Technically, How does the Art History Brush work?

[david_sprouse@adobeforums.com]

OK, This request is a bit odd, but I'm hoping someone out there is a developer type that can specifically answer my questions.

Background: I am a college student at MSCD in Denver taking a course in Alternative Methods to Computer Science Education.
The purpose of the course is to generate more interest in Jr High and High School students in Computer Science Technologies. The approach I am trying to take involves using Photoshop's (7 and CS) Art History tool to show the relationship of how tools, such as this, use Computer Science concepts and technologies as an artistic tool.

The delima. (questions),

1. How does the art history brush store its working data? Is the data from each use of the brush stored in an array, in a memory queue, stack or just what? When one takes a "snapshot" , (assuming an array approach) does the snapshot become indexed as the 0 element of a new array, indexed in a seperate array, or what?
2. When using an art history brush, how does it determine which pixels to average into the new brush color. If I set a hard brush to 80, for instance, I presumed it would average all the pixels in the circumference of 80 pixels. Some experimentation though seems to indicate the averaging happens only at the center of my brush. But what determines the center?
3. What exactly are the area and tolerance methods doing?

I know this may be a bit bazar for this group, but since I cannot afford to belong to the developers forum, I thought I would ask here.

Thanks, in advance, for any input from those who may be in the know.
Please respond only if you know how the technology of the art history brush is applied. Speculations won't help my delima.

David Sprouse

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

… bazar …




Bizarre indeed. You're not really developing your own graphics application, are you, David?

Some of those that may be in a position to know the exact answers might like to know.

[david_sprouse@adobeforums.com]

Ramon,

No, I'm not trying to develop my own application. I'm just trying to find existing tools, such as photoshop, that can be used to get high school kids interested in Computer technologies or computer science, but since no-one answered my query perhaps this was the wrong place to ask such a 'bizarre' question.

Until next time,

[Ramón_G_Castañeda@adobeforums.com]

David,

What may have given some of the more knowledgeable Photoshop gurus here pause was not only the simultaneously specific and broad nature of your question but also the apparent inconsistency between your characterization of yourself as a student and the information found on your web site <http://www.timemarkllc.com/HomeFrameset.htm>, where it's obvious you are a pro. You expressly said you wanted only responses from the pros.

Certainly I didn't mean to imply anything of a personal nature.