Mysterious brushes

Hello,

I'm learning about the brushes an the various settings involved to get the desired strokes.

http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/swirls.asp Please scroll to step 7 and note the 2nd picture.

I want to get the faded stroke on both ends of my stroked path. I'm currently only able to get it on one end.

How do I go about getting the thickness of my stroke to appear in the middle of my path and then fade evenly out at both ends.

my brush setting are:

soft brush 5px
Shape Dynamics: Size Jitter 8%, Control set to 'Fade' at 90%, Minimum Diameter 24%, Angle Jitter, 7%

Any advice is much appreciated
Regards
Fess

hey Fess, who better to answer this one...

go to the link below for a simple screeshot i put together for u
http://www.heathrowe.com/images/other/stroke.gif

Obviously, you must be aware this was done in version 7
1. Noramlly, you'd think to use the 'Fade' Control on the Shape Dynamics, but instead I used 'Pen Pressure'
2. Then when u go to Stroke the Path, tick the 'Simulate Pressure' option before you hit the OK


you can see in the preview window how it actually turns out...

that should do the trick
hope it helped, if not I'll be around

cheers
heathrowe

Heathrowe,

That's funny........your answering this post. I figured you had you hands full so I chose the forum instead of your contact page.

Well your advice proved successful. I new there was a more productive way to achieve this effect than below:

-make two paths on two sep layers.
Stroke and fade them the same and link them-

Obviously, you must be aware this was done in version 7

Yes, fully aware since I'm using PS7 and have about 1 years education in it. Before, I use Microsoft Image Composer.

Noramlly, you'd think to use the 'Fade' Control on the Shape Dynamics, but instead I used 'Pen Pressure'

I never occurred to me to use this option because I thought it was strictly for Wacom's pressure sensitive tablet.

Thanks for the help...

I'll take this opportunity to say that I'm slowly doing all your posted tutorials and they are informative with 2 in particular:

The 'Ball Shape & Texture: Blending Modes' & 'Tube Shapes' are excellent.

These 2 tutorial have thought me a respectable amount in regards to applying and knowing what to expect from layer styles. I've done them multiply times an now do them from memory alone.

This is great to aid my learning, not to copy your style but to get an in-depth orientation with Photoshop an its amazing capabilities.

I am constantly learning Photoshop, an I see not limit.

You categorized the 2 above tutorials as 'Intermediate'. I thought it was fairly hard at first, not intermediate. I would like to see what you consider 'Advanced'. Hopefully you can allocate some time an make a 'Advanced' tutorial.

Regards
Fess

good stuff Fess
glad to be of help..

as for the various Controls, i'll admit, for me it was fluke that i stumbled upon it, and with so many of them, ya almost need to write down what your doing with the various effects they can achieve.... there's so much to the Brush Engine, its almost endless... nevertheless, great learning...

glad ya liked the tuts more on the way when I get more free time from clients and contracts...

happy Photoshoping...
cheers
heathrowe