1

00:00:00.06 --> 00:00:02.02

- [Instructor] Alright, so

we spent a movie a piece



2

00:00:02.02 --> 00:00:04.02

on calligraphic and scatter brushes.



3

00:00:04.02 --> 00:00:07.00

I spent several movies on art brushes.



4

00:00:07.00 --> 00:00:10.01

We'll look at pattern

brushes in detail in the next



5

00:00:10.01 --> 00:00:12.06

chapter, when we talk

about seamlessly repeating



6

00:00:12.06 --> 00:00:15.06

patterns, which is why

I figured I'd be remiss



7

00:00:15.06 --> 00:00:19.01

if I didn't spend at least

one movie on bristle brushes.



8

00:00:19.01 --> 00:00:21.09

Now bristle brushes which

is the fifth brush type,



9

00:00:21.09 --> 00:00:25.02

are specifically designed for

that person who's comfortable



10

00:00:25.02 --> 00:00:29.01

with a drawing tablet and a

pressure sensitive stylus.



11

00:00:29.01 --> 00:00:31.07

Otherwise, they have limited use.



12

00:00:31.07 --> 00:00:33.08

But let's say you're that person.



13

00:00:33.08 --> 00:00:36.02

In that case, I'll go ahead

and bring up brush panel,



14

00:00:36.02 --> 00:00:39.07

and notice that this document

does contain a few bristle



15

00:00:39.07 --> 00:00:42.02

brushes down here toward the bottom.



16

00:00:42.02 --> 00:00:44.07

I'm going to go ahead and

create a new one by clicking on



17

00:00:44.07 --> 00:00:47.07

the little page icon at

the bottom of the panel,



18

00:00:47.07 --> 00:00:51.05

and I'll select bristle

brush, and then click OK.



19

00:00:51.05 --> 00:00:54.00

So you don't have to have

anything selected in advance.



20

00:00:54.00 --> 00:00:57.06

Rather, you're going to be

adjusting a bunch of parameters.



21

00:00:57.06 --> 00:01:00.06

Now your first choice is

the shape of the brush,



22

00:01:00.06 --> 00:01:03.03

and the shape is represented

by this little thumbnail



23

00:01:03.03 --> 00:01:04.03

there.



24

00:01:04.03 --> 00:01:07.05

So, in all you have 10

different shapes to choose from,



25

00:01:07.05 --> 00:01:10.08

five of which are round,

and five of which are flat.



26

00:01:10.08 --> 00:01:12.06

So notice they overlap each other.



27

00:01:12.06 --> 00:01:14.09

You've got a round point and a flat point.



28

00:01:14.09 --> 00:01:19.02

Things end with the round fan

and the flat fan and so forth.



29

00:01:19.02 --> 00:01:22.07

Alright, so I'm going to go

with this guy, round curve.



30

00:01:22.07 --> 00:01:25.01

Now, regardless of what you

select, it's only going to be



31

00:01:25.01 --> 00:01:28.08

represented by this little

graphic right here, otherwise



32

00:01:28.08 --> 00:01:30.09

the options are the same.



33

00:01:30.09 --> 00:01:33.04

And for the most part, they're

a little bit touchy feely.



34

00:01:33.04 --> 00:01:36.09

We're asked to kind of imagine

what a real-world brush



35

00:01:36.09 --> 00:01:38.03

would look like.



36

00:01:38.03 --> 00:01:41.08

Now, the one concrete option

is the size value here,



37

00:01:41.08 --> 00:01:44.06

which you can take all the

way up to 10 millimeters.



38

00:01:44.06 --> 00:01:47.04

But you can express yourself

in points if you want to.



39

00:01:47.04 --> 00:01:51.03

I could enter 12 pt for

example, and press the tab key,



40

00:01:51.03 --> 00:01:54.09

and illustrator will

automatically convert that value.



41

00:01:54.09 --> 00:01:57.02

Anyway, I'm going to take this

guy up to six millimeters.



42

00:01:57.02 --> 00:02:00.06

Then, we have three sets

of bristle options here.



43

00:02:00.06 --> 00:02:04.00

Bristle length, which would

be the length of the bristles



44

00:02:04.00 --> 00:02:06.01

if this were a real-world brush.



45

00:02:06.01 --> 00:02:08.04

Although I have to say I

don't know to what extent I



46

00:02:08.04 --> 00:02:11.01

really trust this feature,

other than the fact that it



47

00:02:11.01 --> 00:02:15.02

allows me to visualize the

effect here inside this preview.



