Fast Grab = Rons Brushes

24

Comments

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095
    Does Photoshop load brushes as needed, or all at once when launched?
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 108,949

    Photoshop loads additional brush sets only when told - I can't recall if it remembers which sets are loaded between sessions though I think so.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    Yeah, I've found that Gimp doesn't like it if there are too many brushes installed at start up.  I usually try to keep it down to the basic brushes and then maybe just the 2 or 3 other brushes that I use the most before I start Gimp.  After it is open, I'll add the brushes that I need for a specific project.

    Will - what is the difference between using custom shapes and using brushes?

    My apologies for jumping into your conversation, but I wanted to mention a few things in hopes that it may help (I use pShop, but I assume the concepts are valid for Gimp as well). Brushes are much more than simply the trans maps. For example, they can be setup to introduce all sorts of variation (size, opacity, flow, rotation, etc.). These variations can be random, or a function of some other input (like velocity, direction, or pressure).

    To take things even further, you can use Ron's products to help create 3D materials where a single brush stroke can change the color, while simultaneously effecting specular maps, displacement maps, etc. So, for example, you could use a blood splat trans map to (a) paint a red color on the diffuse map, (2) add some additional shine on the specular map, and (3) paint in some corresponding height on the displacement map.

    - Greg

    From what I've learned, yes, these concepts are valid for Gimp as well.  Most of what I have learned on how to use brushes were actually from Photoshop tutorials and I then took that information into Gimp and succcessfully used those concepts.  I'm still learning.  I've done some of what you mention, but there are still a lot of skills I need to learn when it comes to using brushes successfully.  I have had some fun experiments with them.

  • DestinysGardenDestinysGarden Posts: 2,553

    I went to buy 6 brush sets today, and found out I had previously purchased 5 of them! So I checked out with my one brush set and made sure to get up to date with my installs. Now let's have some fun.

    P.S. check the Art Studio forum for my texturing thread, and I'll do what I can to help those who need it to figure out what to do with the darn things.

    cheers!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,916
    Does Photoshop load brushes as needed, or all at once when launched?

    My photoshop elements loads them all.  I have several hundred or more brushes that load every time I start elements. (with no slow down that I can tell)  I add to them on a regular basis as well as there are a ton of nice freebies on Deviant art as well.  Once I put the brushes in the proper place they stat their until I take them out.

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    Wow! I didn't know you had a texturing thread.  Definitely going to check it out!

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,916

    So I am installing the brushes I bought yesterday and realized I bought 15 sets lol.  Of course 2 of those were bundles but still.  I will be honest, I NEVER pay for brushes there are a huge amount of freebies out there.  But I just couldn't pass these up the quality is outstanding and as a whole, working together I doubt I would ever be able to find anything this comprehensive cohesive and well done anywhere else, especially for these prices (They are worth the full price don't get me wrong!).  I will be adding more to my collection I am sure.  There are more than a few still on my wishlist.

  • father1776father1776 Posts: 982

    am looking at it....TEMPTING

     

  • I have a bunch in my shopping cart. Hopefully I'll get them today before they're gone. I have several of his older products already...Ron used to sell at another store (perhaps he still does, not sure), but his Photoshop brushes, etc are always handy. Until yesterday, I had no idea he had so many products here at DAZ!
  • Lissa_xyzLissa_xyz Posts: 6,116

    Ugh. 2.9.2 has 32 bit support! Buuut won't open exr or hdr file formats. ...

    I was hoping I could drop csh files into the brushes folder and it'd work... no such luck. Ah well.

    Algovincian: I think GIMP's use of brushes is more limited than Photoshop's, but I'm not very familiar with Photoshop. GIMP seems to handle it mostly like a stamp/clone, though I suspect some of the functions of Photoshop brushes might just not translate. There ARE GIMP brushes that do random/interesting things, like a sparkle tool that plops a randomish spatter of sparkles as you drag the brush.

     

    You can get Preset Viewer by Tumasoft to view photoshop formats. It supports brushes (abr), patterns (pat), custom shapes (csh), styles (asl), gradients (grd), contours (shc), documents (psd), and swatches (aco, ase, act, acb, ado). Lite is free w/ signup, and full is $10. I have no idea what the difference is because as a photoshop user, I have no use for it.

