Using brushes for masking!

[heyvern]

I don't know if this has come up before but I can't remember seeing it. Using BRUSHES for MASKING! It's fun and cool!

For example I was struggling with my "hairy" characters. I wanted to simplify them from a vector and shape stand point... I wanted to cut down on the numbers of shapes keeping the character very simple and still have a nice shaded effect with the "suggestion" of hair in some locations. I didn't want to use vectors for this because the hair brushes are so much easier to create and use. Creating vector hairs is so tedious.

The hair brushes I use work well for creating simple hair but I am using two shaded effects on the main fill to create directional lighting (2 shaded effects, one light, one dark in opposite directions). If the main "fill" of a shape is "shaded" the hair doesn't blend in to the fill shape because it can only be one color. Putting a shaded effect on the brush is almost impossible to line up with the fill shape. The color of the brush will not match the shaded effect of the fill shape as the vectors move around.

So, I don't use the hair brushes for coloring the strokes. I put the hair brush IN A MASK for the shape. I "expand" the vectors of the fill shape with the shaded effect BEYOND the edges to cover the hair in the mask. So actually the main layer for the shape of my character is just a rough "blob" outline that has the shaded effect. It moves with the bones of course but it's main purpose is to create a large shaded shape that the MASK layer reveals.

The MASK with the brush image creates the actual outline of the character. Since the brush is in the mask the shaded effect is all one "piece" so to speak.

I love this!

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Another trick. Custom soft edge mask brush images.

For example, a bicep that fades into the shoulder. I created a simple brush that starts out with a solid edge that is blurred at one end. In AS I have a standard vector fill shape for the main mask. I then put in a short, two point vector and create a shape, add the brush image to that shape. Make the vector short enough and set spacing on the brush so only one brush image shows up.

I then line it up with the other vector shape so it is like an extension of it. I adjust the width of the stroke so it matches the width of the vector shape. This creates a soft edge fading blur on the end of this mask layer that can be used to fade out a bicep into a shoulder. It creates a type of blurred mask that can't be created in AS but it's all on one layer.

This is a really easy way to use IMAGES as MASKS without needing an extra image layer. Just make your image a big brush image and include it in a vector layer.

I plan to make this my next video tutorial.

-vern