how to make perfect lines look natural?

[Lee^-]

hi

i wish to find some sort of filter which makes perfect straight lines a little less...perfect

its cause i have a perfectly drawn grid with equal rectangles and perfect perpendicular lines (drawn via the shift + click method), and I wish to make the grid as if it was drawn by hand, to a certain extent, to make it look more natural - yet not too shakey!

im fiddling with the WAVE and ZIGZAG distortion in cs2 but its not quite it

thanks
L

[J Wilson]

Have you played with the brush properties and turned on a little scattering "jitter"? The lines will stay straight, but you'll get a slight bumpiness to the line.

[Lee^-]

Have you played with the brush properties and turned on a little scattering "jitter"? The lines will stay straight, but you'll get a slight bumpiness to the line.

i'm trying them right now - it looks like an interesting feature (didnt knew about it)... it might help a little to get nearer what i have in mind

any other ideas are much welcome!

thanks again

[Datameister]

If you're using shift, yeah, scattering can help a little. Gotta be subtle with it, though. You can also just try manually painting little nicks and waves in the lines - I wouldn't recommend filters, though, as those tend to produce results that look every bit as fake and digital, albeit in a different way.

Of course...you COULD just do it all freehand for real. I don't find that fun or easy in the digital medium, but if you really want it to look freehand, that's gotta be the most "authentic" way...

[Tricknique]

I would experiment with one or more of these very subtly:

-Skew
-Perspective
-Median
-Add Noise + Gaussian Blur
-Motion blur (off-axis angles)
-Liquify (pressure 1)

[PieterV]

Use presure sensitivity for size and opacity, use a non-circular dab (oval works great too). Learn to use the dual-brush feature, it's an incredibly powerful feature that most people don't know how to use.
Vary the flow on your brush to change the "wetness" of the brush.

[daveneale]

you can try making a selection of your lines, going to the path pallet, choosing "make path", and playing with the tolerance

[Lee^-]

many thanks guys

all these little tips are helping me finding also newer ways to achieve what i have in mind

daveneale ur path trick worked well (tho for once, gotta retry it) in addition to others

however i'm still not sure about the dual brushes?... i'm not to good with photoshop
i'm googling for somet tutorials but havent found any for cs2

any links pls?
thanks again!

[Datameister]

Well, when it comes to digital painting, not much has changed since version 7. So if you can find painting tutorials for Photoshop 7, CS, CS2, CS3, or CS4, almost everything they say will work for you. There've certainly been significant modifications and additions to the program, but the brush engine is pretty much the same.

[Eccentric]

Of course...you COULD just do it all freehand for real. I don't find that fun or easy in the digital medium, but if you really want it to look freehand, that's gotta be the most "authentic" way...

And if freehand is too much you can put your perfect lines on another layer and trace over them.

[Lee^-]

And if freehand is too much you can put your perfect lines on another layer and trace over them.

yea i tried that but i tend to shiver a lot when drawing slowly to follow the line

[Chison]

use your digi-pen draw with a real-plastic-ruler ????
you can modifly your line by make some small bump on you plastic ruler

[Datameister]

yea i tried that but i tend to shiver a lot when drawing slowly to follow the line

In that case, try drawing more quickly - it's impossible for me to get a smooth line with my tablet if I move the stylus slowly, but fast strokes can come out quite smooth while still looking...freehand. Do it on a layer so that you can make the stroke longer than you need to, and then erase out the excess at both ends. Works quite well. And if you get CS4, you can rotate the canvas so that you can work at a suitable angle.

[Lee^-]

yes i sometimes try with long strongs, i will try with the bumped ruler - never thought of it! might work

thanks again guys

[jfrancis]

The Dissolve blend mode turns blurry edges speckly. The median filters turns speckly edges rough.

Good for torn paper, grungy type, rough edges.

http://www.digitalartform.com/archiv...lve_blend.html

[jfrancis]

I wish to make the grid as if it was drawn by hand, to a certain extent, to make it look more natural - yet not too shakey!

im fiddling with the WAVE and ZIGZAG distortion in cs2 but its not quite it

thanks
L

Use the pen tool. pull a point here and there to give a slight curve. stroke with a brush.