Corel Painter IX Operating instructions

PIXUserGuide.book Page 2 Thursday, August 26, 2004 10:43 AM

Corel® Painter™ IX User Guide

The contents of this user guide and the associated Corel Painter software are the

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to the About Corel Painter section in the Help menu of the software.

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and PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM are trademarks or registered trademarks of

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trademark of Pinnacle Systems, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

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Other product, font, and company names and logos may be trademarks or registered

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Corel's licensor(s) makes no warranties, express or implied, including without

limitation the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular

purpose, regarding the software, Corel's licensor(s) does not warrant, guaranty,

or make any representations regarding the use of the results of the use of the

software in terms of its correctness, accuracy, reliability, currentness, or

otherwise. The entire risk as to the results and performance of the software is

assumed by you. The exclusion of the implied warranties is not permitted by

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incidental, or indirect damages (including damages for loss of business profits,

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the use of, or inability to use, the software even if Corel's licensor has been

advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some states do not allow the

exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the

above limitations may not apply to you.

007094

Featured artists

Ryan Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chet Phillips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Christopher Welch. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Jeremy Sutton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Cher Threinen-Pendarvis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195

Don Seegmiller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271

John Taylor Dismukes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325

John Ryan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355

Andrew Jones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Table of contents i

Table of contents

Art by Ryan Church: Concept painting for a movie scene

Welcome to Corel Painter IX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What’s in This User Guide? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

What’s New in Corel Painter IX?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

How to Use the Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

How to Sign Up for Free Training from lynda.com. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

How to Access Corel Support Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Art by Chet Phillips: Newspaper illustration

The Basics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Working with Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Setting Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Getting Started with Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Managing Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Editing Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Art by Christopher Welch: Concept vehicle design

Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Getting Started with Color. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Working with the Mixer Palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Working with Color Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Setting Color Variability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Viewing Color Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Setting Color Expression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Working with Gradients . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

Textures, Patterns, and Weaves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Using Paper Texture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

ii Table of contents

Using Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

Using Weaves. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Art by Jeremy Sutton: Digital portrait painting

Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Exploring Brushes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Marking the Canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144

Exploring Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148

Working with Fill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163

Watercolor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Getting Started with Watercolor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169

Working with Digital Watercolor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Liquid Ink. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Working with the Liquid Ink Layer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Using Liquid Ink Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176

Impasto. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Getting Started with Impasto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179

Adjusting Surface Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Image Hose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191

How the Image Hose Works. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

Getting Started with the Image Hose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193

Art by Cher Threinen-Pendarvis: Digital landscape painting

Customizing Brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

Getting Started with the Brush Creator. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Managing Settings and Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Managing Custom Brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263

Art by Don Seegmiller: Concept character painting

Table of contents iii

Cloning and Tracing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Cloning Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273

Using Cloner Brushes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278

Turning Other Brushes into Cloners. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288

Image Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Working with Surface Texture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

Mosaics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Getting Started with Mosaics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308

Placing and Customizing Tiles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Art by John Taylor Dismukes: 3D Halloween concept design

Using Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Getting Started with Shapes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327

Creating Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330

Editing Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339

Transforming Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345

Combining Shapes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351

Art by John Ryan: Animation storyboard for a radio commercial

Animation and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Creating Animations and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Getting Started with Movies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

Modifying a Movie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367

Rotoscoping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369

Saving and Exporting Movies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 378

Art by Andrew Jones: Character design for a video game

Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Understanding Printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385

Getting Started with Printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Ryan Church is one of the leading concept artists working today. He has worked with clients such as

Walt Disney Imagineering, Universal Studios, Industrial Light and Magic, and Lucasfilm. Ryan

is currently a Concept Design Supervisor for Star Wars: Episode III, and a Senior Art Director at

Industrial Light and Magic.

Art by Ryan Church: Concept painting for a movie scene

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 3

Welcome to Corel Painter IX

Corel® Painter™ IX is the leading Natural-Media® painting application.

Corel Painter lets you simulate a wide range of art tools — from felt pens, charcoal,

and colored pencils to watercolor and oils.

What’s in This User Guide?

The Corel Painter IX User Guide is divided into nine sections. Each section describes a

collection of tools you can use to create digital artwork and provides step-by-step

instructions. In addition, artwork by a renowned digital artist is featured at the

beginning of each of the nine sections to demonstrate what can be achieved using

Corel Painter IX.

The content provided in this user guide describes the most common tasks performed in

Corel Painter IX. Please note that it is not an exhaustive reference for every tool. If you

require detailed information about topics that are not discussed in this user guide,

please refer to the application’s Help system.

What’s New in Corel Painter IX?

Corel Painter IX adds a range of tools and features that increase performance, fuel

creativity, and further extend compatibility with other industry-standard tools and

applications. With improved Help, tutorials by world-class digital artists, and free

lynda.com videos, getting started with Corel Painter is easier than ever.

