I also use Robert Chang's setting too (not his brushes though). Set any brush to 0% resat and bleed any value higher than that. Blend away.

[Helzon]

Hey Blue, if you look at Alien1452's posts..he/she :shrug: mentions that they use the Simple Water brush out of the Digital Watercolor folder, etc....my guess and this is just an off the top of my noggin would be perhaps somewhere in that family of blenders or some tweaked version of said blenders. Perhaps a place to start. Good luck man. Alien's talent is in-friggin-credible.

Edit: on another note..it may be the process that achieves this end..and perhaps not a blender...again..just speculation.

[Blue]

Alien uses painter 6, i'm using painter 9 so i can't find the precise brush. But i am sure you are 100% right as it is a process to which he achieves these perfect blends. Right now I am using delicate pressure with the tinting brush "basic round" to do my coloring/blending, but i can't get a perfect blend. Tweaking the blending bristle has help correct rough areas but.. well Alien is in a whole other league.

What i would give to watch him do one of these paintings from start to finish.... :)

[Helzon]

What i would give to watch him do one of these paintings from start to finish.... :)


You and me both bro. You and me both.

[Helzon]

Ok...I fiddled around and came up with something interesting...maybe not perfect..because perhaps Alien has tweaked the brushes but ...if you
lay down a desaturated mid tone of red kind of a dusky pink....set the brush "New Simple Water" big, low opacity 9%, dried the layer,..then came back in shifted the color to a H43, S41, V23 and with a very low strength, but very large glow brush...very light touch started to glow the area around the highest elevation of the object,....lo and behold...the area gets some really cool transitions and if you notice any glaring marks...just go back in and hit them with a "Just Add Water" Blender, large, low opacity, low bleed, light pressure. See if it works for you..if not..then I'll post some pics of what I got.

[Blue]

That is a bit rough to follow Helzon. Can you go into some detail?

[Helzon]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/Helzon/Alienprocess.jpg
Alrighty; The things you'll need:
Brushes:
Simple Water Brush
Glow Brush
Just Add Water Blender
(Alien1452's talent and patience...because there are so many ways to F this up it isn't funny.)
Step 1:With your Simple Water Brush, set it large, high opacity and lay your flat color in.
Step 2: Goto Layers>Dry Digital Water Color; do so.
Step 3: Shift the hue, and also the value toward the lower desaturated end. Then take your glow brush; set that large, low strength. And with very gentle pressure start glowing the area that will be receiving the most light.
Step 4: As you start to see the area lighten...shift the hue toward the warmer light, you'll notice that the orange starts to play in the yellows. Also in this step if you need to...make the brush smaller, but make sure the strength stays low. Keep the yellows up toward the top and nearest the high hot white which will be tiny. For that...slide the glow brush down to a small size and ratchet up the strength...the already yellow area will burn out quickly to high white.
Step 5:Now for the final step...take the Just Add Water Blender which mine is set at 84.8 with an opacity of 9% and start to blend away any inconsistencies until your eye can no longer differentiate the transitions in hue. If you need to..go back with your glow brush and hit the high hot white again to really make it pop.

I hope this is a bit more cogent, though I still think there are parts of Alien1452's process I have probably missed. But hope this gets you in the ballpark.
Cheers!

[Hyperion]

Quick simple pair of questions here hehe

Who is this Alien1452?
Were is this technique he used displayed - what post/tutorial?

Cheers heh :)

Hyperion

[Helzon]

1)Whoever Alien1452 is.... he's a titan in my opinion, search his name in the "Search" box at the top of this site, then click on one of the links he has in his signature. Do be warned; have a sturdy pair of drawers on.
2)Above is merely the approximation of the technique he uses...you would have to ask him quite pointedly what brushes he uses and how he uses them.
If I suggested that this is the definitive technique he uses...then I apologize...I would never do that. This is only speculation, and a hope that people can use this and perhaps tweak it in their own way to their own ends.

[Hyperion]

Search - Alien1452

"Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms."

lol :(

DId it again and got a result the 2nd time - weirdness lmao :)

Hyperion

[Helzon]

It's all good bro..I got you covered
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=65185&highlight=Alien1452
Click that...then at the bottom of his original post...click on the top link in his sig..it's his homepage.

