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The Obsessive Compulsive’s Guide to Random Scatters
- On August 18, 2010
- By One Little Bird
- In Scrapbooking, Tutorials
29
Confession: I am a complete sucker for what I like to call “scattery bits”. I have a hard time passing them up if they’re included in a kit. Sort of like “glittery bits”. So you can imagine the froth I work myself into when I have “scattery glittery bits”.
In my soul I’m a very carefree spirit and adore when pages have a windswept, unstructured look. It seems as though it would be effortless enough to achieve, and perhaps it is for some people, but when I sit down to create it the obsessive compulsive inside me screams “nooooo, things must be lined up!! LINE IT UP!!” If I’m being completely honest, I consider it “wild and crazy” when I take a composition and rotate it about 5 degrees. Hold me back! What’s next? Dancing on bars?!
In paper scrapping if I wanted to create a random scatter of items I’d probably just take a handful of stuff and throw it at my page, then glue things down wherever they landed. Photoshop could seriously benefit from a “Throw Crap At The Page” Tool. Can you imagine? In my mind’s eye I can picture it. I’d be able to select a couple of items via a file browser, set up a few parameters, and then click a “Throw This Crap At The Page!” button.
Maybe in CS6?
For now, in order to create seemingly effortless scatters I was left with no other option but to devise a completely regimented way to achieve a totally non-regimented look. It forces my inner obsessive compulsive to swallow a few mood tranquilizers and allows my free-spirited hippie soul to dance around with glee.
Note: You can click on any of the screenshots below to open up a larger version.
Step 1: Select a basic round brush and increase the size to about the dimensions of the items you’ll be scattering on your page. I’m going to be scattering little paper flowers, so I chose 250px.
Step 2: Create a new layer on your document for your brushwork, and now we’ll tweak the brush settings in the Brush Palette. You can access your Brush Palette by clicking on the bucket full of brushes over by your layer palette (if enabled), via the toolbar at Window < Brushes or by pressing F5. Copy the following settings as your brush specs:
Set brush Spacing to 300% for our purposes, you can fiddle with this number to make your scatter more dense or sparse.
Shape Dynamics Settings: Move the Size Jitter if you're going to want to have "bits" of different sizes throughout your scatter. If you want all your elements to stay the same size, leave this at 0%, if you want a lot of variation then move it up higher. The Minimum Diameter setting just sets how low it'll go, I have my Size Jitter set at 60% because I want a lot of variation, however I don't want any teeny tiny elements so I bumped the Minimum Size up to 15% to keep them from getting too small.
The Scattering tab controls the settings for how far your circles will stray from where your mouse is. It's what puts the "random" in this whole system. Make sure the "Both Axes" box is checked (so that it will scatter both above and below the path of your mouse, and also to the left and right) and then tinker with the slider - trial and error - until you get where you want to be. The higher the number, the less Photoshop will follow the actual path of your mouse. If you choose a lower number your "bits" will stick closer to your mouse. Think of it like having an untrained dog on a leash - the longer the leash, the further they'll stray.
Step 3: Now you can sample a brush stroke on your page. Try clicking and dragging your mouse across the page in a straight line from left to right and see where your dots fall. No two scatters are ever alike, so sometimes I will Undo (CTRL+Z) a few times and try again until I get a scatter that I like.
Step 4: Now I’m ready to drag my elements onto the spaces I’ve mapped out with my scatter brush. Just open and drag them on like you normally would, resizing them to the approximate dimensions of the circles in your Scatter Brush (and rotating them slightly as you go, if you’d like).
Step 5: All that’s left to do is delete (or hide) the layer that has your brush stroke on it, and shadow your elements. (For tips on creating realistic drop shadows, you can visit my Drop Shadows: The Basics post.)
So there you have it! A way to overcome your obsessive compulsive tendencies and create a windswept look on your page. You could adjust the sliders in your brush palette to create an infinite number of scatter variables. I didn’t touch on it here, but if you use a square brush (instead of a round one) you can also mess with the Angle Jitter in the Shape Dynamics tab to distribute your elements at pre-defined angles. You can also create multi layered scatters by distributing one element, using your scatter brush again, then scattering a different element.
It’s no “Throw Crap At A Page” but it’s pretty close!
Now here’s the part where I shamelessly promote myself:
Paper and flowers are from Abide by One Little Bird (that’s me!)
You can visit my Mind-Blowing Drop Shadow Tutorial for my tips and tricks on shadowing in Photoshop.
