From the course: Learning Digital Painting

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,400 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Introduction to brush mechanics

Introduction to brush mechanics

From the course: Learning Digital Painting

Start my 1-month free trial

Introduction to brush mechanics

All digital painting apps are based around something I refer to as the brush engine. Like an automobile, this software engine drives the painting capabilities of an application. Some digital painting apps like Painter are literally all brush engine. Others, like Photoshop, utilize as a brush engine as one component of a larger digital environment. And then there are apps that are somewhat analogous to a hybrid auto, that has more than one form of propulsion. These apps have multiple brush engines, each designed to tackle a specific media emulation, like water color. In this chapter, we'll take a look at the key components of digital painting brush engines. I'll demo these concepts to provide you with a visual understanding of why these components matter, as well as when they're useful. Now, start your engines.

Contents