Paper grains / textures for use in Painter ™ Thanks for the purchase (or interest in) of the paper grains. Andrew
Installation of textures/paper grains zip/hqx: if in a zip, please extract the paper files and place the paper files in a sub folder of Painter (say a grains folder) With Painter X, you may wish to place the PAP files in a sub folder of the resources folder CD: please select and drag/copy the files from the CD to a sub folder of painter (create a new folder marked as 'grains')
Suggested location for the grains / paper files (*.pap) c:\program files\...\Painter\Grains (or resources\grains) HD:applications:...Painter:Grains
Serial number You might find a number of serial numbers on the disk, please store these numbers and use them for future updates or for replacement CDs (the product was originally multiple products, the reason for multiple serials). Please use these numbers when you contact us.
Accessing paper grains in Painter Load the paper grains using the art materials palette and paper grains open library command. Grains can be used throughout Painter such as in apply surface texture, glass distortions, brush strokes and else where. Please consult the product manual for details about the usage of the grains or Painter books or articles from Artistry or check out the details on the graphicxtras.com site The grains can be loaded in two ways in Painter (though the same, one is via the toolbox and the other via the menu). Click the grain button on the toolbox to display the grains palette. You will see all the current grains in the grains palette. Use the arrow on the right to access the load grains library menu
The menu shows a number of options such as make paper and capture paper as well as invert paper and the paper mover to move items between libraries. You will want the open library command
Once loaded, the grains can be used throughout Painter The grains can also be accessed via the windows menu, basically as the toolbox
PAP files On the PC, painter paper files are *.pap file type. It is recommended that you keep them as read only (you might have to turn this off and allow total access to the paper files, this varies from version to version). I would suggest before any use of the grains, please backup the textures (I would even go so far as doing a backup of all the native pap files as well and storing those in a backup file). During testing and using the grains over the years in the excellent Painter, it was very easy to corrupt the grains file and once corrupted... that is it, you will not be able to access the file. A backup at least means you can replace the corrupted file. This is important if the grain file is your main paper pap file.
Installation issues If you have problems installing or using this product, please e-mail our tech support at support@graphicxtras.com
Comments If you have any suggestions to how we can improve our products or manual, or if there is something that is hard to understand or badly stated, please contact us and we will try to correct any errors or misunderstandings in the next release of the manual. It is always great to hear your feedback.
Other related products Plugins for Photoshop and Painter can be found on the graphicxtras.com site along with nozzles and patterns as well as frames and textures/patterns (for psp but just as useful in Painter)
Paper Grains can be used in •
Brush strokes
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Apply surface texture effect
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Glass distortions
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Apply screens
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Expression texture
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Tiles
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Distress
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Color effects
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Selections
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Floaters + others
System requirements Applications supported - Painter ™ 5 5.5 6 7 8 IX IX.5 X Windows 98, ME, XP, Vista NT and MAC OS X OS 9+. Note: a different version of the grains is required for the mac because of resource issues
Other applications Painter 3D ™ The grains can also be exported to other applications
Minimum requirements At least 256 MB of memory, though some operations might require a lot more.
Trademarks The grains were designed by Andrew Buckle, and copyright 1999-2005 Andrew Buckle and abneil software ltd. All products mentioned in this manual are trademarked or probably trademarked by their respective owners. Illustrator and Photoshop and Adobe and After Effects are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated. Corel is registered trademark of Corel Corporation and Painter is registered trademark or
trademark of Corel Corporation. We have no connection whatsoever with Corel
Company address / contact details Telephone: UK 01622 688 375 http://www.graphicxtras.com support@graphicxtras.com
Hints and tips Grains palette The grains palette shows the current selected grain and the current size (as well as a small thumbnail to access all the other grains). The palette also shows the name of the grain and other settings such as the contrast and scale of the grain. These can be accessed during various operations such as apply surface texture and custom tile.
Glass / distortion Grains are great for glass and metallic effects. Use in the glass distortion effect (found in effects > focus category). Modify the softness, variance, direction, and glass mode. Fade / re-apply and more.
Paper textures and 3D applications Grains are useful to export to 3D applications for bump maps or texture maps or used in Painter 3D. The exported paper grains can be used in other applications such as Photoshop and then used as a displacement map or texture or pattern. The size of the pattern defines the size of the tile to be used (see the grains palette for the dimensions)
Patterns and grains Use the grains as a source for pattern 'original luminance' option in distortion / texture methods in Painter. Use as a source for mosaics or brush strokes or clone sources. Or use the grain via patterns as a source for clone color or for impasto brush 3D effects. The textures can also be easily added to the patterns libraries. Just create a file to the original proportions of the grain and then use the express texture or other command and apply and save the texture or use the define pattern in the pattern palette.
