Support a Blob type of vector brush

[Bitten]

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 Tool

I 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??

[EricP]

@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

[Subpath]

@Bitten , @EricP

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

[Boldline]

@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?

[Boldline]

@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

[Boldline]

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....

[Subpath]

@Boldline

its not your fault, got the same behaviour

@VectorStyler

it seems a bug
a single Blob could only set with the
default circle blob

all 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

[Bitten]

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.

[Devil Dinosaur]

@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.

[Subpath]

@VectorStyler

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.

I also demonstrate both of these points in this video.

[VectorStyler]

@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

[Bitten]

@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

[Subpath]

@VectorStyler

Yes, I know that and I have already mentioned it,
but I find this behavior a bit curious

[EricP]

@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