3D Textures Tutorial, Page 2

Tutorial : Creating Textures for 3D

By Michael Hirsh.

Page 2 of 4

Part 2: Create the Canvas for the Texture

Use File > New, and create a canvas of 400 (X) by 300 (Y) with a transparent background. Set the Resolution at 300 dpi.
Immediately add three new layers, and call them "back", "middle", and "front".
Switch to the first (lowest) layer and fill it with a dark green rectangle. This will represent the solid "centre" of the 3D hedge, and if you like, you could punch a few random holes in it with the Eraser Brush to suggest light coming through the hedge.

The solid dark green background.

Now For The Fun Bit...

Now you must go into the Brush Setup... dialogue boxes to import your newly created brushes.
Either double click the thumbnail of the brush in the Paint > Size tab, or press the button marked Brush Setup...
In the picture below, the brush thumbnail is the black square with the cursor inside it.
I've chosen to adapt the Solid Brush, because of its simple presets.

Enter the wonderful world of brush setups by going through the square window.

You will be faced with a dialogue box with six tabs. Click on the "Type" tab.
You should see "Solid" in the Name box. Underneath this box are two radio buttons, one for Standard Brush Styles, and one marked: Use imported file. Click the Use imported file radio button, and then check the Use imported Color checkbox, as below.

Because the Thumbnail Browse button (below the Filename box) will only allow you to preview brushes stored as .CVS or .RIR, you must use the regular Browse... button.


Tell Satori the type of brushes to import...	and where to find them

Browse to the .PNG brushes that you have stored in your /Brushes folder and click on the first one in the sequence.
I have called my seven by a name that will ensure that they are first in the list, but you could call yours anything you want.


Yes, Fireworks has hijacked my file association for .PNGs!

Satori will immediately detect a sequence of image files and offer you an exciting new dialogue box called Movie Brush. This one is very useful.
Click the radio button for "Use Multiple Files", and then look at the number in the "Use this many files" box. It accurately reports the seven brushes you saved.

What is going on here is a workaround for a minor bug in Satori, because when you actually start to use the brushes only six of the brushes will come into use.
If you had only saved the six original brushes and tried to use them all, you'd find that you had just five to play with.
This is the reason for saving the first one twice. So always save one for use as a dummy to fool this bug in Satori, (at least until it's fixed).

For the moment, then, seven equals six. I hope that's clear!


Your brushes are now in the Movie business	and set to behave suitably randomly

Press OK to finish with this Movie Brush dialogue box for now. We'll come back to it again later.

If you were to go ahead and use the brush now, you'd probably find a trail of bunched up leaves following your cursor.
What is wanted is a random scattering of leaves that will build up to an almost solid wall of foliage, so there is one more parameter to adjust.

Click on the Response tab of the Brush Setup... dialogue box, and way down at the bottom you will find the Application Distance (% of brush) spinner. Set this to around 175.
This setting will allow a space between your leaves of about one and three quarters the size of the leaf. Remember your brush is 100 pixels square, with a bit of empty space around the leaf shape itself.
You can always adjust this spinner to get looser or tighter settings between your leaf dabs.

I left the Opacity checkbox ticked, to avoid too harsh a look, but play with this setting for a different feel.

This spinner affects the gaps between your leaves.

One last thing before you exit the dialogue box, it's the all-important button at the bottom: "Apply Now".
It does exactly what it says, but for some reason does not automatically close the dialogue box. You have to do that yourself.

Don't forget the Apply Now button to save your changes.

And... Action!!!

If all has gone well, you ought now to see your first leaf brush in the brush thumbnail of the Paint > Size tab.

You will be painting in the Layer you called "back". Choose a brush size of 36 or so, and go to page three to see what happens next.

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Tutorial : Creating Textures for 3D

By Michael Hirsh.

Page 2 of 4

Part 2: Create the Canvas for the Texture

The solid dark green background.

Now For The Fun Bit...