  • ShaneWSmithShaneWSmith Posts: 636

    So cool! I don't have Photoshop, but there are freeware tools (https://sourceforge.net/projects/abrviewer/) that allow ABR files to be exported as PNGs!

    LOVE Ron's sets. I now have 78 of deviney's items.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300
    edited March 2016
    Does Photoshop load brushes as needed, or all at once when launched?

    Any brushes included as part of the preset will get loaded on launch. Generally, you only want your basic brushes to load, or else it can dramatically increase launch times if the brushes are large. I prefer to place brush sets completely outside any Photoshop folder path, and load them on demand with Load Brushes. The preset is remembered until you reset, load, or replace. 

    Otherwise, it's way too easy to to get hundreds or even thousands of brushes in the brush palette, making it very hard to find what you want. Since many brushes are very specific, it makes sense to only load wave and water brushes when you are doing seascapes, just as an example. Even with this, I'll often create my own sub-sets where I've trimmed out the brushes I don't much care for. Less = better, in my opinion.

     

    Post edited by Tobor on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095
    edited March 2016

    Aaaah, 'load brushes.' Thanks for that tip.

    Between Brushes, 32 bit, canvasses, and beginning to really see the creaking limitations of 8 bit images (particularly with editing and manipulation)... trying Photoshop again.

    I'm reminding myself that having Photoshop doesn't mean I have to erase GIMP or Paint.net... I can use whichever is convenient. Paint.net is light and fast, so when that's useful... there you go.

     

    Does it work much the same way with styles and csh? I already have a bunch of Ron stuff loaded to a specific directory, and if I can just load from there as needed, that's easy.

     

    Post edited by Oso3D on
  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

    The same general ideas apply to any of the presets, including styles, swatches, custom shapes, and so on. You can manage actions this way, too, displaying only the ones you want to use right them, or combining several favorite sets that you use together. You get more selection features when working directly with the preset type, so for example, to manage the swatch presets, activate the Swatches window, and click on the pulldown menu button in the upper-right.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300

     I will be honest, I NEVER pay for brushes there are a huge amount of freebies out there.  

    I also prefer not to spend any money, but increasingly, the freebie brushes are being offered only for non-commercial use, or with credits. This is important to keep in mind if you do commercial work, or provide the art to others who may not apply the proper credit lines.

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095

    I was really thrilled when I saw how easy it was to auto-tonemap stuff, and also how much better doing some stuff was by just converting 8 bit -> 32 bit, manipulating the image, then converting back to 8 bit. Cleaner and more vibrant than doing it all 8 bit.

     

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300
    edited March 2016

    I was really thrilled when I saw how easy it was to auto-tonemap stuff, and also how much better doing some stuff was by just converting 8 bit -> 32 bit, manipulating the image, then converting back to 8 bit. Cleaner and more vibrant than doing it all 8 bit.

    Do you mean when using canvases? Yes, they can be quite powerful.

    As a reminder, if rendering with the Iray tone mapper off (you intend to tone map in Photoshop), be sure to experiment with the Nominal Luminance setting under Filtering. This provides a hint to the proper luminance levels, and affects fireflies and other noise. When the value is 0, Iray will rely on the tone mapper to hint at the reasonable luminance value. But if you have the toner mapper off, Iray has nothing else to go on, so play with the Nominal Luminance to see if it improves the scene rendering.

    Post edited by Tobor on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095

    Actually, even before I got to canvasses (just starting on that now), even a basic 8 bit image was improved easily.

    Will try Nominal Luminance, thanks!

     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,916

    I will admit to having thousands of brushes loaded since I like to have it all at my fingertips. And since most of what I have is labelled very well and its alphabetized its usually short work to find what I want. Plus, if I am hunting I frequently come across and try a brush for something that I might not have thought of if I didn't see it while looking for something else.  And I dont have any issues with speed of loading but I can see how that might be an issue with some computers.  I just bought two more even though I promised myself I wouldn't look today lol

