Draw tool sticky settings?

[Subpath]

@Boldline

There are actually two concepts here.

The first one
-- How to draw a vector brush with the Pen tool.

You can't do this directly and just go for it.
You have to draw a line with the Pen Tool.
Then select the your Brush and set then
the brush thickness.
.
.
Another way i found is the following:

Select "B" for the Brush tool.
Paint a short first piece of your path with the Brush tool.
(this short piece should stay selected)

Then switch to "P" for the Pen tool and now you can continue
and draw your vector brush with the Pen tool.

Here a Video Example for this case:

[Subpath]

@Boldline

Here the Second one

-- Suppose you have four different strokes in your design.
(different size and color)
and you know that you will use them very often

You could create styles or presets for them
and select them when you need one of them
.
.
-- or you could try it this way

Create your four strokes in the style you're going to need
and put all four strokes next to the canvas

For simplicity, I'm only using the Pencil Tool
(but this method also works with the Brush Tool)
(but the Brush Tool normally doesn't take any color information,
Pencil Tool do)

Now press "P" for the Pencil Tool
move the mouse pointer over the area where your strokes are located

hold the command key (Mac) / CTRL key (PC) and select
one of the four strokes you want to draw with

As you may know VS draws always in the style of the last selected
object/stroke

Therefore, when you draw, you draw now with that style.

I think this is an easy way to quickly switch between
different strokes

Here is an example video (with recorded shortcuts):

[Dazmondo]

@Subpath said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

@Boldline

Here the Second one

-- Suppose you have four different strokes in your design.
(different size and color)
and you know that you will use them very often

You could create styles or presets for them
and select them when you need one of them
.
.
-- or you could try it this way

Create your four strokes in the style you're going to need
and put all four strokes next to the canvas

For simplicity, I'm only using the Pencil Tool
(but this method also works with the Brush Tool)
(but the Brush Tool normally doesn't take any color information,
Pencil Tool do)

Now press "P" for the Pencil Tool
move the mouse pointer over the area where your strokes are located

hold the command key (Mac) / CTRL key (PC) and select
one of the four strokes you want to draw with

As you may know VS draws always in the style of the last selected
object/stroke

Therefore, when you draw, you draw now with that style.

I think this is an easy way to quickly switch between
different strokes

Great way of starting off a job! --- I'd like to steal that for my workflow, if you don't mind ----- I've already set up the main brushes on the page I use for all the Steam Kittens illustrations I'll just copy paste my set brushstrokes into the next job artboard and away we go

[Subpath]

@Dazmondo

... I'd like to steal that for my workflow, if you don't mind ...

Of course I don't mind
After all, I show these tips here to share ideas and tips.

But remember, in your case, your illustration is
is only black and white, it's easy.
(this method doesn't take the color by Brushes).

You can of course colorize your vector brush by
choosing a color from a palette

I myself found this method in the two vector programs mentioned above,
"Creature House Expression" and "Expression Design".
There you can select a brush directly with the Brush Tool and continue
painting in its style (in the post above I show the programs in a video).

[Subpath]

@Dazmondo

Must say it again, i really like your way of creating
hatchings with Brushes (really cool idea !!!!)

[Dazmondo]

Thanks Boldline & Subpath

Just been messing around with repeater and I'm blown away with what can be achieved now I've got my head around it -- for dot halftones it's ACE --- initially when I first used it, I found it would slow to a crawl and just thought it was for making fills similar to the pattern fill tool, and had no idea how well it works on raster art or photos even gradient meshes or when using raster effects on vectors - once expanded and unified this is great for t-shirts --- I know Boldline does a lot of t-shirt work and has probably mastered the repeater, but had no idea how powerful this is - this is now part of my workflow for this kind of stuff rather than using Clip Studio Paint / VectorRaster /or the halftone options built into Image Vectorizer ------ACE

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

@Subpath said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

would it not a little more helpful if we could use the Pen Tool direct also for Vector Brushes ?

Yes, this could be easy to enable. But, it might result in confusion as all other apps differentiate between the Pen and brush tools.

It's a bad, bad, bad idea to mix the two!!!! For this reason and many other reasons. It is an absolutely bad idea. And a pen tool is a science in itself with lots of complexity - more than you think. It should be kept completely isolated from other tools. It is a discipline unto itself and a tool unto itself.

