How To Use Brush to Write Text

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stelamoris

stelamoris

Hello everyone. In this tutorial I will be sharing my tips on creating text that were drawn with any brush of your choice. Basically, you type out your word using the text tool in a font of your liking. Then you convert the text layer to a vector layer or trace the text over on another vector layer. After that, you simplify the lines using the numerous vector features and change the brush shape to that of the brush you want the text to be drawn in.

 

 

Creating a Custom 3d Brush

You can use any clip studio brush you want, but sometimes you will want to use a brush that is not already available. For example, this 3d brush that you will now learn how to make.

 

Firstly. you want to create the 3d brush shape that you will use as your brush tip. Open a new clip studio paint document and ensure that the 'Basic expression color' is set to 'Grey'. If this is not set to grey but set to color instead, your brush will not be able take on other colors a part from the colors you made it in. You can make your canvas size 2000 pixels for both height and width at a resolution of 300 dpi.

Secondly, create a circle in the center of the canvas then fill it with black. This black will be replaced by the color you choose as your foreground color. Then, you'll want to lock transparent pixels on that layer so you don't draw outside of your circle. After that you add white to the bottom of the circle using the gradient tool. The color white will be replaced by the color you choose as your background color. Ensure you have the the black or the white set as your foreground color then use the 'Foreground to transparent' sub tool to add the black or the white. Apply colors in a way that they blend smoothly into each other

Now that you have completed your brush shape, you want to now save it as a Image Material so that it can be used by the brushes. To do that, go to the layer with your brush shape, then go to Edit > Register Material > Image. A material property window should pop up. Put the brush's name in the material name slot, and ensure that 'Use for brush tip shape' is clicked. Then over to the right of the material property window, choose where you want to save this image material. Example, you could save it in Image Material. You may also add a tag so you can easily find the image material later on. Then click OK.

Now, its time to turn your image material into a brush. The first thing to do is duplicate a brush that functions in a similar way to the brush you are making so you'll have less modifications to make. So, go to the pen tool and select the G-pen sub tool then duplicate it by clicking the 'create a copy of currently selected sub tool' icon.

With the duplicated brush selected, right click it and go to 'Settings of sub tool' and a windows will pop up where you can change the name of your brush. Change it then click OK. Additionally, with the sub tool still selected click on the wrench icon at the bottom right of the sub tool property and a 'sub tool detail window' for the brush will appear. This window will show all the possible changes you might want to do to your brush. Go to the 'Brush Tip' option and at the 'Tip Shape' option click 'Material' then click the add material icon then search for your image material using the tag or by scrolling until you find it. Or drag and drop it in the space provided. The go to the 'Stroke' option and make sure the Gap is set to Fixed and the Spacing is set to the lowest which is 0.1.

Then go to the 'Brush Shape; option and click the 'Register to preset' option. You should see your brush added to the list of presets. Finally click the 'Save all settings as default' option below.

 

 

Test out your brush to see if you like the result and make changes if necessary.

 

 

 

The Text

Now you want to type out your words using the text tool using a script font because these mimic cursed handwriting. I recommend using the 'Script MT Bold' font because all the lowercase letters can be joint together with one fluid stroke. For the uppercase letters however, the letters: B, D, F, I, N, O, P, S, T, V, and W. All of this is shown below.

Luckily, you can manually joint them as shown in the image below.

Before you joint them though, you must think about which approach you will take to convert your text into a vector.

 

The first approach is to convert the text layer to a vector layer, then use the vector sub tools to delete and connect points so that there is only one line connecting and forming all the letters of a word. This also involves joining the letters that didn't joint when you typed them. This will probably be time consuming.

 

 

The second approach, which I really recommend using over the other, involves keeping the text layer as it is and lowering it's opacity. Then create a vector layer over it and trace the text with the G-Pen using one stroke only. This means no stopping. But if you do stop, you will have to go back and connect the points so that they connect smoothly.

 

Then use the many features under the Operation Tool to adjust your vector line so that it is smoother and matches the text below.

Editing your Vector Script

Follow these steps on how to make your vector line simpler and smoother.

 

1. Click the Operations Tool icon to the left of the screen. On the right of the screen you will find the Tool Navigation heading with four icons below it, the : Object Tool, Control Point Tool, Pinch Line Tool and the Adjust Line Width Tool respectively. Select the Control Point Tool icon. You will now see a different set of brushes on the sub tool window on the left.

 

 

 

2. Select the Simplify Vector Line sub tool and set it to the second degree in the tool property window. Also increase the brush size so you can easily apply the effect over the entire vector script. If you were to click the Control Point sub tool and hover over the vector script with your cursor, you will see less control points there than before.

 

 

3. Select the Pinch Vector Line sub tool. I recommend to set the pinch level to the second level and adjust the size of the brush using the 'Effect Range' slider in the tool property window. Then move parts of the line so that it matches more with the script text on the layer below.

 

 

4. Then, select the Control Point sub tool. In the the tool property window below, you will see 'Process' where you can change the process to be carried out when you click or drag a control point.

 

 

 

5. With the process set to 'Switch Corner' click all the yellow control points to switch them from a sharp corner to a smooth corner, thus turning them green.

 

6. Set the Process to 'Move Control Point' to move a control point by clicking it then dragging it to where you want it.

 

7. Set Process to 'Add Control Point' to add a control point in the spot where you click on the vector line.

 

8. Set Process to 'Delete Control Point' to remove the control point you click on.

 

9. Repeat steps until the line of your vector script is smooth and matches more with the script on the layer below.

 

 

Use any Brush to write Text

Now that you have your words on a vector layer, with each made up of one stroke or connecting paths. You click the operations tool icons and choose the object sub tool. In its tools property window below, click the drop down arrow at 'Brush Shape' then it will show you the list of presets. Scroll until you see your brush which will be there once you followed the previous steps and clicked 'register preset' when you were making your 3d pen.

 

After you've chosen your custom made 3d-pen, you will now see your text written in the 3d-pen. You can adjust the brush size to get the words as thick as you like.

 

  • You may also use other brushes apart from your 3d-pen. Just register them to presets then chose them for the brush shape.

 

Below is the result when the brush shape is set to our 3d-pen.

 

 

 

Below is the result when the brush shape is set to Spray.

 

 

 

Below is the result when the brush shape is set to Melody.

This is the end of my tip. You can check out the video below so you can see the steps. The video has subtitles so please turn them on. I hope you all found this useful. Thank you for reading.

 

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