Name for Active Brushes?

[Max DT]

Hi Everybody,

I'm looking for a "Sparkle Brush" online, but not one that just prints a pattern, one that I can apply across a path.

Is there a name for brushes that actively draw versus ones that are just saved as a print (e.g. grunge brushes) ?

[Myra Ferguson]

Brushes that are used for a single image as opposed to creating a stroke that you draw, typically have other brush settings (Window > Brush Settings) applied. Single image brushes can be used to draw along a path too, but they are typically set to a very large size and may have the Spacing set so that there is space between multiple copies of the image that was used to define the brush. 

Try selecting a brush and changing the Size, Spacing, and other features to customize your brush:

• https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/creating-modifying-brushes.html

[c.pfaffenbichler]

What are you actually trying to achieve? 

Please post an example or a sketch. 

Edit: 

[c.pfaffenbichler]

What do you mean by »brushes that actively draw«? 

[Max DT]

Yeah, kind of like what you just posted. I think the naming is do to over-use of the wrong item. People have brushes that are stamps (like grunge brushes), but the call them brushes. 

Like I'm looking for something like the 'blades of grass' that creates grasss as you paint but does it with sparkles/glitter for a wand graphic that I'm working with. I have a path across the canvas and need to fill it with sparkles. Like, pretty much exactly what you posted but with a different path.

I've been working with a brush pack I found in Creative Cloud called reflections, but I'm not getting very good results twiddling knobs. Plus, I keep forgetting to save it and it's really easy to revery back to defalut settings by accident. 

I'm thinking about attempting it in After Effects as I'm not really getting the results in Photoshop

[c.pfaffenbichler]

I have no After Effects-experience but I suspect it features particle generation options that might fit the task well. 

Maybe a Fade could help; but please post screenshots and an example or sketch of what you are trying to achieve.