Custom Tools

by Ramn Miranda

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/ 2009 by Ramn Miranda. This document may be reproduced in whole or in part without permission from the author. Feel free to use this manual for any and all educational applications. I enjoy emails from other painters and SAI users, so please let me know about you. greets Inquiries and comments can be directed to mirandagraphic@gmail.com

SAI custom brushes.

My name is Ramon Miranda. Thanks for download this tutorial and files . Enjoy them. Well, in this first tutorial . Im going to show you, how can we make custom brushes in a simple way. We need to understand some basic concepts but they are easy if we take them one by one so, what we can see when we open the SAI folder? We see diferents folders names like blotmap, toolnrm,papertex,brushtex and more files. Ok? We are going to explain each one right know. Please Look at this screen capture. You will see 3 different colored boxes .We have a red box, a blue box, and a green box ok? These are the folders and the files that we are going to use. Easy uh? elemap ,toolink

Red colored box. These are the folders where SAI stores the textures and elevationmaps(well see them later) that we use. Blue colored box. These are the folders where SAI stores all the tools that we create (pencil, rubber, pen. Brush etc...) Green colored box. These are the files that we are going to modify to tell SAI where are the textures,and elemaps that he has to load to use inside the SAI program.

Red colored box. (explanation in depth) We have 4 folders:Blotmap, Elemap, BrushTex, PaperTex. Blotmap Here is where we put the images that SAI uses to define the type of blot of mask (is something like that) that produces the brushstroke .Its based in grayscales ( 8bpp) and sizes in 2 exponential. Like 128 ,256, 512 . Its usefull to make not rounded brushes.

Elemap here is where we put the images that SAI uses to define the brush tips. well see more in depth later. They are just images that have white zones and black zones. They define the shape of the brush-tip. If we make an elemap with the star Shape we get this when we paint ok?

We will use the binary tool to alter or modify thi type of files because binary it does not have any type of antialiasing which is exactly what we need. NO antialias. Brushtex Here is where we put the images that we use to give a textured look to our brushes. For example.

From 0% to 100% This way we can obtain effects like these. Nice uh?

Papertex. Stores images that simulates diferent surfaces like paper, Canvas, watercolor paper etc...

Blue colored box. We can create 2 diferent types of tools. Normal tools and Vector Tools.it depends on what type of layer we are working on. In a normal layer we can use 10 diferent tools, and in a vector layer we can use another 10 tools.

Normal tools to use in normal layer.

Vector tools to use in a vector layer.

If you open the Toolnrm folder you will see a few small files.So what can i do with these tiny files?

Each one of these small files have a lot of information about our tools. For example let see...Ok, this will be ok. Do you see the file called 00?

if you look to the right you will see his content .a lot of parameters with numbers.intimidating? (Well, not too much when we understand what these values means.) But look at the begining, at the 3rd line. Name= Pencil. (the user gives this name to the tool.) Ok, this name it is the name for a tool. Also we can see the id. id is a number that tells SAI which too is used to build the tool, in this example the tool is built from brush,we see also de color mode in this case drawmode=2 this means the tool works in multiply mode . You get the idea? This information is relative to our tools. We are not going to change manually but of course we can do it. the program save the tools automatically when we modify some parameter. The numbers of these files(in this case 00.conf) are referring to their position in the toolbox. So this tool is the first to appear at the left corner of the tool box grid.Its a good idea have a back up of this files if we are going to manipulate them, ok?. Green coloured box. This files are simple text files. We modify them when we want to load more or less images each one of them are simply a list thad loads diferents images to be accesible inside the program.

Papertex.conf It is a text file that stores the paths of image files that we use to simulate diferent paint surfaces like paper, Canvas, watercolor paper etc... Brushform.conf It is a text file that stores the paths of image files that we use to tell SAI. Brushtex.conf It is a text file that stores the paths of images files that we use to simulate diferent effects in the brushstroke. When we are painting. Ok Open the SAI program.

So if you copy all the contents of the rar file in the right places...You have to see something like this.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 1 These are the basic tools. Box selection, lasso, magic wand, move, zoom, rotate the canvas, hand(panning) and color-dropper. Part 2 The toolBox grid Here is where we find all our tools. By default there is a simple pack but very usefull to make manga style.extremely powerfull tools; but if we want to make more classic tools. Well there we go. These all are my own tools. Not marvelous but nice with a wide range of painting styles. So lets see what we have here .... expand this pannel to see all these tools. Drawing tools. Painting tools. Smudging tools. Other tools. Oil Painting tools. This are the most common tools that we can use when we are painting, not only manga. Covers diferent aspects like Drawing, Painting, Smudging, and Others. If you like a more detailed description let me know it.