I strongly recommend that instead you can easily switch between pen and brush visibly, easily and intuitively without the two ever getting mixed up.

Just as easy as switching between black and white color in fill and stroke with X in Photoshop. One press of a key - or an icon in the context bar.

[b77]

In continuation to what @Ingolf said:

If the Brush contours dropdown would be available in the context bar when you pick the Pen tool, this would allow those who want to draw brush strokes directly with the Pen tool to simply switch to a brush contour and get to work. Would this not be acceptable for everybody?

[Subpath]

@Ingolf

Sorry, I don't understand these concerns.

Why on earth should this not be possible.
Just for the reason of keeping a Pen-Tool pure?
Should a user stick to program design standards rather than have creatively usable tools ?

As Vectorstyler said, it would be an option. After that you could still use the Pen Tool
in the way you are used to.

For now, nothing has changed about the Pen Tool, after all.
And we have already two Methods where you can already use the Pen Tool with a Vector Brush.

As this Video proves (VS 1.1.049)
(And this Methodes are build in long before.)

The only difference would be that we could use a Vector Brush a little bit more direct with the Pen Tool.

[VectorStyler]

@Subpath said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

Just for the reason of keeping a Pen-Tool pure?

I think the primary (and good) reason for this is to have the Pencil and Brush tools behave as in other apps, according to expectations.
But this does not exclude the possibility to have an option (preferences) for these to work in new ways.

[Subpath]

@VectorStyler said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

@Subpath said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

Just for the reason of keeping a Pen-Tool pure?

I think the primary (and good) reason for this is to have the Pencil and Brush tools behave as in other apps, according to expectations.
But this does not exclude the possibility to have an option (preferences) for these to work in new ways.

I can live very well with such an option.

[Ingolf]

@VectorStyler said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

@Subpath said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

Just for the reason of keeping a Pen-Tool pure?

Just for the reason of keeping things simple. Especially the user interface. VS is the most complex program in my collection - and by far - it simply can't stand any more complexity.

There is no need to join GIMP and Inkscape like interfaces.

[b77]

I'm sure nobody bothered to consider my idea because I didn't bother to post a mockup.

There you go — show the Brush dropdown in the context bar when picking the Pen tool, before even placing the first node:

[Subpath]

@Ingolf

I don't understand that instead of weighing things
up and conceding the other side their interests too.

Why you create threat scenarios with Inkscape and Gimp
and talk down the Idea this way.

[Subpath]

@b77

appreciate your Idea, but i am not really shure
if i get it right.

If i use the Brush Tool it looks already that way
like in your Picture.

And your Idea seems that the same should show up
when we use the Pen Tool, its fine for me

[b77]

@Subpath Conflict of ideas are inevitable because we have different priorities — scales with different weights.

Time permitting, I would also like for @Ingolf to expand a bit the part about GiMP and Inkscape.
Is it the way things are organized or just the general look of the UI (which I dislike as well)?

[VectorStyler]

@b77 said in Draw tool sticky settings?:

There you go — show the Brush dropdown in the context bar when picking the Pen tool, before even placing the first node:

I added this to the backlog.

[Subpath]

@b77

...Conflict of ideas are inevitable because we have different priorities
— scales with different weights....

I totally understand that and i appreciate @Ingolf Ideas
and Knowledge about Ui Interfaces.

But should we really stay on one point, just for the sake of a Paradigma ?
Sometimes it makes more sense, in my eyes, to overthink Rules and Paradigmen
or put them aside for while.

I must say that I am very open to unusual / creative UIs.
as long as they are useful for creativity.
I have seen and used many programs that would make
UI designers pull their hair out. But I appreciate all of them.

[b77]

I have seen and used many programs that would make
UI designers pull their hair out. But I appreciate all of them.

Tell us which was the worst.

[Subpath]

@b77

You won't believe that I never liked the Adobe Illustrator UI.
(Well, I don't use Illustrator since version 8, that was a while ago).

Liked Corel Draw UI from the beginning because of its configurable UI and other features.

Kai Krause plugins back then, was nice from a creative point of view.
But the UI was so tiny and not scalable, it was terrible.

Corel Painter could also be mentioned - I would say
it gets the award for the worst UI

Paintstorm Studio gets a positive special mention
because of his resizeable and very configurable UI
and thats in a App for 20 $