Your First Blob Modeler Painting

Step 1: Start TwistedBrush and make sure you are on a new blank page. 

Step 2: Blob Modeling tools are brushes within the ArtSets that begin with the name Blob. Select the Basic Add brush from the Blob - Modeler ArtSet.

Step 3: Blob modeling must be done on a layer. This means it will not work on the background which is the default painting surface in TwistedBrush. Click on the layer mini bar slot second from the bottom to create a layer.

Step 4: The last step in painting preparation with Blob Modeling is to set the layer mode to either Alpha Smooth Lum, Alpha Smooth Lum2, or Alpha Smooth Lum3. To use the short cut for this procedure, right click on the layer that was just created in Step 3 in the layer mini bar.  In the popup menu, select Blob Layer.

Step 5: Using your Basic Add brush that was selected in an earlier step, start painting on the canvas area. You may have to overlay your strokes to see the effects. The more you paint on an area, the closer to white it will become. This   basic step in blob modeling adds material to your object. To understand it better, think about painting on highlights. The more you paint, the greater the highlights. The less you paint, the darker the shadow areas will be. Don't think about color at this stage. It is best to work in the default medium gray (the default color for the modeler brushes). Doing so will let you best see the highlights and shadows. In essence, you are building "up" a model and you can paint any shape that you like.

Step 6: Here, a simple rounded square was drawn that looks like it was made out of a metal tube. While using Blob Modeling brushes, it is crucial that you adjust the opacity, this controls the amount of material added or subtracted as your paint. Doing so gives you greater control while shaping your object. This is important because blobs are created through the opacity of the drawing surface. The alpha channel is used to control the height (highlights), which gives a 3D appearance and lets you work on an object shape and separately the color. We cover this process more in later steps.

Step 7: Use additional brushes from the Blob - Modeler ArtSet to further shape the object into your desired image. The brushes that are suffixed with Add, add material to the model. Brushes that are suffixed with Sub, subtract material from the model. Choose from a wide selection of brushes for molding the shape, including brushes like Shaper or Smoother. Here, you can experiment with the different brushes to build a shape. Remember not to use any color yet. While using color here won't harm anything, doing so will make it harder to clearly see the form of your object.

Step 8: If you like, chunks of material can be removed or holes can be punched into your object. In this step, the Edge Sub brush was used to add holes to the the object pictured below. Now use brushes from the Blob - Surface ArtSet. Brushes from this ArtSet will not change the outlined shape of your object but they will still allow for changing the highlights and shadows. Remember that the highlights and shadows are still not being painted with color. You are still focusing on the shape of the object. A number of different brushes from these two Artsets were used to give the abstract shape shown below. Note: In this step, the background layer was changed to gray. This had nothing to do with the building of the blob model, but was done for visual appeal. 

Step 9: From the Blob - Paints ArtSet, select the Blob Speckled Paint (Density) brush, which uses the density slider to control the speckling color. Pick a color of your choice--darker colors may give better results--and then paint over your object. Use a large brush size, 100 works well. Notice that the shadows and highlights remain as you paint over your object. Adjust the density slider higher up to see a more speckled paint effect. In this step, a gold color was selected with a density of around 50.

Step 10: This step weathers the metal object. Using the Surface Pitted and Splatter Raised brushes from the Blob - Surface ArtSet and Acid from the Blob - Modeler ArtSet, add detail to the shape to give it a more weathered look. Again, color isn't used here to give the weathered look. In fact, the current color of the object isn't changed. Further modeling will give the highlights and shadow of the shape a different color appearance.

Step 11: You have a basic shape, a weather surface is applied, and it's painted. One of the powerful advantages of working with Blob Models is that color can be changed at anytime without worrying about the shape and, therefore, the highlights and shadows. Select the Blob Paint brush from the Blob - Paints ArtSet, and paint the shape multiple colors to help see the separation of color from shape.

Step 12: The next few steps will paint a pattern on the object. Select the Blob Pattern Paint brush from the Blob - Paints ArtSet.

Step 13: Now click the Color Brush Modifier and choose a pattern from one of the Color - Pattern ArtSets. In this tutorial, a wood pattern was selected.

Step 14: Paint the pattern on the object. The strong highlights of this shape looked good as metal, but don't really fit wood. See the next step for a simple solution that doesn't change the color or the shape of the blob model.

Step 15: Pull up the full layer panel and lower the opacity of the layer to reduce the highlights. Go too far down and your model will start to appear different, but don't worry. It's only changing the appearance, not your actual model. This looks much more like wood now.

Step 16: Raise the layer opacity back to 100%.  Now, right click on your layer  from the layer mini bar and select Lock Layer Alpha. This will keep the shape of your blob model from changing and will let you use various filters and tools in TwistedBrush.

Step 17: With the alpha channel now locked from this layer, use the gradient tool to apply a smooth gradient of color to the blob model. Enjoy and have fun with the blobs! Note: If you want to further modify the blob shapes on this layer, be sure to Unlock Layer Alpha.