Subscribe to my newsletter, The Cage Liner, for exclusive savings on One Little Bird products and the latest news from The Cage.
Trish
That is a totally awesome tip!! I would have never thought to do that!
liz
This makes my little ocd heart happy. I am just as methodical with my “randomness”. Nice to know I’m not alone. Thanks for another bringing us another MIND-BLOWING walk tutorial. ♡
terese
thanks! love your tutorials! you´re not only a great designer, but also a great writer. nice to visit your blog!
Stevie
Oh my crap, you’re genius! My OCD/graphic/it-takes-me-twenty-freakin-hours-to create-a-layout-because-I-have-to-have-everything-positioned-just-right design aesthetic thanks you!
Lisa (dlhoffer)
I love this!!!! I always struggle with the urge to “line them up” too so I’ll be trying this out soon! Thanks for another fab tutorial
Amy
Oh- Thanks for the fabulous tip! I never thought to use a scatter brush as a template tool. I’m going to try this on my next LO!
Nicole
brilliant! love this!
dana
oh wow – this is genius! thanks for sharing
i cannot wait to try !!!!
Bonnie
Well, I don’t have the ‘line it up’ problem, but I don’t care how random I try to make anything look, it doesn’t look right… I spend so much time nudging, haha Thanks for taking your valuable time to share this with us, very cool!!
Meg B.
Lol — I am so “simple” I hardly use elements! But I do like little scatters of things
Heather Prins
heeee! You are a clever girl!
mrshobbes
I’ve been scrapping for close to FOUR YEARS and have wanted to randomly scatter in a more organized way!!! This is brilliant, dude!!! I’m gonna be flexing my RS (random scatter) muscles!
Woooohooooooo!
sue.falstaff
I ♥ your approach to tutorials … not only do I learn stuff, but I you make me laugh out loud too!!! Thanks Peppermint. Hugs, sue.falstaff
Kim Jensen
Now that’s a cool idea! I’ve used random scattered brushes before in doing paper design, but I never thought about using them this way. The really sad part? I can never just accept the random stroke the way it lands – I have to take the marquee tool and grab little spots that I feel would be SO much better if nudged over this way or that way. So my “random” is never actually truly random. :b
Dawn
I LOVE this!! almost as much as your shadowing tut. I can never seem to get my scatterings to look well, so nicely scattered…I can’t wait to try this! Thanks so much for sharing!
Kait
Thank you for sharing your scattering technique. I will surely give it a try!
Ron
Awesome idea to do it this way! And so much easier than just sticking stuff down and hoping that it will look random! Thanks for sharing this critical info with us!
Chickie
I must say that I really enjoyed your tute on throwing crap on a page… LOL! You made me laugh and taught me a great trick both at the same time, how awesome is that?! I also love that scattered look on a page and will be using this wonderful idea over and over again! Let that free spirit loose!
sunny
I was just sent to your blog by wild blueberry ink….I’m in heaven! Your tutorials are exactly what I’ve been looking for…thanks so much for sharing your knowledge with us! Consider me a follower!
Leigh
Oh my goodness! Thank you so much! My OCD side thanks you, too!
Tracy Sarra
Holy crap this is awesome Peppermint!! I love random scatters too, but I am also OCD about things lining up. I can’t wait to try this out!
Dawn Farias
Thank you for this tutorial! I’ve come back to it at least three times and thought I should finally say something.
Sherry
This is a great tutorial. I am going to try it right after changing my undies because I laughed so hard at your “Throw Crap At The Page” tool! I beg you, submit it as a request to Photoshop if for no other reason than its entertainment value!!!!! Thanks for making my day!
Creative Forum Discussion, Week of February 18-24! - Page 2 - DigiShopTalk Digital Scrapbooking
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Marisa Lerin
Thanks for the great tip! I can’t wait to try it out!
Dalis
omg… I am off to “throw crap at the page” digitally… thank you! I can never get scatters to look random… THANK YOU!
LOVE YOU!!!!!
– dalis
Debbie Hodge
whoa! i’ve SO needed this. I spend way too much time tweaking my scatters.
Shelle @ DreamyNest {not!}*
LOL – I just laughed out loud, literally. This is brilliant! I love it and I love your writing style. Perfect!!
Kimberly
You had me laughing out loud!! I love the idea of a “throw crap at the page” tool. No matter how hard I try to be random it just is NOT happening. Thank you for the tip! I use PSE9.