This tutorial was written using and
is intended for use in Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006. There are other
methods for making and installing art strokes, however, the techniques here were
outlined by kimlizzy, MJ Greene (mjgicy) and Yvette. Please contact me at
mjgicy@yahoo.com if you have any questions or concerns
There are a couple of things you need
to think about and do before you actually start creating the art stroke.
SECTION I: PREPARATION
A.
1. Create a temporary folder on your
desktop to hold the new files you will be making. You may name it anything you
wish, it will be deleted at the end of this tutorial. I have named mine “My New
Art Strokes”. You will be creating five files for this folder. One .txt file,
one .bmp file and three .png files.
2. Navigate to the Artstrok folder
in the Microsoft Digital Image program directory. You can find it under
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Digital Image 2006\PiFiles\Paint\Brushes\Artstrok
Right click on any one of the .txt
files and choose “Copy To Folder…”
In the window that pops open, find
the folder you created on your desktop and choose “Copy”
3. Decide on a base file name for
your art stroke. You don’t need to change any file names at this point. Just
keep the name in mind for steps that follow later on. So that you can easily
identify the art strokes that YOU have created, I suggest you name them with
your initials and an identifying term such as feathered, wavy, brushed, etc. In
this example I will use my initials, ‘mjg’ and the word lattice, because I am
going to show you how to make an art stroke that resembles a lattice pattern.
So, the base file name will be “mjglattice”. You will add a number pattern and
file extensions to this base file name later in the tutorial.
SECTION II: CREATING THE IMAGE FILES
A. CANVAS SET-UP
1. Open your Microsoft Digital Image
editor
2. Click on FILE >
NEW
At “Select a canvas size:”
-choose ‘Custom’ from the drop-down
menu
Go to the “Units” field and select
‘pxl’ in the drop-down menu
-enter 486 for the Width and 166 for
the Height.
Choose Landscape
3. Click DONE
4. Go to INSERT> SHAPE
-choose the Square
5. Go to FORMAT> SHAPE OR LINE
-choose LINE THICKNESS
-choose NONE for outline thickness
6. Click OK
7. Go to FORMAT> RESIZE OBJECT TO
FIT CANVAS
-choose STRETCH TO FIT
8. Go to EDIT> LOCK
9. Go to EFFECTS> FILL WITH TEXTURE
OR COLOR
-choose Black
10. Click DONE
11. Go to FILE> SAVE AS
12. Choose .png as your file type
and save with the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION, step 2,
adding the number pattern 1_11 and the extension .png Save it to the temp
folder you created on your desktop in SECTION I: Step 1. My example will look
like this: mjglattice1_11.png
B. MAKING THE ART STROKE
There are many ways to make the art
stroke. This section of II: CREATING THE IMAGE FILES (Section B) simply
outlines steps I took to make the Lattice Art Stroke illustrated. Sections C
and D remain the same no matter the technique you use. Once you are comfortable
with the procedure outlined here, you may use any tools, textures, stamps,
filters or combination of those to create your own original art stroke.
A note about basics:
It works best if you use a black
background with white or light colored effects, but you can flip it and use a
white background with black or dark effects. It makes for an unexpected look in
your art stroke! You can use color, however it will not appear as color in your
finished art stroke. It will only appear as a shade of gray. You may add color
to your art stroke after it is installed and you are using it in a project.
1. Go to EFFECTS>PAINT
BRUSH>FREEHAND
At “Select a paint tool:”
-choose: pencil
Click a paint color: white
Click a brush size: 40
2. Click on “Customize paint
settings…”
At “Click a brush shape: first angled
shape
-Adjust transparency to 40
3. Dot the “pencil tool” across the
length of the canvas and then repeat with the second angled shape creating the
lattice effect.
4. Click the small button at the
bottom with the arrow pointing to the left to go back.
5. Click DONE Click OK if you get a
pop-up asking if you want to continue applying this effect.
6. At this point you may have to re-center
your layer.
Go to FORMAT> CENTER OBJECT ON CANVAS
7. Click on FILE> SAVE to resave the
file.
C. THE OTHER TWO .PNG IMAGE FILES
1. Open a blank canvas as instructed
in section II. A. CANVAS SET-UP, this time entering the dimensions of 1753 for
the Width and 210 for the Height and then click DONE.
2. The first file you created should
still be in your files palette in the editor. If it is not, open it and click
on it to make it the active image.
3. Go to EDIT> COPY
4. Now make your blank canvas the
active image.
5. Click EDIT> PASTE
6. Go to FORMAT> RESIZE OBJECT TO
FIT CANVAS
-choose STRETCH TO FIT
7. At this point you may need to re-center
your image.
Go to FORMAT> CENTER OBJECT ON CANVAS
8. Go to EDIT> LOCK.
9. Go to FILE> SAVE AS
10. Choose .png as your file type and
save with the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION, step 2, adding
the number pattern 1_12 and the extension .png Save it to the temp folder you
created on your desktop in SECTION I: A. Step 1.
My example will look like this:
mjglattice1_12.png
11. Repeat the above steps 1-10 for
the next file, but use the dimensions of 179 for the Width and 123 for the
Height and saving this file with the file you choose in SECTION I: A.
