varying gradient width

[paul_c]

Hi,

I can make an even gradient between two straight lines, with a fair amount of precision. as shown in the first two jpegs

Does anyone know how I can do this between two curvey lines so the gradient adjusts to the changing thicknesses? In the second two jpegs I'm fudging the effect with the brush tool. But this is not precise enough for what I'm trying to do.

I want to use this for traditional animation drawn frame by frame. So if I went in with the brush tool in each frame, the gradient would be strobing and freaking out when you watch the animation. So I'm wondering if there's some way to do this so the gradient stays perfectly even.

Thanks

 

[hawkeye]

If I follow what you are trying to do...put the gradients each on a separate layer. Make a selection (pen tool would be best) and delete that area on one layer. Invert the selection and delete that part on the other layer.

 

[iDad]

some times it's easier done, than said lol

 

[paul_c]

thanks for your responses. i'm going to try Toon Boom. i can't really see it working out with Photoshop without programing some kind of plugin

 

[dv8_fx]

Will this do?
View attachment 2504

It's one of those Eureka moments.... Danggg... I gotta recreate how I did this.....lol

Now the only problem is that the gradient's are equal..... how to adjust or compensate for thickness in some parts?.....

Are you going for an aurora borealis animation effect? How many frames are you looking at?... back to the drawing board.....

 

[paul_c]

Thank you so much for your efforts dv8_fx! I really appreciate it. There are definitely cases where the type of technique you did could come in handy.

Though, I still want to try to get the gradient to be sharper when the space between the two colors is thinner. And the gradient becomes more gradual as the space between the two colors gets wider.

I want to use the effect to shade characters and stuff. as kind of an all purpose thing. All my drawings would include lines to indicate where one color ends and where it finishes its transition to the next color. the amount of frames would be huge, maybe every frame i draw from now on. It would help blur the line between 2d and 3d animation

thanks again

 

[dv8_fx]

As it is a tendency to just click away without as much as remembering what I did, I still have to re-create it. But I'm at a design studio right now and helping out these friends who got a work-overload.....

The image was created at 72 ppi. I created 2 layers of color, used the pen tool to create the shape over one layer, then MENU>SELECT>FEATHER... used a feather radius of 20pixels, made a copy from the top layer through that selection by LAYER via copy. If you hide the full color layer, you'll see the gradient.

My next idea was to do it with the other layer..... CTRL+click gradient layer , CTRL+SHIFT+I to inverse the selection, make the first layer active then create new layer via copy.... so now you have 2 color gradients.

Making copies of the layers so I can have intact original to use in case of "accidents", I plan to use either transform tool / Smudge on parts of curves to create the elements for the animation frames .

To get sharper gradients, I would suggest lowering the feather radius. That would make the gradient sharper. And when you deform say.... part of the "thumb" in the image, the gradient will stretch and spread evenly.

Another trick would be to make a copy of a "thumb".... CTRL+click layer to select the part, go to the feather controls and increase the values, invert the selection and hit delete. This will increase the gradient. Without deselecting, hit the delete again and youll have more effect on the gradient. Use transform to match the edges with that in the lower layer. Then select the lower layer and erase the underlying parts of the image and merge.