Corel PAINTER IX User Manual

property of Corel Corporation and its respective licensors, and are protected by copyright. For more complete copyright information about Corel Painter, please refer to the About Corel Painter section in the Help menu of the software.

Corel, the Corel logo, Corel Painter, CorelDRAW, KPT , Gel, Goo, LensFlare, Lightning, Pyramid Paint, Reaction, ShapeShifter, and Natural-Media are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries in Canada, the U.S. and/or other countries.

Adobe, Illustrator, Photoshop, PostScript, and Premiere are registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Mac, Mac OS, and Quick Draw are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the United States and other countries. Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. Kodak is a registered trademark of Eastman Kodak Company. Hewle tt-Packard and DeskJet are registered trademarks of Hewlett Packard. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Minolta QMS is a trademark of Minolta Co., Ltd. Pantone, Hexachrome, and PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM are trademarks or registered trademarks of Pantone, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. TARGA is a registered trademark of Pinnacle Systems, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Cinepak is a registered trademark of Radius, Inc. EPSON Stylus is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation. Tektronix is a registered trademark of Tektronix, Inc. Wacom and Intuos are registered trademarks of Wacom Company, Ltd. Other product, font, and company names and logos may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

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 some states. The above exclusion may not apply to you.

In no event will Corel's licensor(s), and their directors, officers, employees, or agents (collectively "Corel's licensor") be liable to you for any consequential, incidental, or indirect damages (including damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like) arising out of the use of, or inability to use, the software even if Corel's licensor has been advised of the possibility of such dama ges. Beca use some st ates do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitations may not apply to you.

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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

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

Table of contents i

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

ii Table of contents

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

Table of contents iii

Art by Ryan Church: Concept painting for a movie scene

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.

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.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 3

Performance and Productivity

Increasing the overall speed, pe rformance, 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 v ersion of Co rel 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 setti ngs 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 Framesper-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.

4 Corel Painter User Guide

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

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 5

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.

Sna p-to-Path Painting

When users need to create a perfect curve or shape, Snap-to-Path Painting is a great time-saver. Snap-to-P ath P ainting 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.

6 Corel Painter User Guide

Digital Watercolor

Digital Watercolor has been significantly enhanced in Corel Painter IX. P aint 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.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 7

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. c om, one of the world's most renowned graphics training companies, to guide users through the Corel Painter workspace, tools, features, and techniques.

8 Corel Painter User Guide

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 Portabl e Document F orm at (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 G uid e a nd in th e 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.

Modifier keys When a modifier key differs

between Mac OS and Windows, the Mac OS modifier is listed first, followed by the Windows modifier.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 9

Hold down Command (Mac OS) or Ctrl (Windows).

“Command + I (Mac OS) or Ctrl + I (Windows)” means that Mac OS users would press Command + I and Windows users would press Ctrl + I.

Convention Description Example

Choose X menu > menu item

Title bar A title bar is located at the top or

Palette title bar The palette title bar appears at

On the menu bar, click the menu name, and choose the menu item from the list.

side of some UI elements, such as the toolbox, property bar, and palettes. It may not display title text.

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.

“Choose File menu > Quick Clone” means the following:

Examples of the toolbox title bar on the Mac OS (left) and in Windows (right):

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.

10 Corel Painter User Guide

The Color Sets palette arrow is collapsed, and the Color Info palette arrow is expanded.

Convention Description Example

Palette menu arrow or selector menu arrow

Flyout Some tools share a space in the

Clicking a palette menu arrow or a selector menu arrow displays a pop-up menu with additional commands.

toolbox. Hold down the tool button that’s displayed to open the flyout.

A note contains information that is important to the steps that precede it. It can describe conditions under which the procedure can be performed.

The palette menu arrow for the Mixer palette displays the Mixer palette menu.

In the toolbox, by clicking and holding the Grabber tool, you can display a flyout that includes two other tools: the Rotate Page tool and the Perspective Grid tool.

For example: “This command is available only if you have turned off a selection.”

A tip contains suggestions for performing the steps that precede it. It can present alternatives to the steps, as well as other benefits and uses of the procedure.

Welcome to Corel Painter IX 11

For example: “You can choose a brush category and variant in the main application or in the Brush Creator.”

Using Corel Painter Help

The Help is the documentation that can be accessed from within the Corel Painter workspace. It is fully searchable and includes all the information in the Corel Painter User Guide and more.

To use Help

1 Choose Help menu > Help Topics. 2 Click one of the following tabs:

• The Contents tab lets you browse through topics in the Help.

• The Index tab lets you use the index to find a topic.

• The Search tab lets you search the full text of the Help for a particular word. F or

example, if you are looking for information about RGB color mode, you can type “RGB” to display a list of relevant topics.

