Customizing the Scatter Brush

The available Scatter Brush presets are a good place to start, but they quickly get tiresome. There are a couple of ways to customize the objects that are used by the Scatter Brush. You can use an object saved to the clipboard as a new Scatter Brush object, or you can create your own set of objects and place the saved file in the Scatter Brushes folder where Anime Studio is installed.

Using the Clipboard

Any object drawn on a Vector layer can be used as a Scatter Brush object. To do so, simply select the object’s points with the Select Points tool and copy the selected object to the clipboard with the Edit, Cut (Ctrl/Cmd+X) or Edit, Copy (Ctrl/Cmd+C) menu. Then select the Use Clipboard preset option from the drop-down list in the Options bar when the Scatter Brush tool is selected. You’ll be able to paint with the copied object.

To use a custom Scatter Brush, follow these steps:

1.	Open the Raindrops.anme file from the Chapter 14 folder on the CD. This file has three raindrops.
2.	Choose the Select Points tool (G) and click the shaded raindrop; then select the Edit, Copy (Ctrl/Cmd+C) command to copy the object to the clipboard.
3.	Select the File, New menu to create a new file.
4.	Select the Scatter Brush tool and set the Min and Max Width values to 50. Then click the Scatter Brush options on the Options bar and set the Angle Jitter to 15, the Spacing to 2, the Color Jitter to 100, and enable the Flip X option. Drag in the working area to create a series of raindrops, as shown in Figure 14.7. Figure 14.7. A Custom Scatter set created with the clipboard. [View full size image]

Creating a Custom Scatter Preset

If you look closely where Anime Studio is installed, you’ll find a folder called Scatter Brushes. Within this folder are several Anime Studio files. Each file in this folder matches one of the preset Scatter Brush options. If you copy an Anime Studio file into this folder, then the objects included within the file are used as a scatter set and the file will be included in the list of presets after you restart Anime Studio.

To include multiple different objects in the Scatter Brush preset, simply include each different object on its own layer. Figure 14.8 shows a custom scatter set created by simply copying the Dynamite file from the Library folder and pasting it in the Scatter Brushes folder. After you restart, the Dynamite option appears with the other presets in the Options bar.

Figure 14.8. Dynamite added to the presets.

[View full size image]