Be with friends! Join NeoExtreme’s forum to discuss Neopets, find tips and tricks, and to have fun! Jump to the forums or if want to know more, read our tutorial!

Designing Brushes

Last updated 11 Mar 2007
Thank you for using our NeoExtreme tutorials! We are pleased to know that we have helped you in some way today. If you have any questions or concerns about our tutorials, please contact us.

Preview: Brush Example #1

Preview of what the finished product will look like

Preview: Brush Example #2

Preview of what the finished product will look like

Preview: Brush Example #3

Preview of what the finished product will look like

Tutorial

Now for what you came for!
Before we begin this guide, please note that creating brushes takes creativity, thought,r esources and generally a good knowledge of the program. I'm hoping by showing YOU examples of how I made some brushes it'll push you in the right direction. Most people don't even know how to design a brush, maybe this tutorial will provide some insight. If not, ihateyouforbeingsolame.

Please be sure to look at how to define your brush in this tutorial. This tutorial may teach you how to design one, but it doesn't teach you how to turn it from picture to an actual brush.

Brush Example 1.1: Using Fonts

Now for what you came for!
I'll start off this this first because its probably the easiest font to make.

1. First, open a new document. You may doing this by going File > New. Although if you're not sure how to do that, you shouldn't be reading this tutorial.

2. The two fonts I used were Helena and Carnivalee Freakshow and lucky for lazy you I've put them on the NeoExtreme Graphic Resources (along with some other brushes I've made). Go download them and install them into your computer.

3. Pick a word or two words you like, such as "malicious" or "lost love". Heck, even your name if you're that self centered. *cough my ex boyfriend cough cough*

4. Paste a letter on the Helena font on size 72 font. Since this font is a copyright font and is ONLY a demo, some letters say "DEMO" on them. Try picking a letter that doesn't say that.

5. After, use the Carnivalee Freakshow font to paste the rest of the letters. I used size 24, but you can use whatever size you prefer.

6. Once all the text is placed in the way you like, switch back over to Helena and go back to size 72. Using the SAME COLOUR as you did for your other fonts, paste another single letter, such as "S". 7. Place the "S" over top the other things, as seen below.

8. Turn the opacity of the "S" or whatever letter you chose down to 5-10 or whatever looks best for you. You can resposition the "S" if you want as well.

9. Move the "S" letter layer down below all the other layers. Your layers should now go as follows: S, L, ost love.

There, using creative text to make a brush!

Brush Example 2.1: Using Shapes

Now for what you came for!
1. By using the Custom Shape tool you can use a bunch to make a brush. If you want more custom shapes, read this tutorial (don't worry, the more custom shapes are already in PS and require no download, just for you to append them).

2. This is the hard part. You need to look at the shapes to figure out a cute brush. For me, I did a bow and a key. Together it looked like it was a key gift, and you could imply its the key to your heart (silly little thing I did for my friends and Logan <3).

Brush Example 2.2: Using Shapes

Now for what you came for!
1. This tutorial will require you to know how to place an image inside another and lucky for you we have a tutorial for that! Its a very simple tutorial, please read it over.

2. We're going to make a stamp! Make a new document. Fill the background with a colour such as aca370.

3. Then I added a grain filter (Filter > Texture > Grain. (intensity: 5, contrast: 50).

4. Use some fonts or more custom shapes to design a basic shape you'd like to use as a stamp.

5. Merge all the layers together.

6. Use the stamp tool to outline a stamp, place your design into the stamp by using the tutorial from step one. You can even used already made images to make stamps as seen below. :)

Brush Example 3.1: Using Shapes

Now for what you came for!
1. Now that you've learned using shapes and fonts, let combine the two to make a brush. First, make a new document.

2. Paste the text you want to get in the inside.

3. Use the Rounded Rectangle tool and create a decent sized shape overtop the text. (I made the following transparent with the outline so you could see what I meant but its originally gray as seen in the right image). Rasterize the shape layer.

4. Duplicate the shape layer. Then go to Edit > Transform > Scale and scale it by about oh, 85% ish? Maybe more than that. You'll get the same image only a bit smaller. Crop this image and make sure all the other layers are invisible by clicking the eye piece (in other words, make this new scaled image the ONLY image on your document). Go to Edit > Define Brush Present and turn this piece into a brush.

5. Use your new made brush as an erase on the 1ST SHAPE, THE BIGGER NON SCALED ONE. This will erase the centre and leave you with a nice outline.

6. You can now use the eraser tool to use basic Photoshop brushes to create grunge look. You can even rotate and add paint splatters like I did. :)

Neoextreme is proud to be sponsored by Budgethost.ca. Check out Budgethost.ca to get the best deals for your website!
Print