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DennisJa
Inspiring
March 25, 2014
Question

How do i set my brush so it draws refined lines?

  • March 25, 2014
  • 1 reply
  • 20458 views

Im trying to draw in Photoshop but im not liking how the brushes are. im trying to go for flat colors with no fade to the strokes (i guess vector like, almost how flash does it)

The paint brush even tuned up to 100% is still a little bit faded especially on the edges

and the pencil is how i do want it to be but it has jagged edges

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1 reply

Trevor.Dennis
Community Expert
Trevor.DennisCommunity Expert
Community Expert
March 25, 2014

I don't think I ever use the pencil.  As you have found, reducing hardness makes no difference, so you never get any anti aliasing with the pencil tool.  Just nasty jaggies on any by perfectly horizontal or vertical lines.  I expect you know you can force horizontal, vertical lines by holding down the Shift key.  Or in any direction by touching down, and then holding the Shift key while touching down at the other end of your line?

Are you using a tablet, or mouse?

If a tablet, then I am a big fan of Lazy Nezumi that allows me to draw wonderfully smooth curves,, and all sorts of other clever features.

http://lazynezumi.com/

D
DennisJaAuthor
Inspiring
March 25, 2014

Mouse and its not just when I make make curves. Smoothness isn't the issue its hardness.

The green was is a screen shot from flash That's what i want the colors are nice and full with almost no bad edges

The red was done using a brush of 100 opacity and hardness and Its to faded for some reason

The blue is with the pencil tool. Full colors but to jagged it makes my drawings look like they were done in ms paint

Noel Carboni
Noel Carboni
Legend
March 26, 2014

Im using the default number 6 or the one on the far right of the first panel of cs6. I checked all the settings is hardness 100% the brush dynamics look fine I played around with every option and reset my brushes to default still not even close to looking as good as Illustrator.

This is apparently a very common problem iv look up the subject and no links i clicked on had a solution.

My main problem is that im trying to build character rigs in photoshop for a flash animation but because of the AA its messing up all my parts making them look both blurry and giving this white outline that you can see when layers over lap in flash.


You're expressing the desire for something in a subjective sense that may be difficult to relate in technical terms.

It sounds like you want anti-aliased edges to things you paint, but don't want even a single pixel of edge softness.  That can't be achieved - the edges MUST be blended or you see the pixel boundaries (as "jaggies").

Now, if you draw lines with the Brush Tool, it WILL provide anti-aliasing, and you're correct, it can't be turned off with the Brush Tool, specifically.  That's okay - you need anti-aliasing.

What you may not realize is that you can set several other options to allow you to make the brush lines as smooth and even as possible, while minimizing edge softness.

Experiment with:

Brush Spacing

Brush Hardness

Your issue with color showing around the edges of your sprites may have something to do with how you're preparing your images vs. the brush you're using to create them.  Perhaps you could describe in more detail the steps you go through.

-Noel

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