Support a Blob type of vector brush
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I'm looking for a brush type that might be called Blob, and it essentially lets you draw creating a vector shape the same size as the area you paint in. You can change nib styles etc to configure the shape of the brush, but ultimately the purpose is to support live sketching ni vector shapes. Not outline strokes, and not Raster.
Tools like DrawPlus X8 Freeform Paint Tool
or
Xara Design Pro+ Shape Painter ToolI don't like that DrawPlus is now out of support, and I don't like that Xara forces a Subscription pricing model so a competitive offering like that here would have me in a heartbeat.
It'd need to be paired with the Eraser version of course but that's almost a given right??
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@Bitten You can try the Path Brush Tool and also the Eraser tool which do essentially what you describe.
You can change the size but (as far as I know) not the nib shape itself
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you could change the Shape of the Path Brush Tool here
see Picture
.
.To create a user defined shape, just select the Shape you like
and give it a "Shape" Role.
Select your shape and go to > Menu > Object > Object Role > Shape. After this you
could select this Shape in different Tools of VectorStyler also the one i shown above -
@VectorStyler @Subpath thank you for the reminder about this! I'm not getting the same result you are. I created a triangle and gave it the tole of "shape". I selected it as my path brush shape and tried to use it. Often when clicking, nothing happened and when I did drag the cursor, it looked no different than a circle. Here is a video of this.
Obviously it's working for @Subpath so maybe my settings are off? -
@VectorStyler I noticed that it would sometimes work depending on what I was clicking overtop of. Then eventually I lost my custom shape path brush entirely and it went back to being a default circle.
Link to new video showing this -
Update: I tried this on my laptop running default settings and had the same issues.
The shape only seemed to work when i was touching an existing shape. in my case here, the shape somehow changed mid-use and merged another star into itself....
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its not your fault, got the same behaviour
it seems a bug
a single Blob could only set with the
default circle bloball blobs shape made via the "Shape" Role
works only if paint with it and then single blobs can
be set if there is a kind of overlapping. They dont work
as single blobs
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Hey all thanks for the responses, I can't find anytool called a path brush tool in the ui of the version downloaded if it is in there, it's well hidden.
I made a video to try help explain what exactly this freeform paint style tool can do
https://youtu.be/6JAoFnc9-Zk?t=367
The ability to erase parts of it as well is also as important as the painting.
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@Bitten
Hi,
Like said above, what you need is the "Path Brush Tool". It's located on the left main tool bar, third icon from the top, then the last of the menu that opens to the right. It's pressure sensitive and seems to be what you want. You may check some other tools of this section.
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I noticed two additional things:
First:
I miss a live preview when changing the size of the Path Brush tool.
The brush tip size only changes after I've set a new size. This
makes adjusting the size a bit unintuitive.Second:
No matter which shape you select as the brush tip, the Path Brush
tool always paints with a rounded tip. This makes changing the
Brush tip somewhat useless. -
@Subpath said in Support a Blob type of vector brush:
When painting with the brush (not clicking) the top is always rounded.
Only when clicking you can use the selected shape -
@Devil-Dinosaur Ok nice yeah I found the brush tool now and it does seem to work a lot like the other tools mentioned which is great. One big issue with it right now though as I think Subpath also calls out is that the pressure changes you make don't adjust the size of the "preview / cursor" until you release.
What this results in is a situation where it's difficult to know if you have actually painted in a filled area on your canvas till you release the pen from screen, often showing that actually there are little gaps because pressure wasn't hard enough, This also makes it hard to do fine pen work because the preview is max brush size not the actual brush size with pressure factored in.
So I think in summary Yes there's a brush tool that can let you draw as shapes, and an eraser to go with it but both tools seem geared for use with a mouse not pressure pen as the brush size indicator does not adjust to match actual brush size when laying down new pressure based strokes
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Yes, I know that and I have already mentioned it,
but I find this behavior a bit curious -
@Subpath thanks for the tip about shape nib.
I had tried earlier to change the shape on the toolbar when the path brush tool was active, but all it did was to replace the selected object by the shape, not change the brush nib.
Watching your video, I now understand that the shape must be selected with no canvas object selected so it can change the nib shape. Thanks
But using the feature, it doesn't apply the shape when dragging the path brush. It only seems to apply it when clicking on the border of an object, it then modifies the object shape with the selected tool shape.
Not very intuitive but still useful
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You're welcome.
I also find it strange that you can't paint with the path brush tool
using the selected shape tip.Btw. this option to select a shape that have previously been
assigned the shape role is available for many tools in VectorStyler,
you can always check to see if a shape selection is offered in the
setting of a tool.You can also use this to create shape presets, for example. You
can also do this with the parametric shapes in VS, which remain
editable. -
@Subpath thanks for these tips.
Yes, I've tried to change the shape of some tools like the "Shaped Bump Tool" but did not find it to work as expected. Maybe I missed how to use it properly.
Coming back to the Path Brush tool, I really like what can be obtained with it, to imprint some patterns on the surface of shapes.
I experimented a bit and tried some modifier keys with it. I was hoping Alt would turn it into a Path Eraser but it doesn't.
However, a cool modifier is Shift, where if you shift-click with Path brush tool on a shape (doesn't have to have a shape role), the nib takes that shape. You can repeat over and over and get some kind of fractal construction where the path embeds smaller versions of itself.
here is an example : https://somup.com/cTQFl7P10Y -
@VectorStyler said in Support a Blob type of vector brush:
@Subpath said in Support a Blob type of vector brush:
When painting with the brush (not clicking) the top is always rounded.
Only when clicking you can use the selected shapeIs there a reason you don’t want to have it operate in that manner? From my perspective, I would find that option very useful. A lot of interesting things could be done if the painting aspect used the shape and was not just the default rounded.
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@Boldline said in Support a Blob type of vector brush:
Is there a reason you don’t want to have it operate in that manner?
When paining with the path brush, an expanded outline shape is created (calligraphy and variable width included).
But there is no method to using an arbitrary shape in this process. It is just no way to "define" it, unless I do some hacking. -
@VectorStyler It's not the way it's working today but I agree with @Boldline it would be great to be able to "paint" with a shape
The way I imagine it is you drag the mouse and VS inserts+merges shapes continuously (at intervals), like if you were clicking after each small position offset
like this : https://somup.com/cTQF2FP1a9
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I don't think any user here would want to pressure you into any kind
of hacking. Is just we don't know in full the mechanism behind.As for me, I can live with the current situation. Once I know how
something works, i have no problem to act accordingly.
