I received an email from a friend who spent $5 on Renderosity for a set of Photoshop brushes that create dripping water. Unfortunately, the user was unfamiliar with Photoshop but desperately needed the effect so I wrote her a tutorial I thought I'd post in case other users buy content for Photoshop and then are stumped by the inadequate documentation (if any) that comes with the goodies.
This brush set came with a palette but it also came with custom Styles to make the brush strokes glassy in appearance. So please adapt this tutorial if you've bought different brushes, or just write into this thread if the tutorial doesn't quite apply to your purchase:
If you want to simplify your life down the road, you put the files with the *.abr file extension in Adobe\Photoshop CS\Presets\Brushes\ folder, but it's not absolutely necessary. These are the brush tips; they only will work in Photoshop, not in Paint Shop Pro, not in Twisted Brush or other programs. Similarly, put the *.asl files in the Adobe\Photoshop CS\Presets\Styles folder. Doing this just makes things tidier; these are the Styles that make the brush strokes look like water.
1.) Ctrl/cmd+double-click the workspace to bring up the New dialog box. Choose a 1024 by 768 landscape new document, 72 ppi, RGB color mode. In the Contents area, you can go with White; click OK.
2.) Click the foreground color swatch on the toolbox, choose a loud color such as pink, click OK.
3.) Press Ctrl/cmd+A, and then Alt+Backspace, then Ctrl/cmd+D. You've selected All, filled the layer with foreground color, then deselected all.
4.) Press F7 to display the Layers palette; you can't make the water strokes on the background (layer); you need layer transparency for the Style you'll apply later. Click the page icon next to the trash icon to create a new layer. Click the layer title to tell Photoshop this is the current working layer (you can only work on one layer at a time).
5.) Click the Brush tool on the Toolbox; you can't mess with brush settings unless a brush application tool is already selected (you can also use the Clone tool and the Pencil tool). On the Options bar at top, click the flyout triangle, then click the flyout button and then choose Replace Brushes. Don't worry, you're only loading a new collection, and aren't "replacing" anything; if you want the original brushes back later, you choose "Reset Brushes" from the same menu flyout ("Append" in the subsequent dialog box means to add to the existng set, which eventually makes an unsorted, ponderously large mess of your brush tip collection; click "OK" instead) .
6.) In the dialog box, choose dropletStreakBrushTips_CS.abr.
7.) Set your foreground color to black by pressing "D". Click a brush tip thumbnail to select it. Click, don't drag, in the document window to create streaking droplets. When you have five or so, it's time to apply the watery Style provided in your purchased set.
8.) Press F6 to bring up the Swatches/Colors/Styles palette and then click the Styles tab.
9.) Click the flyout menu button and then choose Replace Styles. Hunt down dropletStyles_CS.asl and choose it.
10.) Click a Style to apply it to the whole layer.
11.) Styles apply to an entire layer, so if you want an image with two different styles, you need to create a new layer, make a new stroke and then apply a different Style.
There are a number of ways to get your artwork out of Photoshop in a file format you can share with non-Photoshop users. The easiest way is to flatten the layers, but keep in mind that the pink background might not be what you want in your finished artwork. You right-click over any layer title on the Layers palette and then choose Flatten Layers.
Considere this as you're gaining comfort and familiarity with Photoshop; you want watery streaks on a rendering you made in a different application? Open the image in Photoshop and then drag the watery streaks layer title on the Layers palette into your artwork winhdow. You've duplicated the layer between document windows. Then use the Move tool (press V) and drag the layer's contents around to reposition them. Then flatten the image and save it to any file format you like.
Additionally, you can save a watery streak layer to PNG with transparency, in case you want to goof with your work in Twisted Brush or similarly pathetic application
Here's the deal: A layer style is dynamic and not really a "finished product". You need to "fix" the layer so the effect is not longer dynamic, simplifying it so it can be exported to a non-Photoshop file format.
To do this requires a little manual dexerity. You create a new blank layer, and on the Layers palette, you drag the blank layer so its position, its order, is directly beneath the watery stroke layer. Notice that there's an "f" in a bullet at the right of your watery stroke layer—this indicates that it's an effects layer, it's special and does not leave Photoshop. What you do is right-click now on the watery streaks effects layer and then choose Merge Down...the merging of the blank layer and the effects layer (the layer with the Style applied, becomes a plain-vanilla layer. You drag the bottom, purposeless layer into the trash icon, you have only one layer with transparency on it, you save it to PNG (uncheck the Save as Copy box in the Save As dialog box), and rock and roll!
My Best,
Gare
