How Do I... Create Brushes? Is it possible?

[I Racer]

Hi all.

Apologies if this has been asked, but I've searched the forum and the web and can't find anything.

Can you create your own brushes? If so, how?

Thank you.

[Maestral]

[I Racer]

Thank you for the link, but I'm still confused. Perhaps I missed something.

This video only shows how to use brushes that you've previously save as .PNG files.

I tried creating a simple vector, for use as a 'test' brush, and saving it as a .PNG file to the relevant folder, but the option to save as .PNG is not there.

In Photoshop or Illustrator you can actually create and save your own brushes, so do you have to create a 'brush' file in PS or ILL, save it as a .PNG and then import it as a brush into MOHO?

If so, is there a restriction to the dimensions that you draw/save your .PNG brush in PS or ILL?

[synthsin75]

You can create your own brushes in Moho.
1. Set your project dimensions to a square, so the brush doesn't have it's short side stretched.
2. Draw whatever you want and render it (Ctrl+R).
3. At the bottom of the render window there's a Save As dropdown where you can select PNG.
4. Save it to the brush folder in your custom content folder.
5. Restart Moho to make the new brush available (or hit Ctrl+Shift+Alt+L to reload scripts and brushes).

[Greenlaw]

It's pretty straightforward actually.

1. Create your brush shape and save it as a .png.

Ideally, it should be created and saved with transparency...but it may not matter because I think Moho just looks at the luma values for transparency. (Maybe somebody can confirm this.) I'm not sure there's an upper size limit but don't make it much bigger than you will actually ever use...that may unnecessarily slow down performance. I've typically done 300 px. If you really need a stroke thicker than that, you might be better off painting the full artwork elsewhere and importing it as an image layer.

2. In Moho, select Open Custom Content Folder. Open the Brushes folder. Create a folder for your brush and place the file for it inside. Back in Moho, press Ctrl-Shift-Alt-L...this forces Moho to reload its active contents, like newly added brushes or scripts for example.

3. You should now see the brush inside the Brush settings window. If you make any changes to the settings be sure to click Save Brush.

I think that's all there is to it.

It's been a while since I used the custom brushes feature. From what I recall, there was a potential AA render issue with the edges for some brush art. That problem might have been fixed because I haven't noticed the issue for some time, but then I've pretty much stuck with the brushes that didn't have the problem. It's probably fine but FYI.

[I Racer]

Fantastic! It worked.

Thanks so much for helping me out, folks.

Happy Christmas!

[hayasidist]

Ideally, it should be created and saved with transparency...but it may not matter because I think Moho just looks at the luma values for transparency. (Maybe somebody can confirm this.)

Right now "black" in a brush file with "tint using stroke colour" means 100% opacity of stroke colour; and white or transparent means 0% opacity of stroke colour (and all points in between). whilst that's generally OK, there's an enhancement request logged in the usual place: 33158

If you don't use the "tint", then you can put anything in the brush file (multi-coloured whatever...) and those images will appear along your stroke.

Interesting question re luma as I've never hitherto bothered to see if there's actually a difference between a brush with (say) black at 10% opacity and white at 10% opacity - but now I have: when using tint -- it looks as though white is the same as 0% opacity whatever its opacity. It also looks as though primary R, G both give the same opacity = 40% with primary Blue at 20%. So not the "strict" definition of luma (neither BT.601 nor 709 coefficients) - and I'm not going anywhere near gamma correction - but it looks like an approximation using 0.4R + 0.4G + 0.2B

[Greenlaw]

Thanks for the explanation! That's very useful to know.

After reading your description, I'm not sure about my luma comment. The problem I mentioned was chattering or poor anti-aliasing in certain brushes. From what I recall, the more contrast the brush had, the better it looked...but not always. But maybe this is actually because Moho was hard clipping the brush transparency instead of making it gradually transparent?

I really should check if this is still an issue in Moho. I'm guessing that it is.