creat **real** brush strokes

[jens g.r. benthien]

Glow posted in the 'New Gear' forum that link to an app which I think comes in handy if you want to create natural looking brush strokes to use them in Xara.

http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

It's stunningly simple and perfect for all of you who didn't want to spend a fortune on Painter ;-} - it is FREE!

Here is what Glow wrote about it:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> This little app is no where close to being as robust in features as Painter Classic,rather it is so basic that most anybody, even a non computer friendly grandparent sitting with grandchild, can jump on it right away and draw something without being intimidated at all. That's sort of the beauty of it, yet even a more experienced user can still open it up and throw away life's noise's for a while and just draw for a bit. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

On my machines it is robust and stable, so you should give it a try. And be prepared that your computer will be used by your children the next weeks ;-}

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[jens g.r. benthien]

Glow posted in the 'New Gear' forum that link to an app which I think comes in handy if you want to create natural looking brush strokes to use them in Xara.

http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html

It's stunningly simple and perfect for all of you who didn't want to spend a fortune on Painter ;-} - it is FREE!

Here is what Glow wrote about it:

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> This little app is no where close to being as robust in features as Painter Classic,rather it is so basic that most anybody, even a non computer friendly grandparent sitting with grandchild, can jump on it right away and draw something without being intimidated at all. That's sort of the beauty of it, yet even a more experienced user can still open it up and throw away life's noise's for a while and just draw for a bit. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

On my machines it is robust and stable, so you should give it a try. And be prepared that your computer will be used by your children the next weeks ;-}

jens g.r. benthien
designer
http://www.sacalobra.de

----------//--
If you don't know how to dream you'll never be a designer.
----------//--

[Thatch]

Well, I'm impressed. I spent about 5 minutes with it and probably used all the tools it has, but that is one of the really nice things about this app. It is what it is, and it does a really nice job of it.

I'd certainly recommend people take a look at it.

J

[FLySOLO]

nice clean app but no zoom or pan? very easy "instant action" usage. nice interface too :b

FLy

[bcire68]

Jens,

Excuse me for being a newbie, but how do you import the brush strokes into Xara X? I was hopeing to be able to use the brush strokes as Xara brushes, but can't figure out how to do that.

I mean, I know you can export from Artrage and Import into Xara, but only as bitmaps, so how does that help me get to where I want to be.

I would be grateful for any help.

[Sheff]

Artrage is a nice little program, but if you have Painter or Photoshop,you really don't need it. It can only export bitmaps, not vectors. You cannot zoom or pan and there is no eyedropper tool.

This is a toy for fun. You can get good using it with practice, but I think the simplicity of the interface will fight experienced users too much to be practical or productive.

And in my opinion, Painter is worth it's cost. One assignment using it can more than pay for the cost of the program.

If you want to try a program that is better than Artrage, but cheaper than painter or photoshop try openCanvas. It's only $70US. Limited brush controls, but when used with a tablet it 'feels' really good.

You can download a demo at portalgraphics.net.

[Lottie]

A rather belated reply to bcire's enquiry.
But now that I can create brushes with the new Xara without it crashing http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/biggrin.gif I thought I'd show my first experiment.

The best brushes (at the moment) in Artrage are the oil and palette knife and I wanted to make a brush in Xara that highlighted the way the brush picks up paint in Artrage.

The square is the imported (cropped bitmap) and the two circles are the brushes, after that it's just a matter of tinkering with the edit brush parameters.

Lottie

PS. These brushes don't really work in the 'old' XaraX, it brings up an error message and the bitmap doesn't really follow the brush. I think this has been noted in other posts.

[bcire68]

Lottie,

Are those circles then, circular transparancies of the bitmap square? The way you created them is unclear in your post.

Thanks

[Lottie]

They're circles with a bitmap fill and then a circular transparency applied.

Here's the Xara file for you to have a play with: http://www.talkgraphics.com/images/smilies/smile.gif

Lottie

[Lottie]

And another, this time I've sharpened the bitmap to enhance the ridges of the paint and used a rectangle as brush, again with transparency.

I find that turning tile fill off when editing the brush gets rid of bitmap 'seams' and decreasing the spacing makes the brush smoother.

If you need anymore info, just ask.

Lottie

PS. plus I cheated and put a shadow on the line.