Adding Brushes

[Oracle Ofjamie]

   

      I am trying to add the brushes in Krita to the vector brush folder in OpenToonz under library.
 All the Vector brushes are a .pli in OpenToonz.  Krita's brushes are .png, .gbr, .gih. Is there a way to convert Krita's
 brushes to be compatible with OpenToonz. If not, has anyone found another source of extra brushes I can add to
 OpenToonz to create Ras. or Vect. drawings?

[Rodney]

Oracle,

A vector brush is the same (or similar enough) to a Level file (drawing) in OpenToonz so... you should be able to draw a short line in Krita save that out as an image, bring it into OpenToonz, convert to vector and save the .pli out (via Save Level As).

Alternatively you could open the drawing of the brush stroke in OpenToonz and redraw it from scratch using the vector format.  

In testing this theory I thought I should give making a brush a try so I looked up Krita brushes.... borrowed one... and created a new custom brush.

Not bad.  Now I just have to figure out how to optimize them.  :)

Thanks for asking the question.

I learned something!  :)

Here's an example of my first custom brush.  A bit blah... but hey, it's my first!

Edit:  I probably should have suggested that you open a brush from the Library as a Level in the xsheet so that you have an initial template/size to start with.  Examine a few of those brushes to see what works best, placement of the brush image etc.  Then save the level out in the vector brushes folder UNDER A NEW NAME OF COURSE.  Don't overwrite the other custom brushes that are already in the folder.

[Greg Smith]

O.K., Rodney - you like fiddling with this kind of thing  .  .  .   how about it?

Your first custom brush is excellent - (I can use that right now) - how about making a "Rodney Library" of custom brushes?

I trust your excellent taste and judgement to supply only the very best.

Greg Smith

[Rodney]

I trust your excellent taste and judgement to supply only the very best.

Greg,

I think you should know me better than that. I'm strictly quantity over quality here.  hehe

But of course, if I have something to share please know that I surely will.

I have not yet experimented with animated brushes but fully expect that to be explored in the future.

I've only a theory to go on at this point and haven't tested it out.  If not already an option that will lead to a feature request.

I am thinking about sharing some brushes but am only now learning about this process myself.

BUT... Today as I experimented with creating new brushes I ran into some stability issues**.  That may relate to malformed custom brushes that I have created or it may be related to use of nightly build.  I reinstalled and haven't had a similar problem since.  I do think that I need to learn -the proper- way to create custom brushes because at this point I'm creating brushes that work but is that really the way they are suppose to be made?  AND how does one add options/settings so the user can further adjust the brush via the Settings tab?

Your first custom brush is excellent - (I can use that right now)

I'll have to look for the brush I created before because it was just a test I'm not sure if I saved it (I vaguely recall I named it 'test' but don't see a test brush when I look in the directory today. I don't delete things often so I probably have it.

I have attached a different brush I named 'dotsa' that works well for a few applications.  I can see it working well for manga-style speed lines for instance.

Disclaimer:  Use at own risk.  Save any work before using this brush.

**This stability issue relates to loading of Levels but I have not yet been able to document it clearly enough to submit a bug report.  I'm sure the bug will get fixed though because if others are experiencing the same thing it will be pretty obvious.

Thanks for your interest.

@Oracle

Sorry for running away with your topic.

If there is anything that still needs explored with regard to adding brushes let us know and we'll refocus on that.

Hopefully you can at least access the custom brushes that are already there and if you can point me to any particular brush style in Krita (or elsewhere) I'll try to use those in my experiments.

[Greg Smith]

Thank you, Rodney.  I think you're gonna figure this out.

For us folks who are lazy - do you think you could write the process for installation in a " 1, 2, 3, 4" list?  That's the way my brain works, anyway.

Greg Smith

[Rodney]

do you think you could write the process for installation in a " 1, 2, 3, 4" list? 

I think I can do the easy version in three steps.

As with most things in life there are more complicated and longer ways to do the same/similar thing.

1) Open a Level (.pli file) from the Library at the root of your OpenToonz installation.

Specifically, open the following file: C:\OpenToonz 1.1 stuff\library\vector brushes\circle.pli

This will serve as your brush template.

2) Draw something inside and/or outside the circle

Be creative. (But because this is your first custom brush... don't be too creative)

3) Save the Level under a new name

Specifically, save the file as:  C:\OpenToonz 1.1 stuff\library\vector brushes\circleNew.pli

*Don't save the file over the original circle.pli file unless you want to get rid of that one...

4) Create a new Scene and draw with your new brush.  :)

Drawing with any custom brush follows the standard procedure of creating a new style, going in to the tab to select your brush (that's the Vector Brush tab), and then changing the color (if desired) via the Plain tab. 

Drat.  That was four steps but technically that last one doesn't count.

A few additional notes:

Restarting OpenToonz

While it certainly won't hurt to restart OpenToonz after you've added a new brush you shouldn't need to do that.  The new brush should be available immediately. When in doubt restart to clear out all the cobwebs.

Opening of Levels can create a crash

I haven't heard others report on this but I often get a crash upon trying to load Levels via standards means (in particular, right clicking on a cell in the xsheet and selecting Open Level).  The two ways I have the most success.is via drag and drop from the files location into a cell in the xsheet and via the main menu's File/Load Level.

Using a current brush

Opening a current brush and editing that helps in several ways but I suspect the primary way is that it makes sure the file is the right size for a brush.  I think some of my problems before relate to creating a .pli file that was malformed, specifically huge.

Other things I've failed to mention

Once you've create one brush the process is easy to remember.

Give it a try and report back on how well it works for you.  :)

Added:  Sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference between the various brushes on the Vector Brush tab.  If we hover our mouse over a brush a tool tip will appear that tells us the name of the brush.  In our case we are looking for a brush named 'CircleNew'.

.

[Rodney]

Trying to save over the top of a brush we are currently using isn't a good idea.

That tends to result in a crash.

[Rodney]

I should also add...

There are a lot of other things we can do to enhance our custom brushes and create new and very cool effects.

Just because we design a brush a certain way doesn't mean it ends there.

Because the brushes are vector lines we can use tools such as the Pump Tool to improve our results.

This is true both for creating the brush itself and for manipulating the line created with the brush after we've drawn on the canvas.

[Rodney]

Most of the brushes I've been working with are for line drawing but I hope to experiment more with some of the painterly brushes too.

The majority of vector brushes on the Vector Brush tab are for line work.

Here's a quick test of a brush that uses cross hatching:

[Rodney]

I've always wanted to set up some form of Kirby Krackle (as seen in Jack Kirby's well known classic comic book work).

Here's an initial attempt at a brush for that effect.

I find it rather appropriate that KirbyKrackle is my first animated brush attempt.  :)

This definitely doesn't capture the Kirby Krackle effect but it's getting there.

It would make a good basis for a splattered paint effect.

[Greg Smith]

Rodney:

Thanks for your work on this.  I'm particularly interested in "painterly" brushes which can be used to add artistic "shading" to an object.

Have you figured out how to make these sorts of brushes for Raster Levels?

Greg Smith