feng zhu dvd straight lines question
 

i just got a copy of the gnomon dvd the "fundamentals of shot design" by feng zhu. he is using painter and he seems to get a very straight line very quickly i was wondering if that's just his talent or is it a brush setting he's using. i don't know how he can use a ruler so accurately in painter so i was wondering if there is something i'm missing. the painter straight line button does'nt give the same results. all suggestions will be very welcomed

press shift while drawing the line.. or tap once at the begining of the line then hold shift and tap at the end of the line you want. Thats how photoshop works i think painter is the same.

thank you
 

nick thank you very much........ bwahahahha

nick and noel,

Edits in bold added August 17, 2004 by Jinny Brown.

In Windows, you won't be able to hold down the Shift key then click at the beginning and ending of a brushstroke to make a straight line. See my later messages for details.

In Painter, the only way (other than lots of freehand practice) to paint or draw straight lines at other angles than 45 degrees or 90 degrees with the Brush tool active and using one of the brush variants is to:

Click the Straight Line Strokes icon on the Property Bar (or click the "V" key).

Click where you want the line to begin.

Click and hold where you want the line to end and drag to get the angle you want, to make the line perfectly vertical or perfectly horizontal, or to shorten or lengthen the straight line brushstroke.

When the straight line brushstroke is at the angle you want (or perfectly horizontal or vertical) and the length you want it to be, let go.

We can also make vector based straight lines (Painter Shapes) using the Pen tool:

Cick the Pen tool icon in the Tools palette (or click the "P" key).

Click where you want the line to begin.

Click where you want the line to end.

If you need to move the line to another angle, lengthen it, or shorten it, with the end point active (red square), use the up, down, left, and right arrow keys to nudge it into place.

- Or -

Click the Shape Selection tool (click the "H" key), drag a window around the end point if it's not already active (red).

Click and hold on the end point and drag it to the desired position.

When the line is where you want it, let go.


Jinny

nick is on right track
 

Jinny thank you for your help but Nick was on the right track. Hold down the shift key and draw a straight lind (freehand style) just like Feng Zhu did on his "shot design for environments" dvd. My problem is that the lines are not in any direction i want , it's a north-south east-west restricted kind of deal. On the dvd Feng pretty much draws any line he wants quicker than a ruler can be used and i know the sift key is what he's using because of how the wrong lines are sometimes drawn (then erased), i get the same results myself (much too often). I need to figure out how to get this shift function working properly.

noel,

You're right, when using a Mac. Holding down the Shift key with the Brush tool active and either Straight Lines (click at the beginning, then click at the end of the line) or Freehand (paint the line from beginning to end) constrains the line to 45 degrees and 90 degreees.

In Windows, the command is Alt+Shift and I forgot to ask if you're on Mac or Windows. Sorry about that. :(

The command (Shift for Mac or Alt+Shift for Windows) used with the Brush tool active and either Straight Lines ("V" key) or Freehand ("B" key) chosen is working as it's intended to work, to contstrain the brushstroke angle to 45 degrees or 90 degrees.

In Windows, using any of the following Painter versions with the latest updates/patches installed...

Panter 8.1
Painter 7.1.357
Painter 6.1
Painter 5.0.3

.... depending on the Painter version, when the Brush tool is active and either Straight Lines ("V" key) or Freehand ("B" key) chosen the Shift key either has no effect or initiates another function.

Painter 8.1 = no effect

Painter 7.1.357 = no effect

Painter 6.1 = Shift (Windows) or Ctrl (Mac) changes the cursor to crosshairs and Click sets the Clone Source

Painter 5.0.3 = Shift (Windows) or Ctrl (Mac) changes the cursor to crosshairs and Click sets the Clone Source

Jinny

Someone asked Feng that question in this thread: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=27485

Feng's response: "drawing straight lines in painter takes some practice. Took me about a month to get the hang of it. You can hold shift to get 90/45 degree lines...but any other angle you have to do freehand. The screen-rotation makes it a lot easier tho."

Edit: I see someone already answered your post in another thread.

Straight Line hint
 

Hey I am a student at Gnomon and I have had Feng twice now. It does take practice but the first day of class he had us do nothing but draw straight lines on pages and pages using the following methods:

Use your elbow as an anchor and keep your wrist rigid (but dont freeze it with tension)

draw 2 dots pretty close together
move the pen back and forth without actually making the line and try to visualise connecting the dots

when your pretty confident you got it go for it and connect the dots

as you feel more confident in the approach continue in the excersise and make the dots farther and farther until you are the master !!!

you should have many many pages before you have long successful lines don't go to fast because that is just a waste of time and paper trust me.

Fly like the Butterfly, Sting Like The Bee!

Yeah he did that in one vtm too.. where he spend a little time on showing how to draw lines, ect.
Also how to draw circles better :D :D

how do you draw circles better??