Enter the wonderful world of brush setups by going through the square window.

Because the Thumbnail Browse button (below the Filename box) will only allow you to preview brushes stored as .CVS or .RIR, you must use the regular Browse... button.

Tell Satori the type of brushes to import...

and where to find them

Browse to the .PNG brushes that you have stored in your /Brushes folder and click on the first one in the sequence.
I have called my seven by a name that will ensure that they are first in the list, but you could call yours anything you want.

Yes, Fireworks has hijacked my file association for .PNGs!

For the moment, then, seven equals six. I hope that's clear!

Your brushes are now in the Movie business

and set to behave suitably randomly

Press OK to finish with this Movie Brush dialogue box for now. We'll come back to it again later.

If you were to go ahead and use the brush now, you'd probably find a trail of bunched up leaves following your cursor.
What is wanted is a random scattering of leaves that will build up to an almost solid wall of foliage, so there is one more parameter to adjust.

I left the Opacity checkbox ticked, to avoid too harsh a look, but play with this setting for a different feel.

This spinner affects the gaps between your leaves.

One last thing before you exit the dialogue box, it's the all-important button at the bottom: "Apply Now".
It does exactly what it says, but for some reason does not automatically close the dialogue box. You have to do that yourself.

Don't forget the Apply Now button to save your changes.

And... Action!!!

If all has gone well, you ought now to see your first leaf brush in the brush thumbnail of the Paint > Size tab.

You will be painting in the Layer you called "back". Choose a brush size of 36 or so, and go to page three to see what happens next.

Get ready to spray foliage...

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Tutorial : Creating Textures for 3D

By Michael Hirsh.

Page 2 of 4

Part 2: Create the Canvas for the Texture

The solid dark green background.

Now For The Fun Bit...

Enter the wonderful world of brush setups by going through the square window.

Because the Thumbnail Browse button (below the Filename box) will only allow you to preview brushes stored as .CVS or .RIR, you must use the regular Browse... button.

Tell Satori the type of brushes to import...

and where to find them

Browse to the .PNG brushes that you have stored in your /Brushes folder and click on the first one in the sequence. I have called my seven by a name that will ensure that they are first in the list, but you could call yours anything you want.

Yes, Fireworks has hijacked my file association for .PNGs!

For the moment, then, seven equals six. I hope that's clear!

Your brushes are now in the Movie business

and set to behave suitably randomly

Press OK to finish with this Movie Brush dialogue box for now. We'll come back to it again later.

If you were to go ahead and use the brush now, you'd probably find a trail of bunched up leaves following your cursor. What is wanted is a random scattering of leaves that will build up to an almost solid wall of foliage, so there is one more parameter to adjust.

I left the Opacity checkbox ticked, to avoid too harsh a look, but play with this setting for a different feel.

This spinner affects the gaps between your leaves.

One last thing before you exit the dialogue box, it's the all-important button at the bottom: "Apply Now". It does exactly what it says, but for some reason does not automatically close the dialogue box. You have to do that yourself.

Don't forget the Apply Now button to save your changes.

And... Action!!!

If all has gone well, you ought now to see your first leaf brush in the brush thumbnail of the Paint > Size tab.

You will be painting in the Layer you called "back". Choose a brush size of 36 or so, and go to page three to see what happens next.

Get ready to spray foliage...

Main Page

Software Page

Tutorials Page

Page 3 >>

Browse to the .PNG brushes that you have stored in your /Brushes folder and click on the first one in the sequence.
I have called my seven by a name that will ensure that they are first in the list, but you could call yours anything you want.

If you were to go ahead and use the brush now, you'd probably find a trail of bunched up leaves following your cursor.
What is wanted is a random scattering of leaves that will build up to an almost solid wall of foliage, so there is one more parameter to adjust.

One last thing before you exit the dialogue box, it's the all-important button at the bottom: "Apply Now".
It does exactly what it says, but for some reason does not automatically close the dialogue box. You have to do that yourself.