PREPARATION, step 2, adding the number pattern 1_10 and the extension .png
Save it to the temp folder you created on your desktop in SECTION I: A. Step 1.
My example will look like this:
mjglattice1_10.png
D. THE .BMP IMAGE FILE
This is the thumbnail that you will
see when you open the tool options to choose your art strokes when your editor.
Please note that no matter what your finished art stroke looks like, your .bmp
image MUST be on a white background with black effects in order for it to show
up in the editor thumbnails. Making this image a negative is the simplest and
quickest way to do this.
1. Make the original file created
(mjglattice1_11.png) the active file in your editor
2. Go to EFFECTS> NEGATIVE
This is what your image will look
like now:
2. Go to FORMAT> RESIZE IMAGE
3. Adjust Pixel Dimensions to 140
for Width and 32 for Height
4. Click DONE
5. Go to FILE> SAVE AS
6. Choose .bmp as your file type and
save with the file name you choose in SECTION I: A. PREPARATION, step 2, adding
the number pattern 1_1 and the extension .bmp Save it to the temp folder you
created on your desktop in SECTION I: A. Step 1.
My example will look like this:
mjglattice1_1.bmp
Click OK if you get a pop-up box
asking you if you want to save as a flat file.
7. Close your editor and navigate to
the folder you created on your desktop.
SECTION III: CREATING THE TEXT FILE
1. Go to your desktop, open that
folder, find the text file you put there in SECTION I: A. step 2,
and open it.
We will be editing six of the lines
in this document. *It is important that you enter the correct file names and
appropriate index number in this document as this is the file that the program
reads when you tell it to use your art stroke.
2. The first line you need to edit
is the “index” line.
Replace the number there with any
number NOT listed below.
In my example I choose the number 9.
**The following index numbers were
installed when you installed Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, so you should
NOT use them: 1 2 6 7 8 10 11 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 25 27
28 29 31 36 38 41 44 48 51 54 55 59 61
Remember to make note of this list
and add any additional numbers if necessary so that you can keep track of all
numbers in use in YOUR program.**
3. The second line to edit is the
“Display Name” line.
This is the name that describes what
the stroke actually looks like in your project. (It is totally subjective, so
don’t worry too much about this one. You could even name your art stroke(s)
after your kids or pets if you wanted to!) In this example I choose the name:
Lattice
4. The third line to edit is the
“Thumbnail File Name” line.
Replace the file name there with the
.bmp file name.
In my example it will look like
this: mjglattice1_1.bmp
5. The fourth line to edit is the
first “Brush File Name” line.
Replace the file name there with .png
file containing the number pattern 1_10
In my example it will look like
this: mjglattice1_10.png
6. The fifth line to edit is the
next “Brush File Name” line.
Replace the file name there with .png
file containing the number pattern 1_11
In my example it will look like
this: mjglattice1_11.png
7. The sixth line to edit is the
last “Brush File Name” line.
Replace the file name there with .png
file containing the number pattern 1_12
In my example it will look like
this: mjglattice1_12.png
This completes the editing of the
text file. Check to be sure you have no typos in your editing.
8. Click on FILE>SAVE AS
Enter the file name you choose in
SECTION I: A. PREPARATION, step 2 in the “File name:” field adding the numbers
1_1 and the extension “.txt”
9. Click “Save”. Be sure you are
saving this file to the temporary folder you created on your desktop in step 1
above. You may close this text document.
10. Go to the temporary folder you
created on your desktop. There will be two .txt files there now, one named with
your file name and the other that is the original we opened for editing. Delete
the original one.
SECTION IV: INSTALLING THE FILES
Your temporary folder should be open
and you should now see the following files:
mjglattice1_10.png
mjglattice1_11.png
mjglattice1_12.png
mjglattice1_1.bmp
mjglattice1_1.txt
1. While holding down the Ctrl key,
Hit A, to select all files.
2. Then EDIT> “Copy To Folder…”
3. Navigate to the Artstrok folder
in the Microsoft Digital Image program directory. You can find it in under
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Digital Image 2006\PiFiles\Paint\Brushes\Artstrok
4. Click on the “Artstrok” folder to
highlight it and then click “Copy”
5. Close your “My New Art Strokes”
folder and open Microsoft Digital Image Suite editor.
Now you can see how it looks in a
project!
There are two ways you can use your
new art stroke, as an edge or as a paint brush.
To use as an edge: Go to EFFECTS>
EDGES then click on “Art Stroke…”
To use as a paint brush: Go to
EFFECTS> PAINT BRUSH then click on "Art Stroke..."
Under “Select a brush stroke:” find
your art stroke edge. They are arranged alphabetically, so, hover your mouse
over them to see the display name, or you might recognize it on sight.
Adjust the settings to your liking.
Once you see that your art stroke is
installed in the program, you may delete the temporary folder and all the files
you created on your desktop at the start of this tutorial.
Here is the Lattice art stroke
created with this tutorial and a couple others I have made. Experiment with
colors, layering and using different strokes together. Have fun!