48

00:02:15.02 --> 00:02:17.04

So, you're not going to see

the bristles grow on the brush.



49

00:02:17.04 --> 00:02:19.07

You're just going to see the

effect of the brush stroke



50

00:02:19.07 --> 00:02:20.06

change.



51

00:02:20.06 --> 00:02:23.08

But, notice if I reduce

that length value, then the



52

00:02:23.08 --> 00:02:25.05

brush and the brush stroke

get a little closer to



53

00:02:25.05 --> 00:02:26.09

each other.



54

00:02:26.09 --> 00:02:29.08

I believe that's just to

demonstrate where the brush



55

00:02:29.08 --> 00:02:33.05

stroke might land, if the

bristles actually grew.



56

00:02:33.05 --> 00:02:35.00

Then we have bristle density.



57

00:02:35.00 --> 00:02:38.00

That is how packed the

bristles are, how many bristles



58

00:02:38.00 --> 00:02:40.01

there are in the brush.



59

00:02:40.01 --> 00:02:42.09

We've got bristle thickness,

which is how thick each of



60

00:02:42.09 --> 00:02:44.05

the bristles are.



61

00:02:44.05 --> 00:02:47.07

We have paint opacity, which is

going to build up, by the way,



62

00:02:47.07 --> 00:02:50.05

and I'll show you what that

looks like in just a moment.



63

00:02:50.05 --> 00:02:53.03

But even if you go with

a low opacity value,



64

00:02:53.03 --> 00:02:56.06

you're going to have a lot of

different virtual paths piling



65

00:02:56.06 --> 00:02:58.02

up on each other.



66

00:02:58.02 --> 00:03:00.00

And notice that the brush

stroke doesn't become



67

00:03:00.00 --> 00:03:02.05

completely opaque until 100%.



68

00:03:02.05 --> 00:03:07.00

Even at 99%, we have a

little bit of translucency



69

00:03:07.00 --> 00:03:08.02

going on.



70

00:03:08.02 --> 00:03:11.04

In any event, I'm going

to take this back to 75%.



71

00:03:11.04 --> 00:03:14.05

And then you have the stiffness

option, which is going



72

00:03:14.05 --> 00:03:17.03

to define how stiff the bristles are.



73

00:03:17.03 --> 00:03:20.08

And I want to stress, all

of this is highly subjective



74

00:03:20.08 --> 00:03:23.01

and theoretical.



75

00:03:23.01 --> 00:03:24.07

But I will try to give

you a sense for what this



76

00:03:24.07 --> 00:03:26.03

looks like.



77

00:03:26.03 --> 00:03:29.01

And so I'm going to go ahead

and call this my test brush,



78

00:03:29.01 --> 00:03:32.06

and then click OK, and you

can see it appears right here



79

00:03:32.06 --> 00:03:34.00

inside the brushes panel.



80

00:03:34.00 --> 00:03:37.03

Alright, now I'll just go ahead

and hide the panel, and I'll



81

00:03:37.03 --> 00:03:40.02

switch to the paint brush tool

which is definitely going to



82

00:03:40.02 --> 00:03:43.07

be your best bet where

this tool is concerned.



83

00:03:43.07 --> 00:03:46.04

Now, I want you to watch

the cursor right there.



84

00:03:46.04 --> 00:03:48.03

Try to move it into the center

so we have a little more



85

00:03:48.03 --> 00:03:49.04

contrast.



86

00:03:49.04 --> 00:03:53.02

Do you see that thing, that's

demonstrating the angle



87

00:03:53.02 --> 00:03:54.03

of my stylus?



88

00:03:54.03 --> 00:03:57.03

So I'm now working with a

pressure sensitive stylus,



89

00:03:57.03 --> 00:04:02.01

and my Waacom Cintiq, which

happens to be a 22" screen,



90

00:04:02.01 --> 00:04:05.01

so that I can actually see

this happening in real-time.



91

00:04:05.01 --> 00:04:08.04

Another option that's

available to you is to use the



92

00:04:08.04 --> 00:04:09.05

bracket keys.



93

00:04:09.05 --> 00:04:11.09

So, if I press the left bracket

key, I will make my brush



94

00:04:11.09 --> 00:04:16.00

smaller, as represented by

that little tilt there, and if



95

00:04:16.00 --> 00:04:19.07

I press the right bracket key,

I will make my brush bigger.