4 Corel Painter User Guide

Performance and Productivity

Increasing the overall speed, performance, and stability was a top priority for

Corel Painter IX. Working closely with Apple, Intel, and AMD, Corel engineers

created improvements and efficiencies wherever possible. Corel Painter has never been

a more efficient and powerful application.

Improved Speed

This is the fastest version of Corel Painter yet, with some brushes up to 10 times faster!

Brushes now perform, on average, twice as fast. In addition, users can now change the

default scratch disk location in the Preference settings.

New Welcome Screen

Getting down to the job at hand has never been easier, thanks to the Corel Painter IX

Welcome screen, which launches on startup. Divided into four sections, the Welcome

screen gives quick access to recently used files, tutorials, brush and color-management

settings, and even artwork from renowned Corel Painter masters.

Brush Control Palettes

New Brush Control palettes provide easy access to all brush settings and controls.

Making on-the-fly changes to brush settings and variables is as simple as dragging a

slider — without any disruption to workflow.

For example, the new Boost slider, found in the General palette of the Brush Controls,

instantly enhances brush speed. Just drag the slider and see brush performance

accelerate.

Frames-per-Second Control

Animators can now test frame rates directly in Corel Painter. With the new Frames-

per-Second Control, frame rates can be set and previewed in a range of 1 to 40 frames

per second.

Rotate/Flip Canvas

Entire images can now be easily rotated or flipped directly in Corel Painter. Image

composition is easily verified at the touch of a button.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 5

Customizable Shortcut Keys

Corel Painter now offers creative professionals an unprecedented level of control over

their workflow by enabling complete customization of shortcut keys. A handy

printable template for keeping a quick reference is included.

Multiuser Support

Corel Painter now supports multiple users on both the Mac® and Windows®

platforms. User files are stored in the user file directory, ensuring that users in a

networked environment can retain individual settings and preferences. In addition, all

settings are easily reverted to the default without having to reinstall the application.

Tracker Palette Enhancements

The Tracker palette stores historical information about every brush stroke that is

applied to the canvas. Acting as a "virtual brush diary," the Tracker palette tells the

story of an image created with Corel Painter IX brushes. Brushes used in the last

session can be recalled in the next, and favorite brush variants can be locked so that

they are always readily accessible.

Iterative Save

Iterative Save enables users to quickly save sequentially numbered versions of an image

with a simple menu command. The first time Iterative Save is used, "_001" is

appended to the filename. Each subsequent time the number increments by 1, and a

new sequentially numbered file is created.

Creativity

Corel Painter IX delivers an impressive array of new features that provide

unprecedented power to replicate natural media, and dazzling new effects offer more

options than ever.

Artists' Oils Painting System

The Artists' Oils Painting System is a milestone in the evolution of digital art. This

new painting system enables users to apply paint blends created in the Mixer palette

directly onto images in the document window. Each brush dab loads the brush variant

6 Corel Painter User Guide

with a finite amount of oil. As the oil runs out, the brush stroke becomes fainter. Brush

strokes interact with any paint already on the canvas just as they would with natural

media.

The Artists' Oils Painting System has four components:

• Artists' Oils Brush Category and Variants

• Artists' Colors are based on the color measurements of real-world oil paints.

• Integration of Artists' Oils with the Mixer palette, including a new multicolor

eyedropper

• Artists' Oil Brush Controls provide the ability to control the amount of oil,

viscosity, blend, bristling, clumpiness, brush trails, and dirtiness.

Snap-to-Path Painting

When users need to create a perfect curve or shape, Snap-to-Path Painting is a great

time-saver. Snap-to-Path Painting makes it possible to constrain a brush stroke along a

path or a shape by clicking a button or using a keyboard shortcut. With a simple click,

users can now create a perfect, precise brush stroke that reflects the attributes typically

found in a Corel Painter stroke, such as pressure, tilt, and bearing.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 7

Digital Watercolor

Digital Watercolor has been significantly enhanced in Corel Painter IX. Paint stays wet

between sessions, enabling users to start one session where the last one ended. The wet

fringe of digital watercolor brush strokes can now be changed dynamically, enabling

experimentation after the brush stroke has been applied.

Quick Clone

Quick Clone is ideal for photographers, enabling them to transform their photos into

paintings. This new feature speeds up the image-cloning workflow and reduces five

steps to one. Quick Clone settings can be defined on the General page of the

Preferences dialog box.

KPT Filters

KPT® filters are renowned, powerful plug-ins that creative professionals rely on to

produce stunning effects quickly and easily. Seven powerful KPT filters have been

included in Corel Painter IX: KPT® Gel™, KPT® Goo™, KPT® LensFlare™,

KPT® Lightning™, KPT® Pyramid Paint™, KPT® Reaction™, and KPT®

ShapeShifter™. These plug-ins are valuable additions to the impressive array of effects

available in Corel Painter.