[Blue]

This is very complex system Helzon, but i am coming up with something close to the same result as you. I'm trying to apply it to something closer to a natural form with folds and bends so it makes more sense in context. I'll post up what i come up with in a bit.

[1-thought]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v283/Helzon/Alienprocess.jpg
Alrighty; The things you'll need:
Brushes:
Simple Water Brush
Glow Brush
Just Add Water Blender
(Alien1452's talent and patience...because there are so many ways to F this up it isn't funny.)
Step 1:With your Simple Water Brush, set it large, high opacity and lay your flat color in.
Step 2: Goto Layers>Dry Digital Water Color; do so.
Step 3: Shift the hue, and also the value toward the lower desaturated end. Then take your glow brush; set that large, low strength. And with very gentle pressure start glowing the area that will be receiving the most light.
Step 4: As you start to see the area lighten...shift the hue toward the warmer light, you'll notice that the orange starts to play in the yellows. Also in this step if you need to...make the brush smaller, but make sure the strength stays low. Keep the yellows up toward the top and nearest the high hot white which will be tiny. For that...slide the glow brush down to a small size and ratchet up the strength...the already yellow area will burn out quickly to high white.
Step 5:Now for the final step...take the Just Add Water Blender which mine is set at 84.8 with an opacity of 9% and start to blend away any inconsistencies until your eye can no longer differentiate the transitions in hue. If you need to..go back with your glow brush and hit the high hot white again to really make it pop.

I hope this is a bit more cogent, though I still think there are parts of Alien1452's process I have probably missed. But hope this gets you in the ballpark.
Cheers!


thats what i use

[CaneHoyer]

For what do you need a blender???

You can even use a simple oil brush to get the smoothest transitions in every tone you like!
Use the brush just if you were using a real oil brush in doing dry brush techniques, where you can get real smooth tones even on a real canvas, by the way, it's a technique Vallejo and Bell use!

The pic you linked to looks very artificial.
I would rather do this in Photoshop, cause Photoshop created pictures look in origin artificial, the way this one looks.
Painter is a program to simulate analogue techniques, so in first they look more "real", the colors mix in a very different way depending on the used technique, but always simulating real colors.

Don't try to find a tool for every little thing you desire to create.

Try to find a brush in painter you like, one where you can add colors additive and subtractive and then get familiar with it.
This will get you further than using many different kinds of techniques.
And use the special brushes just for the special things like glowing etc.

Keep in mind that using a tool in painter is just as if you where using it in reality.

And every artist has it's favored technique where he is best.
He might use other techniques but not as good as his preferred one.

[CaneHoyer]

So here is a sample what you can do with a simple oil brush detail 15 and a mixer brush soft 20 (hope this is the right translation from the german version!)

This won't take you more than 3 min!

And to show the difference one did in Photoshop, which to me always looks a bit more technical and artificial.

http://www.canehoyer.de/conpics/Sample1.jpg

[Portus]

Alien1452 uses the watercolor brush for glazing and the glow brush for high lights and to control the light.

(Personally I never use blenders I just color pick and mix the tones together with a brush that has resat and bleed and then use the watercolor brush for glazing and to add shadows then dry it and do that again.)

[Flake]

I use a setting that Chris Beatrice uses. It mimics how I would paint in real life, Press hard to put down a dark stroke, press lightly to blend. He goes into detail on his tutorials (LINK (http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=2959&page=))

But I also use Robert Chang's setting too (not his brushes though). Set any brush to 0% resat and bleed any value higher than that. Blend away.

I've had a wacom for almost two years but never really got used to it, I think I've finally found settings (Chris Beatrice ones) that feel "right" for me, cheers. :)

I think I'll be using it more often now.

[efhx]

where is the glow brush? trying to blend like the circles above but dont know where the glow brush is :upset:

[Jin]

where is the glow brush? trying to blend like the circles above but dont know where the glow brush is :upset:

It's in a brush category something like your name:

F-X

:)

[efhx]

It's in a brush category something like your name:

F-X

:)

lol thanks :D

[CaneHoyer]

The above cirlce of mine isn't blended!
It's simply drawing and coloring, nothing more.
Just try to get this by using colors without special effects.

The glowing brush is great, but it's a special effect.