[PS] Making a Gradient Follow a Path
Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 5:52 pm
I found this out messing around on a track I'm making. It's not exactly making a gradient follow a path, but setting up brush settings to mimic a gradient.
Step 1: Start off with your path, mine is shown below.
Step 2: Open up the brush settings window (Window tab at top>Brush) or just hit the F5 key. Check the box next to Transfer. The only setting you need to change is under the Opacity Jitter section, click the drop-down box and change it to Fade.
Step 3: This next part is totally dependent on the length of the path, and is basically trial and error. What this does is take whatever your forground color is, and fades it in as many pixels as set in the box next to the drop-down box you just changed. So start out with a base number, I used 2000. Once you have that number set make sure you have the correct layer you want selected, and the correct brush size (the brush settings you just changed don't reset if you adjust the brush size) then right click the path in the paths menu and click stroke, and use the brush setting. This is what I have now:
As you can see it doesn't fade out completely, so I'll reduce the number of steps needed until it looks like it's a complete gradient. After trial and error I got it to look like this:
Notes: In game it may ride a little bumpy, in the extreme case I did it was slightly choppy, but in a normal sized case I don't think it will be a problem (if it is just use Checkerz' tutorial here (starting from step #8)to smooth it out some.
The very edge of the stroke might turn out erratic,this is shown below. But that can be fixed with a 1 pixel selection contraction of the layer, inverse the selection and clear/delete.
Hope this helps some of you PS track makers! I suppose this could be helpful to skinners too.
Step 1: Start off with your path, mine is shown below.
Step 2: Open up the brush settings window (Window tab at top>Brush) or just hit the F5 key. Check the box next to Transfer. The only setting you need to change is under the Opacity Jitter section, click the drop-down box and change it to Fade.
Step 3: This next part is totally dependent on the length of the path, and is basically trial and error. What this does is take whatever your forground color is, and fades it in as many pixels as set in the box next to the drop-down box you just changed. So start out with a base number, I used 2000. Once you have that number set make sure you have the correct layer you want selected, and the correct brush size (the brush settings you just changed don't reset if you adjust the brush size) then right click the path in the paths menu and click stroke, and use the brush setting. This is what I have now:
As you can see it doesn't fade out completely, so I'll reduce the number of steps needed until it looks like it's a complete gradient. After trial and error I got it to look like this:
Notes: In game it may ride a little bumpy, in the extreme case I did it was slightly choppy, but in a normal sized case I don't think it will be a problem (if it is just use Checkerz' tutorial here (starting from step #8)to smooth it out some.
The very edge of the stroke might turn out erratic,this is shown below. But that can be fixed with a 1 pixel selection contraction of the layer, inverse the selection and clear/delete.
Hope this helps some of you PS track makers! I suppose this could be helpful to skinners too.