96

00:04:19.07 --> 00:04:22.00

Alright, now I'm going to

paint a brush stroke here.



97

00:04:22.00 --> 00:04:24.07

And I want you to remember something.



98

00:04:24.07 --> 00:04:27.04

When we were inside that

dialog box just a moment ago,



99

00:04:27.04 --> 00:04:30.05

there were no pressure sensitive

options, and that's because



100

00:04:30.05 --> 00:04:34.05

bristle brushes are

always pressure sensitive.



101

00:04:34.05 --> 00:04:38.00

And so notice if I start

pressing pretty hard here,



102

00:04:38.00 --> 00:04:43.03

and I let up over time, that

not only does my brush grow



103

00:04:43.03 --> 00:04:46.07

less opaque, but it also grows smaller.



104

00:04:46.07 --> 00:04:49.05

Now I'm not really looking

for a black stroke, so I'll



105

00:04:49.05 --> 00:04:52.01

just go ahead and press

ctrl+z or cmd+z on the Mac to



106

00:04:52.01 --> 00:04:55.00

undo that change, and I'll set

the stroke to white up here



107

00:04:55.00 --> 00:04:58.04

on the control panel, and

then I will just go ahead and



108

00:04:58.04 --> 00:04:59.05

paint once again.



109

00:04:59.05 --> 00:05:02.06

And so now I'm pressing

pretty hard, and now I am



110

00:05:02.06 --> 00:05:04.08

releasing over time.



111

00:05:04.08 --> 00:05:07.03

Alright now, this is a

path outline just as surely



112

00:05:07.03 --> 00:05:08.06

as any other.



113

00:05:08.06 --> 00:05:11.02

If I press the v key to

switch to the black arrow tool



114

00:05:11.02 --> 00:05:14.04

and I select this guy, I

can move it to a different



115

00:05:14.04 --> 00:05:18.07

location, I can set it to a

different color if I like.



116

00:05:18.07 --> 00:05:21.05

I don't really want to do

that but that is an option.



117

00:05:21.05 --> 00:05:23.09

I'll go ahead and press

ctrl+z or cmd+z on the Mac



118

00:05:23.09 --> 00:05:25.05

to undo that change.



119

00:05:25.05 --> 00:05:27.07

I can change the line weight.



120

00:05:27.07 --> 00:05:29.05

So I can change it up

here in the control panel



121

00:05:29.05 --> 00:05:33.01

from one point to two point

like so, and that brush stroke



122

00:05:33.01 --> 00:05:34.07

will grow.



123

00:05:34.07 --> 00:05:36.08

Again, not sure I really want

to do that because then it



124

00:05:36.08 --> 00:05:38.08

starts getting kind of clogged up.



125

00:05:38.08 --> 00:05:40.09

I could apply a transformation.



126

00:05:40.09 --> 00:05:43.05

For example I could grab my

scale tool and click right



127

00:05:43.05 --> 00:05:45.04

there to set an origin point,



128

00:05:45.04 --> 00:05:48.07

and then drag in order to

stretch that brush stroke



129

00:05:48.07 --> 00:05:50.02

and so forth.



130

00:05:50.02 --> 00:05:53.05

But I also want you to

recognize that under the hood



131

00:05:53.05 --> 00:05:56.05

it is many path outlines working together.



132

00:05:56.05 --> 00:05:59.00

So notice what happens if

I go up to the object menu



133

00:05:59.00 --> 00:06:01.02

and choose expand appearance.



134

00:06:01.02 --> 00:06:05.07

I end up with a group of

a lot of different paths.



135

00:06:05.07 --> 00:06:08.06

And I can see it's a group by

the word group over here on



136

00:06:08.06 --> 00:06:10.03

the left side of the control panel.



137

00:06:10.03 --> 00:06:13.08

I'm going to press ctrl+shift+g

or cmd+shift+g on the Mac



138

00:06:13.08 --> 00:06:16.03

in order to ungroup all

these path outlines.



139

00:06:16.03 --> 00:06:18.09

Then I'll click off of

'em to deselect 'em.



140

00:06:18.09 --> 00:06:21.08

I'll grab this guy, the one

in front, and I'll drag it



141

00:06:21.08 --> 00:06:25.02

to a different location so

that you can see that it



142

00:06:25.02 --> 00:06:26.08

is independent of the other ones now.