How to Sign Up for Free Training from lynda.com

When you register Corel Painter IX, you will receive free access to some of the lynda.com “Getting Started With Corel Painter IX” training videos. These videos are designed to allow new users to start working quickly and give experienced users a tour of the new features.

How to Access Corel Support Services

Corel® Support Services can provide you with prompt and accurate information about product features, specifications, pricing, availability, services, and technical support. For the most current information on support services available for your Corel product, please visit www.corel.com/support.

12 Corel Painter User Guide

Art by Chet Phillips: Newspaper illustration

Chet Phillips has presented his slightly off-center view of the world under the guise of a freelance illustrator for more than 20 years. He divides his time between working for corporate, publishing, advertising and design companies as well as displaying his work in galleries and shows. As usual, no electrons are harmed in the process.

The Basics

The Corel Painter application provides a digital workspace in which you can create new images, or alter existing images, using the Corel Painter Natural-Media tools and effects. Your working image is known as a document and is displayed in a document window. This document window includes navigation and productivity features to help you work efficiently.

As you create an image, you can save your document in a number of different file formats: RIFF (Corel Painter native format), JPEG, TIFF, and Adobe Photoshop (PSD), to name a few. Corel Painter also lets you open or import images in many file formats.

Every artist works in a unique way, and every computer system has its own configuration of memory, disks, printers, and accessories. Corel Painter preferences let you customize the program for your own work style and for optimum performance on your particular system. You can also customize the features of your tablet and pens in Corel Painter.

Working with Documents

The first step in creating an image in Corel Painter is opening a document. You can open a blank canvas by creating a new document, work with an existing image by opening a file already created, or acquire an image from a scanner or digital camera. Once you have created your image, you can place it directly into a document.

Creating and Opening Documents

The File menu > New command creates a blank, untitled document based on the specifications you set in the New dialog box. Canvas Size shows the RAM requirement for creating the document at the specified width, height, and resolution. This number

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does not reflect the file size for the saved document. A saved Corel Painter file is usually 25% to 50% of the size of the working document, depending on the number of colors it contains.

You can also open documents from other graphics applications and use Corel Painter to add brush strokes, tints, or pape r textures. Or, you can clone a document to re-create it in a different medium. Corel Painter lets you open the following file formats:

• RIFF — Corel Painter native format (RIF)

• TIFF (TIF)

•CMYK TIF (TIF)

• Adobe Photoshop formats (PSD) — Corel Painter preserves layers, layer masks, alpha channels, and composite methods. Layer effects and adjustment layers are not supported and should be merged or flattened in Adobe Photoshop.

•Windows Bitmap (BMP)

• PC Paintbrush (PCX)

• TARGA® (TGA)

• GIF — Corel Painter does not convert GIF animations to frame stac ks.

•JPEG (JPG)

• Frame stacks (FRM) — Corel Painter animation files

• QuickT i me™ (MOV), Vid e o for Windows (AVI), and numbered files. For more information, refer to “Opening a Movie” on page 363 or “W orking with Numbered Files” on page 381.

Corel Painter does not support LZW compressed TIFF file format. Only uncompressed TIFF files open in Corel Painter.

To create a new document

1 Choose File menu > New. 2 In the New dialog box, enter values for the following:

• Width and Height determine the dimensions of the canvas. You can change the

unit of measurement by using the menu. Choose from pixels (the default), inches, centimeters (CM), points, picas, and columns (2 inches wide).

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• Resolution is the number of pixels per inch (ppi) or pixels per centimeter that make up an image. In the New dialog box, setting the document’s pixels per inch is the same as setting its dots per inch (dpi). Refer to “Understanding Resolution” on page 19 for detailed information about document, screen, and print resolutions.

3 Click the Paper Color chip to set the document’s background to a color other than

white. Choose a color from the Color di alog box that appears.

4 Choose a Picture Type.

Picture Type lets you set up a document to contain a single frame for an image (the default) or multiple frames for a movie.

5 Click OK.

A new document appears in the workspace.

To open an existing document

1 Choose File menu > Open.

Corel Painter remembers the location of the last file you opened.

2 In the Open (Mac OS) or Select Image (Windows) dialog box, use the controls to

locate the file you want to open. Corel Painter lists every image’s dimensions (in pixels), file size, and file format. In

addition, files saved in Corel Painter include thumbnails for browsing purposes.

3 Click Open.

The File menu also offers you a shortcut to previously opened documents. Before choosing Open in the File menu, see if the file you want is in the recently opened files list at the bottom of the File menu.

To browse for a document (Mac OS)

1 Choose File menu > Open. 2 Click Browse.

The Browse dialog box shows thumbnails for all the RIFF files in a folder.

