Posterous theme by Cory Watilo

Tutorial-Auto Painter

Part 1 of 2. Part one. Autopainter is a powerful pattern making hub. It's versatility comes from the various parameters that can be controlled by external bitmaps. First let us look at the hub itself. The autopainter takes information from the input, scale, rotation, offset, and opacity map's corresponding pixel, applies the information to the brush, then renders it on the canvas. This is repeated across the entire canvas in the order set by the hub.
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Important tip: the size of the brush dramatically effects render time. For a more responsive autopainter render, reduce the brush size. I usually size my brushes 100 px or smaller. The smaller you can get it while maintaining the desired effect, the better.
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Fig 1 The anatomy of the AutoPainter Hub:
1. Brushes - Brush to be used to render the auto painting. 2. Input Map - Color information source. 3. Scale Map - Scale information source. 4. Rotation Map - Rotational information source. 5. Offset Map - Horizontal and vertical information source. 6. Opacity Map - Opacity information source. 7. Brush index Map - Indexed brush information source.
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Now to the nuts and bolts... Output properties: the basics.
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I am sure everyone recognizes the width and height settings used to set custom output size. The hub can inherit size from any of the input maps, the canvas or be user defined. The background color does exactly what it says, it will fill the transparent area with the set color. Setting the background alpha to 0 will leave open areas transparent. Draw mode determines the way the overlapping repeated brushes are blended. Do not confuse this with the Blending mode under the Brushes tab. This blends the brushes as they are rendered on the canvas. Brushes Properties: This is where things get interesting.
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The input map turns on/off the color information being fed from the input map source. However, disconnecting the input map will achieve the same effect. The brush coloration mode sets how the the color information is blended on to the brush. Imagine the brush on a layer and the color information on another layer above it, the coloration mode determines how the color from the input map is blended onto the brush. The Color Application Alpha sets how much of the input map's color will affect the brush. Sub category - Brush Index Mapping: Lets cut it up.
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Brush index splits the brush into different parts, then one of those pieces is used as the brush. This is determined by the brush index map. The brush Index Source will set what channel the index information is used for this effect. The column and row set how the brush is divided. Minimum and maximum brush indexes will set which indexed pieces of the brush can be used. Index Offset? Mario can give us insight about this setting, I still haven't figured this one out but I didn't want to hold up the tutorial over it. Random seed is used to change random setting of the effect. Tutorial-Auto Painter Part 2 of 2. Painting Properties: Where should I paint this?
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(Fig 2) The painting tab sets what order each brush should be rendered in.
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Order:(Numbers represent order brush is rendered.)
Random seed setting will recalculate random effect. Horizontal and vertical spacing sets the amount of distance between each brush.
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Warning very tight spacing can dramatically increase render time. Horizontal and vertical delta will push the placement of the brushes in set direction. This setting will push each successive row or column in increasing amounts. Horizontal and Vertical padding extends the brush pattern out from the canvas. When the offset or delta settings move the brushes leaving empty spaces the padding can extend the brushes out from the columns or rows to fill the voids.
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Tip: Setting order to Left to Right/Alternate and increasing the horizontal delta will produce a brick wall type of pattern
. Maps Properties: Excuse me, could you do something for me?
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This is where we can fine tune the render by passing information from external bitmaps. The Offset map displaces where the brush renders. This is determined by the information passed from the map connected to the offset connector. This produces similar effects to the displacement hub, however unlike the displacements hub, it uses the same information for the Horizontal and vertical offsets. The Offset source sets what channel information is used to produce the offset. Maximum/Minimum Horizontal and Vertical offset is used to set the range of the displacement.
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Offset Map Results
Scaling does what it implies. It scales the brush from information pulled from the scale map. Like before, the Scaling source sets what channel the scaling information uses in the scaling process. Maximum/Minimum Scaling sets the range of scaling of the brush. Random Seed changes the random pattern created only if Random Order is set in the Painting tab (See Fig 2)
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Scale Map Results The rotation map will rotate the brush with information from the Rotation Map. The Rotation source sets what channel the Rotational information uses in this effect. Maximum/Minimum Rotation will set the allowable range of rotation of the brush. Rotation Delta will incrementally rotate the brush as it is rendered across the canvas. Random Seed changes the random rotational pattern created, only if Random Order is set in the Painting tab (See Fig 2)
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Rotation Map Results The Opacity Map will change the opacity of the brush according to information from the Opacity Map. The Opacity source sets what channel the opacity information uses in this effect. Maximum/Minimum Opacity will set the range of opacity of the brush. Opacity levels will set how many distinct levels of opacity there will be. Right now it tends to produce one less step than the setting portrays. For example a setting of 4 will produce 100%, 50%, and 0% and a setting of 3 will produce 50%, and 0%. Random Seed changes the random opacity pattern created, only if Random Order is set in the Painting tab (See Fig 2).
I think anyone who has tips or tricks on how to use the AutoPainter should post them in this thread and pass on your knowledge to the community. Mpeutz