MARCH 13, 2002
The Photoshop 7 Paint Engine, Part 2
A closer look at new creative tools
 by David Nagel
Page 3 of 3

Other Dynamics
The last major set of dynamics is simply labeled "Other." There are only two controls in this dynamics palette, but each is important for the overall feel of the stroke. [an error occurred while processing this directive]

Opacity Jitter, of course, varies the opacity of the stroke over the course of the stroke. And Flow Jitter varies the flow. Observe the Flow Jitter in action in yonder movie below.



And the rest
And finally we come to the last five parameters in the new paint engine. These are simple, one-trick parameters that do not allow for adjustment and probably won't even have too much of an impact on the look of a stroke that uses several of the other dynamics. These include:

  • Noise, which simply roughs up the edges of a stroke a bit;
  • Wet Edges, which, as with the Wet Edges parameter in Photoshop 6, mutes the inside of the stroke to create a wet edge look;
  • Airbrush, which enables airbrush-style buildup;
  • Smoothing, which smoothes the path of the stroke (not the appearance of the elements in the stroke);
  • Protect Texture, which preserves the texture pattern.

So that about covers it for the new paint engine in Photoshop. For more general information about Photoshop 7, be sure to read our "first look" article at http://www.creativemac.com/2002/02_feb/features/photoshop7firstlook.htm. If you're more interested in painting tools for your computer, be sure to check out Painter at http://www.corel.com and Synthetik Studio Artist at

Dave Nagel is the producer of Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; host of several World Wide User Groups, including Synthetik Studio Artist, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe LiveMotion, Creative Mac and Digital Media Designer; and executive producer of the Digital Media Net family of publications. You can reach him at dnagel@digitalmedianet.com.

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