Grains and apply screen command 'Apply Screen' uses the paper grain in Painter (and grainy pap files) to excellent effect. Use to create superb screened effects. Modify the various thresholds and color settings to create a wide range of weird and wonderful flat color screens (great for web design) or blur or use the depth of field filter afterwards. The 'apply screen' can be used to create a variety of different different screens, even by simply modifying the scaling or contrast of the screen/grain
New grains Use the paper grains as a source for a totally new grain, save the new grain to your paper library for a near infinite range of grain designs
PAP library / paper textures for Painter ™ All the grains in this collection are stored in native PAP file format. You can use the paper mover to move the grains from PAP library to another. Definitely recommend making a backup of key PAP libraries.
Express texture command Use grains in express texture command to create stunning black and white imagery. After apply a texture and express texture, use a blur or circular blur or even use the excellent (if not slightly slower) depth of field filter applied to the texture. Use a color fill to add some color or the color overlay. The grains can be used for superb black and white imagery in 'express texture'.
Distress command Use the paper grains in the Painter distress plugin. 'Distress' plugin uses the grain and offers a wide selection of edge, edge amount, smoothing, variance and threshold settings to create stunning grain infused image effects. Superb for stunning black and white images and screened effects.
Selection of paper grain The grain can be used as a selection via the auto select command and 'using paper'. The selection in most cases can be fairly intense with many marching ants. The selection can then be filled, effects applied and more
Paper grains and color overlay command 'Color overlay' plugin uses the paper grains from Graphicxtras as well. Use the dye concentrations or hiding power settings to create different colored textured effects on any surface or image.
Custom tile command and paper grains 'Custom tile' plugin uses the grainy grains to create weird and wonderful textures. Use the blur commands and different color combinations to create unusual tile effects. By using different threshold settings, such as the min (to use mainly the tile texture) or the max (creating a combination of tile texture and image). Even by using different thickness (of grout) settings, many wonderful color textured effects can be created.
Adjust dye command and paper grains 'Adjust dye concentration' plugin uses the grain with different max and min threshold settings to add interesting color effects. Again, the plugin also comes into its own when combining different effects such as blurring the result and then reapplying the dye concentrations with different papers or different scaling of the same paper.
Floater plugins and paper grains Grains can also be used in a number of the floater dynamic plugins such as glass distortion or the burn plugin. Use the textures in the burn dynamic floater to create unusual torn / burnt edges. Use grains via clone / patterns and clone source in dynamic floater 'liquid metal' (as well as glass distortion floater to layers and text..)
Applied surface texture command Effects > 'Applied Surface texture' Subtle shifts or different color combos and shine settings can be used to create a wide variety of weird line, wobbly, blobbed, metallic, ... 1000s of different wonderful color bump surfaces.
Pop art command The grains can be used in the pop art fills by saving the texture as a pattern and then using the original luminance settings
Brushes and grains Or select a grain brush or use the grain in impasto or use in watercolors or with digital ink. Use the grains in
combo with brush strokes. Most of the brushes (and even nozzles can use the grain information via a selection or grain/layer) use the grain information depending on the method and sub category such as using a grainy flat cover or grainy edge or using the grain information in various plugin methods such as the 'add grain' brush. Use the grain as a source for a Painter ™ captured brush. Export grain and then select and use the captured brush command.
Motion blur command The motion blur and soften and super soften cannot use the grain information but again, simply use the selection commands and then apply a smooth or blur.
Shape layer Use the grain created selection and 'convert to shape' to create a grain shape. The vector shape then can be transformed and distorted or used as a floater (convert to a floater .. ) Apply brush strokes to shape/floater or effects or use the shape/floater as a color overlay. Export the shape layer to Illustrator AI format and others
Frames and grains Create wonderful frames using paper grains in Painter, apply to a square block of white on black and then apply the grain via express texture etc and other command
Impasto The grains can be of use with the impasto brushes, setting the depth to be modified by the grain. The depth, lighting etc can be changed
AutoPainting Use the grains in auto painting using the apply method / sub category as 'grainy' or use a grain plugin etc (or auto clone as earlier!)