Today’s post takes a look at how to configure the paint synthesizer to generate vector paint blobs that simulate splashing paint.
The key to today’s abstract paint effect is based on some features associated with the AntiAliased Solid Brush Type. This particular brush type paints with vector paint nibs or vector paint strokes (as opposed to laying down a series of raster paint nibs along a path when painting).
The screen shot below shows the paint synthesizer Brush Type control panel settings we used for the abstract paint blob effect shown above.
Note that the Vector Type control is set to the Blob1 option. This Blob1 Vector Type brings up a number of additional controls that let you adjust the visual characteristics of the vector blob. These include the # Seg Blob, % Rnd Blob, Ang Track Blob, Fill Opt Blob, and Gen Alg Blob parameters. By adjusting these different parameters you can dramatically change the visual appearance of the vector paint blob.
The best way to get a feel for what these different control do is to try adjusting them and see how they change the appearance of the vector paint blobs. If you generate a new paint effects you like, you can always save it by using the File : Export: Export Paint Preset menu command to save a new paint preset file.
For this particular effect we wanted to generate very loose vector paint blobs, that looked like splattering paint.
The Coloring Option parameter is using the Dual Fixed Color 1-2 option, which fills in the vector paint blobs based on the output of the Fixed Color control panel. The Fixed Color control panel generates 2 different fixed colors that track the current paint color. Typically you set this control panel up so that the 2 fixed color track the current paint color with some kind of color offset, which is useful for creating gradient coloring effects, or the 2 color blob renditions seen in this particular effect (light center core with darker blob exterior).
The Path Shape control panel Max Path Length setting and the Path Application control panel Spacing setting work together to insure that only a single vector paint blob nib is painted for each individual paint stroke when auto painting.
The paint preset used to generate today’s post 6-30-11.paint
