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Thick Paint - Media controls

To customize Thick Paint brushes, you can adjust the paint and the painting surface from the Thick Paint - Media panel (Window Brush Control Panels Brush Media Thick Paint - Media). All controls in this panel are available for both Thick Paint Bristle and Thick Paint Palette Knife brushes.

Type

You can set the brush to apply, plow, or erase paint, with or without adding grain. The following paint types are available:

Paint types from left to right: Paint, Paint with Grain, Plow Paint, Plow Paint with Grain, Erase

Deposit

Deposit controls let you adjust how paint is deposited on the layer.

Rate helps you set the speed at which the paint is deposited. The faster the rate, the more paint is deposited along the brushstroke, and the faster the brush will run of paint. High Rate values produce thicker and shorter brushstrokes; low Rate values produce longer and thinner brushstrokes.

Rate values: low (left), high (right)

Brushstrokes made at low rate (left) and maximum rate (right)

When you use an expression such as velocity or pressure, you can vary the deposit rate by using your stylus. The Min Rate control lets you set the minimum rate of paint deposit for the linked expression. For information about expression settings, see Expression settings.

Rate Jitter allows you to vary the deposit rate in a brushstroke. Low values produce smoother and more uniform brushstrokes; higher values result in more varied, organic-looking brushstrokes. For best results, specify a value close to the Radius Jitter value.

Rate Jitter values: low (left), high (right)

Smoothness lets you smooth the deposit rate jitter in a brushstroke.

Smoothness values: low (left), high (right)

Brushstrokes from left to right: without Deposit Jitter, with Deposit Jitter, and with Deposit Jitter and Smoothness

Canvas

Canvas controls affect how the current brush interacts with existing paint.

Wetness determines the wetness of the paint on the canvas and lets you adjust how much paint is picked up by the brush. Higher Wetness values result in more paint being picked up by the brush.

Wetness values: low (left), medium (middle), high (right)

Expression allows you to vary wetness by using your stylus. Min Wetness lets you specify the minimum wetness value of the paint on the canvas.

For example, if you choose pressure as an expression, the harder you press with the stylus, the more paint is picked up by the brush. You can reverse the effect of the expression by using the Reverse button so that light pressure increases paint wetness instead of decreasing it.

Grain Height allows you to set how high the grain is. Higher values reveal more paper grain.

Grain Height values: low (left), high (right)

Droplets

The controls in the Droplets area let you control the size of the paint drops that the brush deposits on the canvas.

Radius allows you to adjust the radius of the paint droplets applied by the brush.

Radius values: low (left); high (right)

Expression lets you choose a real-time input factor such as the pressure or direction of your stylus to vary the droplet size. If you don’t want the paint drops to be too small, you can set a minimum radius value by using the Min Radius control. You can also reverse the effect of the linked expression on the droplet radius by using the Reverse button .

Radius Jitter lets you vary the radius of the paint droplets. For best results, specify a value close to the Rate Jitter value.

Smoothness lets you smooth the radius jitter.

Sample brushstrokes from left to right: without Radius Jitter, with Radius Jitter, and with Radius Jitter and Smoothness

Spacing controls the distance between the droplets of paint.

Spacing values: low (left), high (right)

Hardness controls how the paint droplets join together. High values create ridges in the brushstrokes, making it appear coarse. Low values create softer brushstrokes with more gradual transitions in height.

Hardness values: low (left), high (right)

To adjust the media of a Thick Paint brush Back to Top

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