Sketch tools for CS5/6 (NKS5)

nkurence · Jun 2012

New update for the NKS toolkit (NKS5) is available now.

Total overhaul, new tools added, old tools remodeled, lots of extras, clean gui, 100% local, still free and a hell of a lot easier to install.

Check out the overview and install videos and download here.

If anyone has troubles or ideas to improve please be in touch. I'm considering some different add-ons to deep-dive for specific workflows so feedback is much appreciated.

Cheers + enjoy,
Nate

renderhjs · Jun 2012

So what is it?
Does it actually bring new input controls or is it more a setup of pre-defined brushes within the Photoshop brush engine?

nkurence · Jun 2012

On a high level I think of it as a slice of Painter in PS. It's going to be most useful for people who draw and paint in PS, but it can be used for a lot of things.

It's a combination - there's a number of basic drawing, painting and texturing tools (tool presets) along with some custom actions and jsx scripts. It centralizes a lot of things I do frequently.

I've aimed for a very basic but high quality look with the tools in order that they're functioning for a lot of uses and don't impart too much of a fingerprint on peoples work. A problem I have with a lot of 3rd party brush kits is that they're geared for very specific tasks and are overly recognizable; I'm aiming largely for ubiquity and transparency (though there are a couple unicorns).

There's an overview video on the site, if you need to see more just give it a try.. it is free after all :poly121:

Ace-Angel · Jun 2012

ACE! Just gave it a twirl and it feels very 'organic' as well gives the more common options right off the bat open rather then me having to remember the very specific shortcut and access that manually.

So yeah, it kinda what I like to call 'Conventioneer tools 2.0'.

haikai · Jun 2012

This is cool. I always appreciate efforts to try and make brushes a little easier to manage in Photoshop. It would be really nice if this also let you easily tweak common settings on the brushes and maybe add/substitute some of your own brushes (perhaps that could reduce some redundancy in these brushes too). Of course I could just have the other photoshop windows open to do this, but they're anything but compact and often have a lot of settings that I don't need to mess with.

I'll be sure to send this around at work tomorrow. :thumbup:

Joshua Stubbles · Jun 2012

I tried it in CS5, it's pretty dang nifty. Though all of the tools below "organic" don't function at all for me. $:\$

nkurence · Jun 2012

@haikai - Which brush settings are you thinking of? There's definitely some limitations on what I can implement with jsx vs. a c-build, but there may be something we can do. All of the drawing tools have a correlating tool preset which you can replace if you want to personalize them, there's just no easy way to customize the icons and tooltips (would have been ideal).

@Joshua Stubbles - Sounds like the Tool Presets / Current Tool Only checkbox may still be on, make sure that sucker is toggled off and let me know if it gives you any more lip.

@Ace-Angel - Excellent

Joshua Stubbles · Jun 2012

That did it.

Cool toolset, I'll have to fiddle around with it some more this week.

solar · Jun 2012

Thanks so much for this! Really nice collection you've created there.

A co-worker did have one issue with it though - one of his favourite brushes that used the pattern "wrinkles" got overwritten with a corduroy pattern and the scale of the brush also changed. It was a custom brush that he had installed. Not sure if that's an intentional change on your part or if can be avoided. It would be good to know either way though as he does want to use your toolkit :poly121: but also keep his other custom brushes.

BeatKitano · Jun 2012

Your thank you page doesn't exist. Great work though.

nkurence · Jun 2012

@Joshua Stubbles - Great!

@Solar - You're welcome

Hmmm. No not an intentional thing at all; that's really strange actually. I prefixed all the installed presets (brushes, tools, patterns etc.) with 'NKS5_' to make them easy to sort/delete if needed but also to sidestep overwriting/confusing them with existing tools. There was a corduroy pattern in one of the previous palette versions (NKS3) I think, but it's not in the current one. If reinstalling that brush preset doesn't fix it he could try renaming the associated assets first. If that doesn't work feel free to send it my way, maybe I can sort something out. In any event, that behavior is totally unintentional and unwanted.

@beatkitano - Sorry, which page? I should apologize upfront for my lackluster web presence - I keep meaning to spend some time on the site, I just really despise CSS.

BeatKitano · Jun 2012

On the way back from paypal, it tries to access a thankyou page, which you don't have (error 404).
Tnx for the tip about markers btw.

Elyaradine · Jun 2012

This is really awesome! Going to try it out over the weekend, and donate if it works well.

Thanks, man!

Sketch tools for CS5/6 (NKS5)

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