Skip to main content

Recreate Photoshop brushes

As we have seen, creating a Custom Brush is typically done by creating the shape of your brush tip and cutting it using the Cutting tool.

The essential starting point to reproducing a Photoshop brush into TVPaint is to have a brush tip with a shape which is as resembling as possible to the original and, if possible, the exact same.

macOS and Linux users​

If you are using macOS or Linux you will have to import a screenshot of the brush preview (in the biggest size possible) taken in Photoshop. Then, you will have to fill the brush preview shape with color and reduce its size to use it as a brush tip.

Windows users​

A quicker method exists if you are using Windows: free programs such as ABRMate and ABRViewer allow you to open the .abr Photoshop brush file and export the shape of the brush tip as a .png image:

abrMate interface

This image can then be imported in TVPaint and used as a brush tip.

Final touches​

The final step is also the longest: adding the same parameters as the Photoshop brush to the one you created in TVPaint.

Aside from the basic settings of your brush, other important parameters can be reproduced using brush Connections, which define how some aspects your brush will react to external factors (for example, linking opacity to pen pressure).