Using the Vectorizer to Position Paint Synthesizer Text Brush Regions

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Using the Vectorizer to Position…

Today’s post continues our exploration of different paint synthesizer text brush effects. Today, we’ll use a vectorizer rendition of the source image to automatically position the painting of text brush regions based on the size and positioning of the individual flat color vectorizer generated regions.

The finished effect shown at the top of this post combines a black text overlay on top of an outline technique vectorizer rendition of the source image. The paint action sequence (PASeq) used to generate the finished effect is shown below.

Note that 2 different Vectorizer action steps are used in the PASeq. The first one generates a flat color rendition of the source image using the Image Main Technique with a Watershed Generator. The vectorizer output is routed to the selection buffer in the Composite control panel as opposed to being placed into the current layer (2nd gallery image above). The selection buffer is a black and white image buffer, so the full color regions will be converted into black and white regions. The selection bugger will be used later to drive path start regionization for painting.

The 2nd Vectorizer action step generates a vectorized color source outline effect using the Outline Technique. The Vectorizer Composite control panel was set back to a normal Replace Composite setting for this second Vectorizer action step. So the output of the Vectorizer then replaces what is in the canvas rather than being routed to the selction buffer.

The paint synthesizer is then used to overpaint black text work regions onto the colored vectorizer outline rendition in the canvas. I wanted the size and positioning of the black text words to be based on the size and positioning of the individual flat color regions generated by the first Vectorizer action step. To do this I set the Path Start control panel Generator parameter to the Selection as Regions – All option (3rd gallery image above).

What this Generator option does is intelligent analyze the current selection buffer and generate a path start position based on the location of each unique grayscale region in the selection buffer image. As you may recall, any of the different ‘path start regionize’ Generator options can also be used to work with the Path Shape controls to generate paint paths that intelligently fill in the analyzed path start regions with different fill patterns. To do this you select the Path Start Regionize option for the Path Type parameter in the Path Shape control panel (4th gallery image above).

For this particular effect, I wanted to use Region Fill as Brush pen mode. So the generated paint paths determine the outline of the individual regions that will be painted in using Region Fill as Brush pen mode. So, I selected the Outline Fill option for the Region Pattern Type. With this setting, the automatically generated path will be the outline of each individual path start region.

I wanted to paint in each region generated by Region Fill as Brush pen mode with a text source brush word. So I went to the Region as Brush Mode control panel and set the Brush Option parameter to Alpha Only Text Brush Word (5th gallery image above). This setting means that when a region is generated, it is used to size and position a single word from the current text source brush. The alpha channel of the source brush is then set to the text word.

You can then use a Source Alpha Brush option for the Brush Type (Brush Type control panel). Instead of the entire region painting, just the text word positioned based on the current region size and position will then be painted in.

Region Fill as Brush pen mode works to temporarily replace the current source brush with a region generated on the fly from the current paint path. So it temporarily overrides the current source brush and associated brush cache buffers with a region generated on the fly from the current paint path. For this particular preset, the paint path is the outline of the current path start region. The path start regions are based on the individual grayscale regions in the selection buffer that were generated by the first vectorizer action step.

The PASeq preset used to build this effect is available for download 6-8-.paseq

For More Information

Here’s some more information on paint regionization.

Here’s a tip that discusses path start regionization in it’s first section.

Here’s another post that talks about the Alpha Only Text Brush feature associated with the Region Fill as Brush pen mode that we used in this post. This example shows a different path start regionization approach based on using the Adaptive Block path start regionize generator.

Using the Vectorizer to Position Paint Synthesizer Text Brush Regions

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