143

00:06:26.08 --> 00:06:30.07

Notice that its opacity

value is set to 7%, and so



144

00:06:30.07 --> 00:06:33.07

what I've noticed in my

experience of playing around



145

00:06:33.07 --> 00:06:36.08

with these things, is that

if one of the path outlines



146

00:06:36.08 --> 00:06:39.07

is set to a certain opacity

value, and it's not always



147

00:06:39.07 --> 00:06:44.02

going to be 7%, it could be

11% or higher, they'll all



148

00:06:44.02 --> 00:06:45.03

be that way.



149

00:06:45.03 --> 00:06:47.06

So notice this guy's 7%, I'll

press the back space key,



150

00:06:47.06 --> 00:06:49.00

that's number one.



151

00:06:49.00 --> 00:06:51.08

This guy is 7%, I'll press

the back space key, that's



152

00:06:51.08 --> 00:06:56.01

number two, then we've got

three, four, five, six,



153

00:06:56.01 --> 00:07:06.05

seven, eight, nine, 10, 11,

12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, I



154

00:07:06.05 --> 00:07:09.06

think there's an 18th

one, working together.



155

00:07:09.06 --> 00:07:12.01

I think that's it, and so

to check I'll press ctrl+y



156

00:07:12.01 --> 00:07:15.00

or cmd+y on the Mac, and

sure enough, there's no path



157

00:07:15.00 --> 00:07:16.06

outlines left.



158

00:07:16.06 --> 00:07:19.08

So that one happened to be

18 paths working together.



159

00:07:19.08 --> 00:07:23.04

Each one set to an opacity

of 7%, but depending on your



160

00:07:23.04 --> 00:07:25.08

settings you can get

completely different numbers.



161

00:07:25.08 --> 00:07:29.02

You might have 12 paths

set to 11% opacity, or what



162

00:07:29.02 --> 00:07:30.06

have you.



163

00:07:30.06 --> 00:07:33.03

But you can definitely think

of this as being multiple



164

00:07:33.03 --> 00:07:35.06

path outlines working together.



165

00:07:35.06 --> 00:07:39.01

And the reason I really want

to stress this, is because



166

00:07:39.01 --> 00:07:43.08

Adobe's own documentation

says that if a piece of



167

00:07:43.08 --> 00:07:47.04

artwork contains more than

30 bristle brush paths,



168

00:07:47.04 --> 00:07:50.07

that it's very possible

you'll end up with an alert



169

00:07:50.07 --> 00:07:53.02

telling you that the

printability of this document



170

00:07:53.02 --> 00:07:55.00

might be marginalized.



171

00:07:55.00 --> 00:07:58.01

And so I just want you to

know the risk-to-reward factor



172

00:07:58.01 --> 00:08:00.02

associated with these things.



173

00:08:00.02 --> 00:08:02.01

Alright I'm going to go

ahead and take this guy and



174

00:08:02.01 --> 00:08:05.00

set his line weight to two

points, because he needs some



175

00:08:05.00 --> 00:08:06.08

thickening up.



176

00:08:06.08 --> 00:08:10.02

And just to emphasize one more

thing, if I select this guy,



177

00:08:10.02 --> 00:08:15.01

the opacity of the entire

brush stroke, is 100%.



178

00:08:15.01 --> 00:08:18.01

It's just that again, under

the hood, we have a bunch of



179

00:08:18.01 --> 00:08:21.05

path outlines that are set

to lower opacity values



180

00:08:21.05 --> 00:08:24.02

working together.



181

00:08:24.02 --> 00:08:25.07

And one more thing I want you to know.



182

00:08:25.07 --> 00:08:28.05

If I click in a central

menu here, in order to



183

00:08:28.05 --> 00:08:29.09

bring up the brush panel,



184

00:08:29.09 --> 00:08:33.03

and click on the library

icon, Illustrator does ship



185

00:08:33.03 --> 00:08:36.03

with an entire library of

bristle brushes, and so you



186

00:08:36.03 --> 00:08:40.04

can open it up to explore

what I imagine are a handful



187

00:08:40.04 --> 00:08:43.00

of professionally curated settings.



188

00:08:43.00 --> 00:08:45.09

And that is my look at the

potentially interesting world



189

00:08:45.09 --> 00:08:49.05

of bristle brushes here

inside Illustrator.