Scatter & Randomize
Brush Settings ▸ Scatter & Randomize — throwing dabs off the path, multiplying them, and varying their size, angle and hue.
Reference
- Tool
- Draw
- Panel
- Brush Settings
- Section
- Scatter & Randomize
The Scatter & Randomize section takes the orderly run of dabs the Tip section defines and breaks it up: throws stamps off the path, emits more than one per step, and varies their size, rotation and hue. It is the difference between a line of leaves and a bush.
Randomness here is not re-rolled on every redraw. Each stamp seeds its own generator from the stroke's seed and the stamp's index, so a scattered stroke re-rasterizes identically for as long as the file exists.
This section is shown for the paint tools — Draw, Shape and Vector Pen.
Spreading the dabs
How far each stamp is thrown from the path, as a multiple of the tip diameter, displayed as a percentage — so the slider runs 0% to 1000%. At 100% a stamp can land a full tip-width away.
What the slider writes depends on Both axes below. The displacement is measured against the brush's base size, not the pressure-reduced radius, so a light touch scatters as widely as a heavy one.
Chooses the shape of the spread.
On — a radial spray: each stamp is thrown in a random direction at a random distance, producing a cloud around the path. Off — a perpendicular fringe: stamps are displaced only across the stroke, never along it, so the mark stays a recognisable band with a ragged edge rather than dissolving into a cloud.
Only one of the two is ever active; switching zeroes the other.
How many dabs are emitted at each spacing step.
The extra stamps are placed at the same point on the path as the first and do not advance the spacing, so this multiplies density without spreading anything: with Scatter at 0 it stacks identical copies on one spot and only darkens the mark. Stamps and Scatter are a pair — Stamps says how many, Scatter says how far.
Varying the dabs
Random reduction from the size the dynamics resolved, displayed as a percentage. Jitter only ever varies downward — it takes size away from the controlled value and never adds beyond it, so a brush cannot randomly exceed its own Size.
The floor of the size multiplier, displayed as a percentage. With Pressure → size on, this is the radius a barely-there touch produces, as a fraction of full size. At 0 the lightest touch resolves to nothing; at 100% pressure has no effect on size at all.
Random rotation added to each dab, displayed as a percentage. The amount is ±π scaled by the value, so 100% is a full random turn in either direction.
The rotation is added to whatever the dab's angle already resolved to, including the contribution of Tip follows tilt. On a round dab it is invisible; on a leaf, a chisel or an imported shape it is the difference between a printed pattern and scattered debris.
Random hue shift per stamp, displayed as a percentage. At 100% a stamp can land up to half the colour wheel away from the colour well in either direction; at low settings it reads as leaves that are not all quite the same green.
Colour jitter is hue only
This slider varies hue. Saturation and brightness are not on it. Several shipped brushes — the Nature set in particular — vary all three, which is why their marks read as more varied than this slider alone can make them; those variations are part of the brush as it ships.
Sparse scatter
Sparse scatter is a button, not a slider. It applies a set of values in one action, turning a brush that draws a line into one that drops separated marks. The panel describes the result: "Spread the tips out: spacing 200%, scatter 300%, one stamp per step, random size and rotation."
| Control | Value applied |
|---|---|
| Spacing | 200% |
| Scatter | 300% |
| Both axes | On |
| Stamps | 1 |
| Size jitter | 50% |
| Min size | 30% |
| Angle jitter | 100% |
| Mirror jitter | 0.50 |
| Pick (multi-tip brushes only) | Random |
The Pick mode is set only if the brush's tip set holds more than one shape; a single-tip brush is left alone there.
The button edits the brush in hand. Nothing is written to the library — keep the result with Save or Save as New in the Custom Brush section, or discard it by selecting another brush.
Painting into 3D
Two checkboxes here change how the stroke sits in the scene rather than how the brush marks.
The stroke is given volume: instead of a flat mark on a plane it becomes a tube swept along the path, with the Tip section's cross-section as its profile — a chisel brush sweeps a flat ribbon of tube, a polygon brush a faceted one.
A volumetric stroke is a 3D object on the layer, and can be captured as a scatter element. See 3D scatter brushes.
A paint stroke on a sub-layer follows a multi-plane shape across its planes rather than being pinned to the single plane it started on.