I wanted to share this link that was shared with me for Brush Pilot. This is an app for organizing photoshop brushes. In addition to doing a great job of that, it can also convert .abr files to .png with transparent backgrounds. I thought some might find this useful when making and experimenting with brushes in ArtRage. With this link you can get Brush Pilot for $12.00, less than half the regular price. I personally used the link to buy the app and it worked fine. I should mention I believe this is a Mac only app.
To make creating sticker sheets a bit quicker out of the black & white PNG files exported from Brush Pilot, or indeed any other image, I've made a simple Finder Service workflow with Automator that will convert any selected images into pure red, i.e. Red 255, Green 0, Blue 0.
To instal:
Double click on the Automator file and you will be asked if you wish to install the Service or open it first with Automator. (In OSX 10.8.5 it will be installed to; Home Folder > Library > Services)
After installing, if you Right Click on an image in Finder, at the bottom of the popup menu that opens, under Services you will see the option 'Convert To Red'.
Dropbox Link: Deleted as this version really didn't work out!
While I was playing around with creating new sticker brushes from some abr files, I came across the Import Photoshop Brush option on the Sticker Spray presents menu, which works like a charm!!!, can't believe I didn't know about this. It saves the trouble of exporting to png, converting to red and then the other bits and bobs of importing them into ArtRage. I had a little look on the forums and some abr file formats didn't seem to be quite compatible with ArtRage, but I must have got lucky!
I also had a look in the manual, (only a little sketchily, using find and a quick glance) and couldn't find mention of this feature.
Hi RedSaucers, thanks glad you like it
Yes a lot of times you can just simply import .abr brushes and go from there.
I perhaps should have said earlier though, that there are a couple of advantage in making Sticker Sheets out of different individual PS brush heads. One is that unlike a normal PS brush which just repeats one image, AR can alternate between different images all in the one brush head.
The other is that you can easily switch which Sticker Sheet to use in the Sticker Spray Settings panel.
At the moment I'm experimenting with some grunge/texture brushes using different images in the rows and columns to give a more random, organic look.
And then of course there is still Gloss, Texture and Metallic one can add. And on two levels! So lots of potential to play with here I think.
That is great Mark! I had no idea what Automator was (well I still don't but thanks for the script)! Only problem I'm having is my converted png has a red stroke but a much light red tint fill. Any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Hi jmac,
Interesting… nothing should be being added to the red version, as all the script dose is convert what's already there in the original .png to red.
All the .abr brushes that I've converted so far have come out fine.
Could you post the before and after png images of the brush head that's misbehaving for you?
The only area of some unpredictability I've found so far is when converting colour images containing actual white or near white areas. The white areas will remain white and when used as a Sticker Spray, AR doesn't seem to know quite what to do with them! Note the odd grey areas in the purple image on the left.
I seem to have lost (read forgot to save) the original black version of the brush. All of the circles were solid black. I'll have to remake it. But here is the Convert to Red version.