3 Double-click the file name, or select a file and click Open.

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Acquiring Images

You can acquire images for Corel Painter directly from an external device — such as a scanner or digital camera — if the device provides a:

• Adobe Photoshop-compatible plug-in module (Mac OS)

• TWAIN driver (Windows) Before acquiring images

• Install the device plug-in module on your computer. This plug-in module is provided by the manufacturer of your scanner or digital

camera. Refer to the device documentation for installatio n ins t ructions. Corel Painter can access plug-ins from any single folder on your computer. This

location can be inside the Corel Painter folder, in a generic plug-ins folder on your hard drive, or in the Adobe Photoshop Plug-ins folder.

• Make sure your TWAIN driver is properly installed.

Creating and Opening Templates

If you regularly create documents that contain similar dimensions, formatting, and resolution, you can create document templates so that you don’t have to start each document from scratch.

To open a document template

1 Choose Help menu > Welcome. 2 Choose a template from the Open a Template pop-up menu.

To save a document as a template

1 Set up a file with all the sizing, formatting, and resolution attributes you want in

the template.

2 Choose File menu > Save As. 3 In the Save Image As dialog box, save the file to the Corel Painter IX\Templates

folder.

If you work in a multiuser environment, only Administrators can add to the Corel Painter IX\Templates folder.

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Placing Files

Placing a file lets you import an image into an existing Corel Painter document. The placed image becomes a new reference layer in the document — you can transform (resize, rotate, slant) it on screen by dragging its handles. A placed file maintains its link to the source file until you commit it to standard layer format.

For general information about working with reference layers, refer to “Working with Reference Layers” in the Help.

To place a file

1 Choose File menu > Place. 2 Select an image file, and click Open. 3 In the Place dialog box, set the options:

• In the Scaling area, the Horizontal and Vertical boxes suggest a scale to fit the image in the current document. To change the size, enter scaling percentages in the Horizontal and Vertical boxes .

• Constrain Aspect Ratio maintains the proportions of the image. Disable this check box to distort the image.

• Retain Alpha retains the file’s mask. When the image is placed, the image mask becomes the layer mask. Disable this check box to discard the mask.

4 Do one of the following:

• To place the image in a particular location, click on that location in the document.

• To place the image in the center of the document, click OK.

Understanding Resolution

When working with images in a digital workspace, it is helpful to understand the concept and applications of resolution. Resolu ti o n r efe rs to how Corel Painter measures, displays, saves, and prints images — either as small squares of color known as pixels or as mathematical objects known as vectors.

A document’s resolution affects both its appea ra nce on your computer screen and its print quality. You can specify a document’s resolution when you create a new document, acquire an image, or save or export a file.

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Resolution and Screen Appearance

Most monitors have a resolution of 72 dpi (dots per inch). Because of this, the Corel Painter display default is 72 ppi (pixels per inch). This means that each pixel in the Corel Painter image occupies 1 pixel on your monitor. The display resolution does not affect the document’s actual pixels per inch — only how the image is displayed on the monitor.

For example, a 300-ppi document displays at approximately four times its actual size. This happens because each pixel in the Corel Painter image occupies 1 pixel on your monitor, and the monitor’s pixels are four times the size of the image’s pixels. Put another way, at 300 ppi your printed document will be approximately one-quarter of its on-screen size. In this example, if you wanted to view the image at actual size, you would set the zoom level to 25%.

Keep in mind that if you leave the dimensions in pixels and then change the pixels per inch (resolution), the actual printed size will be affected by the change. If you set your document size in inches, centimeters, points, or picas and change resolution, the dimensions will not be affected by the change.

Resolution and Print Quality

The resolution of output devices (printers) is measured in dots per inch, and, in the case of halftones, lines per inch (lpi). Output device resolutions vary, depending on the type of press and paper you’re printing on. Generally, a photograph will be output at a crisp 150 lpi if printed on glossy magazine stock and at 85 lpi for newspaper stock.

If you are using a personal laser or inkjet printer, set your document size in inches, centimeters, points, or picas at the dots-per-inch setting specific to your printer. Most printers will produce excellent output from images set at 300 ppi. Your file will be output correctly — in the proper size and at the best resolution for your printer. Increasing the file’s pixels-per-inch setting does not necessarily improve the output and may create a large, unwieldy file.

If you are using a commercial printer or a more sophisticated output device, the dimensions of the image should always be set to the actual size it will appear in the printed piece. For the resolution, a good rule of thumb is to set your document’s pixels per inch to twice the desired lines per inch. So, at 150 lpi, the pixels per inch should be twice that, or 300 ppi; at 85 lpi, the pixels per inch should be 170 ppi. It’s a good idea to check with your service bureau if you have questions about output device resolution.

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