Painter X Inking Video & Brush Settings
Switching to Painter X from Ray Frenden on Vimeo.
The above video explores inking in Painter and how to trace your inked output. Albeit, very, very briefly! The resource files and links I mention in the video can be seen after the jump.
For those of you allergic to Flash, here’s a higher quality, 1280 x 720 Mov file.
Here are the brush settings for my digital Inking Brush in Painter X:
These pressure settings have a large margin for variance based on the speed of your strokes and the pressure you typically apply with your stylus.
CocoaPotrace is the tracing application I refer to in the video. Sleeker, faster, and better than LiveTrace, it’s a must have piece of freeware. Based on the little known, opensource tracing application Potrace this version is a must have for turning raster lineart into usable vectors. I originally learned of the Windows-based, command line version from my friend and fellow Illustrator Teemu Matinlauri.
Lastly, here’s a shot of the image I was working on in the video for those of you without Flash or who’d rather not listen to me yammer on:
May 2nd, 2008 #
Thanks for your settings, Ray!
Now I’ll have to (ahem) brush up on using Painter X.
Cool illo, btw.
May 2nd, 2008 #
I really need to keep up with you flippin’ blog.
May 2nd, 2008 #
Ah… so there’s that blessed app (Cocoapotrace). Looks interesting. Do you have any ‘most favored’ settings for this app? Thanks, Ray.
May 4th, 2008 #
I gotta tell ya man, I check your site every day to see if there is anything new cause I love your style so much. Thanks for those settings too, I couldn’t figure out how to get a line like that on my own.
I know it might not be your thing but have you ever thought about doing toys? I was thinking that the artwork that you do could never be duplicated in a 3D form because it relies so much the drawn line, but it would be cool to maybe come up with something different trying to make it work though huh? Hit me up if you ever want to try it out:) Keep up the awesome artwork too!
John Faso
May 5th, 2008 #
hey, I’m new to the tablet drawing and inking world. I was wondering: why does the image in painter look so crappy? I can’t seem to find a zoom setting that renders a crisp line. My drawings and strokes always look very stairstepped. document in question is 4×3″ at 450 dpi.
May 6th, 2008 #
Thanks, guys. I would have replied sooner, but I was out of town for four days or so.
John, where should I contact you?
Ben, in the preferences dialog, you need to to turn on area averaging for the zoomed out views!
May 6th, 2008 #
Dear Ray,
I’ m unworthy…what else can i say?
Thanx so much for the insights to your artwork and your tips.
But regarding your brush-settings: WHICH brush is it you use for the basic setting (on which you build on you individual setting)? Guache? Oil? Croquil?
Hope i made myself clear, english is not my native language ;-)
Cheers
Sly
May 6th, 2008 #
Sly, you were perfectly clear! I used any old Oils brush as the starter.
May 7th, 2008 #
Any old oil brush?
Sorry if im busting your chops, but can you be specific?
I just got this program, and need to know what brush you were using, because somehow, my strokes dont seem to come out like yours.
And by any old, do you mean, any of them, or did you mean, a category, as in opaque oils?
May 7th, 2008 #
I think the starter brush might have been an opaque round. It really shouldn’t matter what variant you pick. The above settings totally annihilate what you start with.
May 7th, 2008 #
Ohh Ok.
Because I’m sure it turns out different man, but ill give it another go.
Thank you very much!
May 7th, 2008 #
I really cant believe u have switched to painter!I thought MS was doing fine for you..I’ve tried using painter for inking before but never got the good results like MS can do..But u show a very nice video up there..i think i hav to giv it a try again in Painter with your settings,and compare with MS..by the way,i never thought painter can rotate like that!thanks for the brush settings.
May 7th, 2008 #
Thry still don’t work, and I sound like such an idiot!
Haha.
I’ll try a bit harder, but somehow, its not recognising my wacoms pressure sensitivity. Hmm, it just makes it a line with no pressure variant whatsoever.
May 8th, 2008 #
Nevermind. I got it. Looks great, thanks alot Ray.
May 8th, 2008 #
Good, good! It sounded more like a driver issue than a Painter one.
May 9th, 2008 #
Yea. I was new to painter X, so I had to save the variant. Haha. Thanks alot Ray, your an inspiration. I should ask you, where do you get your macabre etc inspirations from?
May 9th, 2008 #
NNNNIIIICEEE!
Can’t wait for the set up!!
May 9th, 2008 #
Hi ray I like that brush. let me know if you need any tips in painters underground features. I like the woodcut effect and the magic wand plus select/convert to shape come in handy to. happy creating. Thanks again for the brush settings
May 10th, 2008 #
Hey Ray. You can contact me at titaniumwings@aol.com and I’ll get back to you as soon as I see it:)
May 11th, 2008 #
Ray,
Can linework vectorized with Cocoapotrace be colored? If so, how? I just downloaded and installed the program, and you’re right, it autotraces fast, sharp and accurate. However, drawings autotraced with LiveTrace and be colored with LivePaint. I can’t see how to do that with Cocoapotrace eps files.
May 13th, 2008 #
Hi Ray,
Could you please do a post talking about the business end of your freelance job?
May 15th, 2008 #
Hi Ray,
You’re blogs & tutorials are so great, really. They’re such a help for those about to step into the world of digital inking.
Quick question–what size tablet do you use? For someone about purchase a wacom tablet is there a huge difference between the 9×12 or the 6×8? God knows the price is! Thanks in advance for any insight…
May 16th, 2008 #
Leandro, I will try to do just that.
Pete, I used, up until two days ago, an Intuos3 9″x12″ tablet. I now have a 20″ Cintiq. I recommend getting the absolute best tablet you can afford, whatever size that may be. Bigger seems to be better in almost all instances from my experience.
May 20th, 2008 #
Hi Ray,
Just came across your great video on Vimeo. Thanks a lot for the brush settings, as this will help alot for me trying to create t-shirt designs. I’m currently testing it out with my Intuos 6×8. Just need a confirmation though, Cocoapotrace is only available for Mac yeah?
May 20th, 2008 #
True. But CocoaPotrace is a port of Potrace. Potrace is available for nearly every OS flavor under the sun.
May 20th, 2008 #
‘Nuther Painter experiment…
http://www.imagekind.com/Showartwork.aspx?IMID=6e1e3530-9442-4824-aff6-d31fdfa49c81
May 21st, 2008 #
The smeary brushes are what I dig. Better than the opacity based fakery of Photoshop.
May 27th, 2008 #
[...] http://frenden.com/painter-x-inking-video-brush-settings/ [...]
May 29th, 2008 #
I think the “alt + space” command (in mac version) is marvelous, simply fantastic, but the X version of Corel Painter has many bugs. I have the 10.1.052 version, what have you got, Ray?
Anyway, Painter is very usefull for drawing it is clear, but the interface and the consistent of the app is worse that Photoshop CS3. It is a pity!
Adobe might learn how to do our life more easy implementing the rotate function in the new CS4 version…
Thanks for the tutorials!
P. S.: Sorry if I have some “bugs” in my write, I am Spanish! :P
Jun 7th, 2008 #
[...] on June 7, 2008 Filed Under Process Ray Frenden, Illustrator ยป Painter X Inking Video & Brush Settings The above video explores inking in Painter and how to trace your inked output. Albeit, very, very [...]
Jun 26th, 2008 #
awesome post ray, great to see the inking styles