By blending the tube shading and shape attributes of two preset brushes, you can create new and interesting (sometimes unexpected) effects.

For example, suppose you like the shading used for one brush, but you like the shape of another. You can blend the brushes so that the new brush uses 100% of the shading of the first brush, and 100% of the shape of the other.

For more interesting effects, you can change the percentage of the shading and shape of each brush used in the blended brush.

To blend preset brush settings

1. Select the preset that you want to form the basis for the stroke. Paint Effects copies the preset brush settings to the template brush.
2. Select Paint Effects > Preset Blending > . The Brush Preset Blend window opens.
3. Set how much you want the first stroke to be influenced by the Shading and Shape setting of the next brush preset you select.
4. Select the brush preset you want to blend with the template brush. Paint Effects blends shape and shading values of the selected brush preset according to the proportions defined in step #2, then copies the resulting settings to the template brush.
5. Drag to paint the stroke.
6. Repeat steps #3 - #5 until you get the desired effect. If you close the window, preset blending is still on. To turn preset blending off select Paint Effects > Preset Blending (this removes the check mark from the menu item).
   Note

   While the Brush Preset Blend window is open, each time you select a brush preset, its shading and shape values will be blended with the values of the template brush.

   Tip

   You can set hotkeys to turn brush preset blending on and off (set BrushPresetBlend, BrushPresetBlendShading, BrushPresetBlendShape, and BrushPresetReplaceShading under Paint Effects in the Hotkey editor). Press and hold the Preset Blend hotkey to turn blending on, select the preset brush and paint, then release the hotkey to turn blending off.