Creating an Animated Brush in Photoshop
Posted on 07. Aug, 2009 by admin in Basic
Ever since photoshop 6 came out, the paintbrush engine has been one of the main pluses for adobe photoshop. It went through major changes with each revision up until the latest CS4 version. 
You can now create many an effect such as fire, smoke, crackling sparks and textures when using the animated brush options.
Photoshop’s brush engine has been optimized to use a digitalized pen such as a WACOM graphics tablet but you can use the mouse with can give similar quality results.
This is the Maple Leaf brush options.
I am going to show you how you can create a basic animated altering brush and how to save said brush to be used over and over again. When you click on the paint brush icon in your toolbar, make sure you take note of all the options in the option bar. Click on the Brush Preset Picker as shown to the right.
You can view its different brush properties in the Brush Palette (Windows > Brushes). The panel to the left << will pop up showing us all the different options for the selected brush. Here we can change all sorts of things and its in these options that make the photoshops brushes engine one of, if not the most powerful there is.
Let’s see how each option works to create a single animated brush.
1. Select the Maple Leaf brush, and clear the check box of all its animated properties
2. When you play with the spacing scroll bar the preview window at the bottom of the brush palette will update automatically.
3. You can also fiddle with the diameter by clicking the dots on the outside of the circle and thus altering the shape and rotation of the brush you have selected.
4. Now click on the Shape Dynamics layer to grab the options for it. These options are listed on the right side. Make sure before you select the Shape Dynamic later that the preview window with the stroke of the brush shows one continuous size and spacing between the brushes. If not you need to reset all the options.
5. Slide the jitter to 89%. Notice that the stroke updated in the preview window at the bottom of the pallette. Jitter is simply a random application of a technique over the length of the stroke. With a higher percentage, comes a more dramatic and varied change.
6. Try playing with the Minimum Diameter slider. See how the size of the stroke becomes varied over the line in the preview field.
7. When you adjust the Angle Jitter slider you will notice that the brush will have a percentage of rotation over the length of each brush stroke. This is ideal for debris and some nice cloud effects.
8. When you experiment with the Roundness Jitter slide, note that this option will allow you to apply the full diameter of your mouse shape or constrict it for a elliptical effect over the length of the paint brush stroke.
9. By using the Minimum Roundness slider, you set the minimum distortion that you will apply to your image. Working together with other properties, this adds a little more control.
10. Now click on the Scattering Layer, check out the preview window. This is one property that i really adore and have used this in many of my works. It is awesome for explosions.
11. Now slide the count slider all the way to the right so it adds more of the brush effect to the scatter. When you have both Scattering and Count is use together the combination can be extremely visually powerful.
12. Now goto the Texture Later to add some presets to your brush pattern.
13. Next step is to click on the Dual Brush options as shown below, to add a custom brush preset to your animated brush you are creating.
14. To change the colors of the foreground and background swatches, click on the color swatches near the bottom for the tools palette to bring up the color picker. Choose a color for that swatch and play around with each of the sliders so you can learn what the effects do. Sadly there is no preview for this so you will have to alter each property by drawing on a layer filled with white.
15. Select the Other Dynamics Later. In this options palette you can tell photoshop HOW to apply the effects. You have options to apply the technique with with the WACOM pens pressure sensitivity, a Fade over a specified number of pixels, or use the pen tilt, stylus wheel or pen rotation.
NOTE : A Wacom Tablet is a awesome tool for any artist that likes to use a brush instead of a mouse. One of its great attributes is its capability to apply the density of a color or an effect based on the pressure applied to the tablet’s pen.
16. Congratulations! You have created your first new animated brush. Now all you need to do is to save it. Click on the small black triangle in the top-right corner of your brush pallete and select Save Brush Preset, and think up a snazzy name for your new mega brush creation!
I hope you learned a lot in the Adobe Photoshop Tutorial! Thanks for taking the time to read.
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