OCTOBER 30, 2002
The Photoshop 7 Paint Engine, Part 2
Dual brush dynamics
 by David Nagel
Page 2 of 3

Unfortunately, selecting a dual brush is not all that simple. The Dual Brush preview does not give you the option of viewing the brush tips with names,, so you'll have to be able to pick out the one you want from a pretty crowded selection. In my case, I know what the brush tip shape looks like and its diameter, so I'm able to locate it after a little effort.

The default settings (shown above) do not give us much in the way of revealing our brush texture. So we need to make some adjustments. First, change the spacing to something like 15 percent or so. This will reveal your texture more or less, depending on the velocity of your stroke. (The example below begins with a slow stroke and then speeds up.)

[an error occurred while processing this directive] Next, adjust the Scatter up to 1000 percent (the maximum). Try the brush with and without the "Both Axes" option selected. Below you'll see the brush without (left) and with the "Both Axes" option.



You can also reduce or enlarge the diameter of the dual brush in order to reveal the texture of the brush in patterns. Here's I've reduced the dual brush diameter to 10 pixels, creating a dotted effect.



Finally, you can change the "Mode" of the dual brush to create variations. Each one changes the way in which the underlying dual brush reveals the primary brush. Below, from left to right, you'll see Multiply (default), Darken, Overlay, Color Dodge, Color Burn, Linear Burn and Hard Mix.





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