  • dracorndracorn Posts: 2,363
    edited March 2016
    I just bought several - Ron's brushes ROCK! But all of the sudden GIMP decides to quit on me and crashes every time I ask it to do something. So I try to download the newest version directly from the GIMP server and my virus checker tells the certificate is invalid. Last time I ignored my virus checker I got stuck with a Trojan. I've been looking at Photoshop c.c. (the $10 package) for a while now, maybe I should just go for it. I've never gotten GIMP'S version of Warp brushes to work to my satisfaction anyway. Then there's all these tutorials, but instead of being able to run with the new technique, I have to figure out how to convert that to GIMP. Also, the newest version "breaks" Wacom tablet support according to the release notes. Guess my mind's made up... to Photoshop I go.
    Post edited by dracorn on
  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095

    Dracorn: I just made the leap to Photoshop, finally, begrudgingly, and I have to say it's totally worth it. I still have and plan to use GIMP, but hey.

    In addition to the brushes, the deep usage of 32 bit files and tone mapping looks like it's going to make a huge difference.

     

  • KnittingmommyKnittingmommy Posts: 8,191

    What is the cheapest version of Photoshop that still uses all of the latest cool things that Gimp doesn't do right now?  Preferably, something separate from a subscription which I refuse to do.  They always end up costing me more money in the long run since I would be very sporadic in my use of it.

  • ToborTobor Posts: 2,300
    edited March 2016

    What is the cheapest version of Photoshop that still uses all of the latest cool things that Gimp doesn't do right now?  Preferably, something separate from a subscription which I refuse to do.  They always end up costing me more money in the long run since I would be very sporadic in my use of it.

    There isn't one, unless you qualify for the educational discount. As far as I know, CS6 was the last version that could be purchased outright.

    The $10/month rental isn't bad for the Photography plan. It could also be tax deductible, lessening the blow a bit. 

    The idea is to not make its use sporadic. If you're creating digital art, it's really the equivalent of a saw to a carpenter.

    Post edited by Tobor on
  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,916
    edited March 2016

    Actually you should check out the photoshop elements.  Its a slightly scaled down model of the full package and I paid under $99 for it.

    Post edited by IceDragonArt on
  • father1776father1776 Posts: 982

    For folks ... that gag.. when you see the price of photoshop, your in luck

    you can rent it,,,cheap    1 year contract  9.99 a month

    less than an MMO and they keep it updated

     

    and Ron's brushes work just fine with it

     

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095

    Having played with the brushes in GIMP and Photoshop... they work waaaaay better in Photoshop. There's some animated effects that don't seem to work properly in GIMP.

     

  • IceDragonArtIceDragonArt Posts: 12,916

    For folks ... that gag.. when you see the price of photoshop, your in luck

    you can rent it,,,cheap    1 year contract  9.99 a month

    less than an MMO and they keep it updated

     

    and Ron's brushes work just fine with it

     

    Ya and if you use it for10 years its over $1000.

  • GlennFGlennF Posts: 143

    Ron brushes also work great in Krita.

    https://krita.org/

  • Oso3DOso3D Posts: 15,095

    Ya and if you use it for10 years its over $1000.

    Given Photoshop used to cost something like $700, and you could probably expect 2 or three versions in that time, that's a great deal.

    Because the way it USED to be? I was just not going to be able to get Photoshop.

     

  • kitakoredazkitakoredaz Posts: 3,526

    No,crying,Gimp 2.9 could not open daz canvas saved EXR,,  and I could not export png image,, Gimp 2.9 seems shut down..then I retrurn 2.8 now..

      I understand some  photo shop brush , may not work with gimp 2.8.  I get three ron package yesterday,,

    most of abr brush can work.  but I seems have no way to use some shapes file,, without photo shop,

     ( I have alerady checked it, then choose product,    which not include many shape file,, then it is not problem)

    If I was asked, which aprication is better,,   I suggest to use photo shop = standard tool for 2d industly,

    the cost is difficult to compare,,   I am heavy smoker,, then it cost one month almost 150$ more,, ,,

    but I do not think,, 1 year contract  9.99 a month is cheap enough.

    but if I need to use it for my business,, or student to learn CG,I must use and learn photoshop,,

    (but as for me,, CG is hobby,, I know my self,, then I may not be CGartist,, at all as any meaning.

     can not compare,,tool =  photo shop and ,   my favorite  Game soft price,, (not MMO but usually cost more than 50$ )

     

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