Alright, this simple tutorial will only guide you through the process of making a brush, more or less. You must have the full creativity to create your own brushes.
First of all, there are many
many types of brushes you can make.
There are grunge brushes, sparkle brushes, abstract brushes, motion brushes, etc. There are also several techniques to making brushes. I will only cover the way that I have come up as logical and easy to understand.
The main basis of this tutorial however is to teach you how to actually make your images into brushes, so please keep in mind that this isn't a guide you should strictly follow when making brushes, you have to experiment for yourself, entirely, and just make your own style.
Here are just three possible types of images you can make or borrow in order to make brushes.
3D Render
One interesting way most people make their own brushes, is by making an abstract piece using a 3D rendering program, such as C4D. Since I do not have this program, I would have to borrow a render. This is also another way people get a 3D render.
Photoshop Image
This is also very experimental. This is self explanitory, just make some abstract art with many of Photoshop's filters. Experimentation is key to using filters.
Ordinary Image
Possibly the easiest, you can just take any random image you find on the net, or even take yourself, and transform it into some brushes.
Ok, now that we have an idea of what we can make, let's start.
I will simply use an image of some random nature scene I found using Google.
Now, this technique is not the only way to make brushes, but I found it quite convenient and didn't make it quite as choppy, making it much cleaner.
Simply take the Lasso Tool. Set the feather to a value between 5 and 20, depending on how smooth you want your brushes.
Now, simply select a nice area where you think would make an interesting brush, like so.
Now is the important part. Here is how to define this image as a brush.
Goto
Edit > Define Brush. Name your brush whatever you wish.
Now, continue and make as many brushes as you wish.
You can also make changes with the brush options, under the Brush tab, you can change many characteristics of the initial brush.
Now, once you have finished making your brushes and defining them, it is time to set them all into one brush set.
Goto
Edit > Preset Manager.
Now, simply select all of your brushes (hold shift as you click them).
When you have selected them all, click Save Set...
Name your set and save them to your Brushes folder in the Photoshop Presets folder.
After saving, click Done and you are, in fact, done!
As a word of advice, I would recommend testing your brushes on a blank canvas before you distribute them!
Also one very useful thing you could atleast do for most people, is to increase the compatibilty. When you make brushes, it is a good idea to define them as brushes in the lowest version of Photoshop you have, preferably Photoshop 7 if you have it. If you don't have anything lower than CS or CS2, that is fine; you'll just have alot of disappointed users.
Previews are also a very useful tool in showing what it is people may download. Just simply create a wallpaper or small signature using the brushes and put some credit text on it, along with any information the user may need, such as compatibilty and number of brushes, as well as the name of the brushes.
Also, please specify what version you made your brushes in when you distribute them! This is very useful information for anyone interested in downloading them!
One brush most people make included with the package, is a credit brush. This is a simple combination of using one of the created brushes, and adding text to it before defining it as a brush. This helps to credit the maker of the brush.
Here is a preview of the brushes I made.
Good luck in making your own brushes, and be creative!
Enjoy.
Written by Demonslay.
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