Rotating Brushes
Posted In : Tips & TricksIn this Photoshop Tip I will demonstrate how to change the angle of any brush in the Brushes palette quickly and easily.
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In this Photoshop Tip I will demonstrate how to change the angle of any brush in the Brushes palette quickly and easily. |
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Step 1
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You all know that I’m a huge fan of keyboard shortcuts and simplifying the Photoshop workflow, but I don’t often get as excited about a Photoshop tip as I did when I learned this one. I’ve always been annoyed at Photoshop Brushes because they’ve seemed so static. Sure, you can easily change the size of any brush by using the bracket keys "[" and "]" and that’s convenient, but half the time the brush is facing the wrong way or is set at a bad angle for a certain job, often times rendering it useless. Well, those days are past and the solution is so easy you’re going to feel a little retarded at never figuring this one out… or maybe that was just me. For those of you who knew about this, shame on you for not telling me about it! OK.. grab the brush tool by pressing B, then from the brushes drop down choose a brush that isn’t round. I’ll choose this nice grunge brush that’s bothered me for years because it only works on a right bottom corner… |
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Step 2
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You can see in the Brushes palette that it’s a lower right hand corner grunge brush and painted on the canvas it obviously is. |
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Step 3
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But, if we open the Brushes window by selecting Window>Brushes from the main menu (*note: this tool may already be open and tucked neatly away in the top bar, so check there too.) Clicking on the Brush Tip Shape header opens up a whole window of hidden possibilities that will amaze and excite you… especially this great little circle over on the right! Yes, that’s right, you can just click and drag that neat little circle with the arrow in it until the brush is oriented exactly the way you’d like! Now every brush is multi-directional at the click of your mouse! What a GREAT trick! |
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22 Comments
Haha, I always brushed on a new layer and rotated that.
This would be way easier, thanks!
Holy cats, I’ve been wondering how you do that. I’ve actually been doing the same thing as Koekie.
They’ve had that option for quite some time, but yea not many people know about it
I suppose if you spend a lot of time fiddling with photoshop you will notice it soon enough.
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Clicking on the shape dynamics tool is pretty darn cool too, you can set it so that the angle of the brush will randomize with every click!
finding it 3 whole months after them…! its a gr8 tip. Thanks
I don’t feel so bad now. I still have some trouble with PhotoShop features but the brush tip I truly stumbled into it on my own when I got all frustrated with their brushes and learned how to make my own.
I’ll give you one better though! I’ve had PS for a few years, used it every now and again and just the other day finally figured out how to do the mask! It never seemed to work for me, until I learned…*blush* - “hide all” was set by default.
REBECCA,
You’re right, that’s definitely better! … AND funnier! I totally laughed. Thanks for sharing!
oh for…I’ve been doing the same thing as Koekie…rotating the whole layer. This is sooo gonna change my brush work! Love your tutorials.
this is the second place i’ve seen that has this nifty tool tip. however i can’t get the presets to open in cs3 on vista…? is this only good on mac? when i open the brushes window it just shows me all my loaded brushes, when i double click on one of the brushes it the ‘brush preset’ window opens, but all i can change is the name of the brush. guess i’ll be rotating layers for now then. -S
SIRI,
It sounds like you’re accessing the brushes through the Brush Picker Options Bar that appears at the top of PS when you’ve got the Brush tool selected. You need to actually open the Brushes Palette. Choose Window>Brushes from the main menu, then just click on the Brush Tip Shape link on the left side of the dialog to change the brushes angle.
I agree this is a good tip, by Adobe really needs to make it easier to rotate the canvas.
ROB, Because clicking Image>Rotate Canvas is too difficult? You know, you could always define a keyboard shortcut to make things just that much easier.
I love you
Thanks so much. Amazing that for years I have been making extra layers and rotating and it never occurred to me to rotate brushes this way. I am so embarrassed! What a great time saver.
Thank you for this trick. I will put this in my handy-dandy notebook!
I just wanted to take some time to thank you 4 your great tutorials and whish you a happy Birthday !!
I’ve been wondering about this for some time, thanks for the fantastic tip. Can’t wait to try it out.
Nice, I wasn’t aware that you could rotate brushes. Thanks for the quick tip!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ! !!
And you can make it even easier to work with… you can also rotate the brush by keyboard only. Highlight the angle value in the brushes window and use the up and down arrow keys to rotate, use shift + arrow keys for bigger rotation steps
WOW! I was a click brush, then rotate layer person too. Those darn adobe guys are so smart, there is a million little things in PS to do basically anything. they must just get a good laugh when they “hide” the simple things we are always looking for.
Ahhhh, this is sweet. If I wanted something to go 360* from a hub (like the veining feather) I ended up creating 8 additional brushes by rotating it and then defining it. This tip will save me gobs of time (and space on my brush palette!)