Impressionist plugin: Tips, Tricks and Miracles

[DannyRaphael]

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Have you ever noticed when using the Brush panel in the Impressionist dialog it can be difficult to tell some brushes apart? Me, too. The thumbnail images are TINY!

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I have found that it is easier to distinguish among the individual brushes by using a program that displays larger thumbnail images. It makes no difference which program you use for this purpose -- Adobe Bridge, Thumbs, Faststone Viewer (the one I use - http://www.faststone.org/), whatever, including a Windows Explorer window with View > Thumbnails -- as long as the thumbnails images are larger and can be seen in more detail than from within the Impressionist Brush dialog.

So, what's the point?

1. After a lot of experimenting one can start getting a feel for which of Impressionist's 170 installed presets "work for you" and which "don't."
* Use Impressionist's Brush panel to determine the file names of "favorable brushes" used by "favorable presets," the ones that render results you like.
* Then, use the thumbnail viewer program you can more closely examine "favorable brushes" and try using them -- or others that look interesting -- with different "favorable presets."

2. Image dimensions are listed in some thumbnail viewer programs. This can be helpful in determining appropriate pixel height, width and resolution for your own custom brushes.

Have fun...

~Danny~

[DannyRaphael]

I used Photoshop to get my results, but the concept applies to most image editing programs:
* Create a new layer
* Select > All
* Edit > Stroke, Color and Width = your choice, (x) Inside
* Impressionist > Crayon > Short choppy strokes** 2 times
* Impressionist > Charcoal > Default 4 times

Ta-da: Instant rough-edges.

** Note: The combination of Impressionist presets and the number of times to apply them is completely up to you, so EXPERIMENT!

~Danny~

[Bob Mc]

Good Ol' Impressionist. Gotta love it for all you can do with it.

A while back I found out that there was a limit on the number of brushes. You could load many but only a certain number showed up. I wish I could remember the number that showed. Does anyone know that limit?

Also is there a limit to the number of set files that it can see? Anyone have sets that you couldn't see? Or can you only have one set file at a time?

You can tell that it's been a while since I really got into it

Hope someone can help

Thanks

Bob Mc

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Bob Mc

Good Ol' Impressionist. Gotta love it for all you can do with it.

A while back I found out that there was a limit on the number of brushes. You could load many but only a certain number showed up. I wish I could remember the number that showed. Does anyone know that limit?

Also is there a limit to the number of set files that it can see? Anyone have sets that you couldn't see? Or can you only have one set file at a time?

You can tell that it's been a while since I really got into it

Hope someone can help

Thanks

Bob Mc

Bob... See http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...eshooting.html

...for max number of .set files. (I could tell you here, put posting the link = you [and others] will have the opportunity to learn other stuff from this thread. ) Reminder: The name associated with the .set file shows up as a Category entry in the Styles dropdown menu.

It's possible to exceed the number of custom styles without exceeding the number of allowable .set files. This number of custom styles is in the hundreds. I don't believe I ever nailed down the specific max.

Symptoms:
* Category entries show up in the Styles menu, but not all styles show up in the submenus. There is no warning msg.
* If one tries to save a new custom style (via Save dialog), an error message is displayed.

Corrective action:
* Start removing .set files out of \User Settings until all styles show up in the menus. It's kind of a trial/error kind of thing.

[DannyRaphael]

Bob... See http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/pho...eshooting.html

...for max number of brush files (370).

2nd post (Cheryl's).

[Bob Mc]

Thanks Danny
Somehow (?!) I missed going down that thread

Bob Mc

[DannyRaphael]

Originally Posted by Bob Mc

Thanks Danny
Somehow (?!) I missed going down that thread

Bob Mc

No worries... that kind of trivia sometimes get buried on the rubble. I'm glad to help people find stuff around here!

[allieok]

Thanks a million everyone for the presets. We are iced in this morning, so I'm going to play now.