This are the tools that i use to paint in a classic way like old masters.very funny tools but not ready to make super high detailed look I really like the pencil or chalk feeling of these tools.Very nice. Perfect tools to details and sketching, or complete pencil drawings. Not very happy with these.I have to improve them. But they work well for certain tasks, In combination with layer properties and colour modes. Yeah! my testing tool is where all begins. All the tools begin like test tool .for example pencil like pencil test And if i like the result then i duplicate the tool and give a more apropiate name like 2B pencil this is how i work.

Chalk tools

Markers tools

Test tool

Part 3 You will love this panel. Simple but efective if you know how to manipulate it. We explain better later. There are lot of parameters to play with.

GOOD! You can now make your own tools. Lets make one. (You have to be In a normal layer) Right mouse click in an empty area of tool box grid. Then this menu appears. This menu show the diferent tools that we can create

select Brush from the above list. So this way we are going to create a brush-type tool. With all his own parameters. Ok? Then ,Double Click in the new tool and we see something like this.

Here we can define the tool s name. Give a brief description. (brief is just 3 or four consonants o r vowels.) We can also define a shortcut in the Key: field which is nice if we use the tool often. Press ok if you are finished. Now we have to set up the parameters and this is the most important thing to do.

Are you ready for lot of fun experimenting stuff? Here we go. 1 Color mode there are 4 modes. I usually select the normal mode or the multiply mode for some texturing tecniques. 2 Edge shape Determines how much soft or hard is the brush edge, represented by an image.

3 Size 4 Min Size 5 Density. You know also this parameter as Opacity 6 Dens

7 Tex.

8 Color blending How much color the brush picks up and blends with its own.Adjust blending with drawing and canvas color. Large values means much color blending. (We need another tutorial to see what this does exactly but experimenting is the key.) 9 Opacity Mix Matches your brush opacity with the colors opacity that you are painting on. Also called Dilution. Opacity gain in painting . Large values means low gain. (We need another tutorial to see what this does exactly but experimenting is the key.) 10 Color spread Also called Persistence. Persistence of blended color.Large values means long persistence.How much the brush will smear a color 0% none -100% until you stop dragging with your stylus. (We need another tutorial to see what this does exactly but experimenting is the key.) Keep opacity: (I dont know really what this does but... )dont decay opacity when brush move to un-painted region. 11 Advanced. When we activate this field this menu appears.

I only use the Hard-Soft parameter. It depends of the feeling of the tool. But basically controls how much pression you have to do with your stylus to get the 100% of opacity. The ticks of Pressure parameter: density size and Clr determines if this parameter is controlled by the pressure of the stylus or not. Ok? thats all to make basic brushes in Sai. The following are my own that i build to paint Mongul the Conqueror .you can see in the forum. Post link

Here i put the image of mongul the conqueror as example of what we can paint. Finished.

Tool Presets
Drawing or sketching tools This tools are used to sketching or blocking the image. The last one is the eraser. Yes! We have to erase sometimes , :P

Paint Tools I like a lot this tools. Quite digital feeling but basic tools if you want to do something with colours.

Smudge Tools In one word FUNNY. I allways look for this kind of blendings like real brush .;easy,fast,and with no spots in your t-shirt XDDD.The are usefull to blending colors in a diferent ways. You have to prove each one and choose the most apropiate.

Oils Tools Well, i spend 8 years painting Traditionally with olils (nowadays i paint with oils too) They try to imitate that feel.

Oils Smudgers Tools Like other smudgers you have to see in action to decide wich one is the best for each task. But they are very intuitive and youll catch the point in the second try.

Chalks Tools Probably one of the most accurate feels of pencil drawing or chalks in a digital world. Blends very well with the paper and his texture. I use a lot just for fun, and to learn more of Shading and values. They are great to do loose Sketches but they are very good to draw details too ,so prove them and the forest will thank you.. the 2nd for the end are erasers over black area.

I hope you have enjoyed this brief tutorial. You will find all this tools in the .rar file included with this help pack. If not ,send me an e-mail to :mirandagraphic@gmail.com lets fun with SAI, Best regards Ramn Miranda aka TheShock e-mail:mirandagraphic@gmail.com Blog : http://ramonmirandavisualart.blogspot.com
Fin del documento 28/06/2009