Compatibility

The ability to use Corel Painter in conjunction with other industry-standard software

and hardware is greater than ever. New color-management enhancements enable

printer colors to be reproduced more accurately on-screen and in print. Extended

support for Adobe® Photoshop® and Wacom® pen tablets streamlines a professional

workflow.

Enhanced Adobe Photoshop Support

Moving between Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter is simple. Files saved to the

Adobe Photoshop (PSD) file format open in Corel Painter IX, with layer masks, alpha

channels and layer sets (layer groups) maintained.

Layer behavior in Corel Painter is now very similar to Adobe Photoshop. New layers

are now added above the selected layer, layers with different merge modes are

collapsible, and it is now possible to hide or display multiple layers by simply clicking

and dragging.

8 Corel Painter User Guide

In addition, Corel Painter now supports Photoshop plug-ins for Mac OS® X.

Enhanced Wacom Support

Corel Painter IX features support for Wacom's newest pen tablet model — the

Wacom® Intuos®3 — and the entire Wacom tablet product line. The Wacom

Intuos3 has touch strips that can be configured to control brush size, zooming, and

many other functions, eliminating the need for a keyboard while painting. In addition,

tablet keys can be used as modifier keys, such as Command, Option, Shift, or Spacebar

on a Mac; or Ctrl, Alt, Shift, or Spacebar on a PC.

Enhanced Color Management

Corel Painter IX includes an enhanced Color Management System that ensures

accurate color reproduction when images are printed. Supporting industry-standard

ICC4.0 profiles, Corel Painter IX Color Management enables color matching between

on-screen and printed colors. A color-management tutorial helps users configure their

system for optimal color reproduction.

Learning

With improved Help, a revitalized User Guide, tutorials from leading graphics

professionals, training videos from lynda.com, and courseware specifically designed for

educators, getting started with Corel Painter IX has never been easier!

Improved Help

A revised User Guide and Help system provide information and fast solutions. The

Corel Painter IX Handbook, which is included with Corel Painter IX Full and

Upgrade versions, offers a collection of step-by-step tutorials created by well-known

creative professionals.

Free lynda.com Training Videos

Corel Painter IX includes training videos created by lynda.com, one of the world's

most renowned graphics training companies, to guide users through the Corel Painter

workspace, tools, features, and techniques.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 9

Free Academic Courseware

Corel Painter academic courseware consists of complete lesson plans and exercises for

10 classes on a variety of subjects.

How to Use the Documentation

You can find answers to many of your questions in the Corel Painter User Guide and

the Help available from within the Corel Painter workspace.

The Corel Painter User Guide contains commonly used procedures and information. A

Portable Document Format (PDF) version of the Corel Painter User Guide is available

on the Corel Painter IX CD. Full-color versions of the Corel Painter User Guide can be

purchased from www.corel.com/painterix.

The Help gives you access to a full range of topics in a searchable format.

If you have any comments or suggestions about The Handbook, user guide, Help, or

tutorials, please contact us at www.corel.com/painterix/feedback.

Documentation Conventions

The following table describes important conventions used in the

Corel Painter User Guide and in the Help.

Convention Description Example

Multiple platforms The Corel Painter User Guide is

for both the Mac OS and

Windows platforms. As a

convention, Mac OS commands

precede Windows commands in

the text.

Hold down Command (Mac OS)

or Ctrl (Windows).

Modifier keys When a modifier key differs

between Mac OS and Windows,

the Mac OS modifier is listed

first, followed by the Windows

modifier.

“Command + I (Mac OS) or Ctrl

+ I (Windows)” means that

Mac OS users would press

Command + I and Windows

users would press Ctrl + I.

10 Corel Painter User Guide

Choose X menu >

menu item

On the menu bar, click the menu

name, and choose the menu item

from the list.

“Choose File menu >

Quick Clone” means the

following:

Title bar A title bar is located at the top or

side of some UI elements, such as

the toolbox, property bar, and

palettes. It may not display title

text.

Examples of the toolbox title bar

on the Mac OS (left) and in

Windows (right):

Palette title bar The palette title bar appears at

the top of a palette. When

expanded, the palette’s title bar

changes to dark gray. When a

palette is collapsed, you can still

see the palette’s title bar, which is

now light gray.

Palette title bars for the Colors,

Mixer, and Color Sets palettes are

collapsed, and the Color Info

palette is expanded.

Palette arrow The palette arrow is used to

expand or collapse a palette.

The Color Sets palette arrow is

collapsed, and the Color Info

palette arrow is expanded.

Convention Description Example

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Corel Painter IX Operating instructions

Corel Painter IX Operating instructions

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