Adobe 12040118 - After Effects Standard Tutorial page 433

Channel The color attribute of the input layer used to define the contours.
Threshold The percentage value at which everything below or above is mapped to either white or black. This property is important in
determining the location of the edges that the effect strokes.
Pre-Blur Smooths out the input layer before the threshold is sampled. Set this option to 0 if you have a high-contrast image and want the
stroke to follow the edges very closely.
Tolerance Defines how tightly the stroke conforms to the input layer. A high value results in sharp corners, while low values can make
the stroking sensitive to noise.
Render Specifies whether to apply the effect to a selected contour or to all contours in the layer.
Selected Contour Specifies the contour to use when Selected Contour is selected from the Render menu. Contours are numbered from
upper-left to lower-right; the contour with the highest point is number 1, the second highest point is number 2, and so on.
Shorter Contours Have Specifies whether shorter contours have fewer segments. By default, the effect breaks each contour into the
same number of segments. For example, if you apply the effect to the letter R, the outside contour may look fine with 32 segments, but the
inside contour may be almost solid. To resolve this issue, select Fewer Segments.
Mask/Path The mask or path to use for the stroke. You can use either closed or open masks.
Segments Specifies the number of segments used to create each stroked contour. For example, if the effect is applied to the word Vegas and
Segments is set to 10, the outline of each of the letters, plus the inner contours of e, g, and a, are broken into 10 segments.
Length Determines the length of the stroke of a segment in relation to its maximum possible length. For example, if Segments is set to 1, the
maximum length of a stroke is one complete trip around the object outline. If Segments is set to 3, the maximum length of a segment is 1/3 of the
total outline, and so on.
Segment Distribution Determines the spacing of the segments. Bunched puts the segments together like boxcars in a train: The shorter the
segment length, the shorter the overall length of the train. Even spaces the segments evenly around the contour.
Rotation Animates the segments around the contour. For example, to create the appearance of running lights, start with a large number of
segments set to 50% of their length, and then animate Rotation to move the lights around the shapes.
Random Phase Specifies that the stroke starting point is different for each contour. By default, the effect strokes a contour beginning at its highest
point on the screen. In the event of a tie, it starts at the leftmost highest point.
Blend Mode Determines how the stroke is applied to the layer. Transparent creates the effect on a transparent background. Over places the
stroke over the existing layer. Under places the stroke behind the existing layer. Stencil uses the stroke as an alpha channel mask, filling the
stroke with the pixels of the original layer.
Color Specifies the color of the stroke, unless Stencil is chosen for Blending Mode.
Width Specifies the width of the stroke in pixels. Fractional values are supported.
Hardness Determines how sharp or blurry the edges of the stroke are. A value of 1 creates a slight blur; a value of 0.0 blurs the line so that few
solid areas of color remain.
Start, End Opacity Specify the opacity at the beginning or end of the stroke.
Mid-point Opacity Specifies the opacity of the midpoint of the stroke. This control works in terms of relative opacity, not absolute opacity. Setting
it to 0 makes the change in opacity smooth from the start point to the end point, as if there were no midpoint at all.
Mid-point Position Specifies the location of the midpoint within a segment: Lower values move the midpoint closer to the beginning; higher values
move the midpoint closer to the end. Use this control to move the midpoint opacity from the center of the stroke.
Write-on effect
The Write-on effect animates strokes on a layer. For example, you can simulate the action of hand-writing of cursive text or signatures.
Note: A convenient way to animate Brush Position is to use Motion Sketch to create Position keyframes on a new solid layer and then use an
expression on the Brush Position property to link it to the Position property on the new solid layer. (See Sketch a motion path with Motion Sketch
and Add, edit, and remove expressions.)
This effect works with 8-bpc color.
Other methods of animating paint strokes and text are also available. For example, you can animate text by using the type tools and text
animators, and you can animate a paint stroke applied with a paint tool. Paint strokes can have a Write-on Duration setting, which you can use to
create similar results as with the Write-on effect. You can also animate shape paths for a similar result with the Trim Paths operation. (See
Animating text, Animate and edit paint strokes, and Shape attributes, paint operations, and path operations for shape layers.)
Brush Position The position of the brush. Animate this property to create a stroke.
Stroke Length (secs) The duration, in seconds, of each brush mark. If this value is 0, the brush mark has unlimited duration. Use a single,
constant, nonzero value to create a snakelike movement of the stroke. Animate this value to make the stroke expand and contract.
Brush Spacing (secs) The time interval, in seconds, between brush marks. Smaller values produce smoother paint strokes but take more time to
render.
Paint Time Properties and Brush Time Properties Specifies whether paint properties and brush properties are applied to each brush mark or to
the entire stroke. Choose None to apply values at each time to all brush marks in the stroke. Choose a property name for each brush mark to
retain the value for that property at the time that the brush mark was drawn. For example, if you choose Color, then each brush mark keeps the
color specified by the Color value at the time that the mark was drawn.
Paint Style How the paint stroke interacts with the original image:
On Original Image Paint stroke appears over original image.
On Transparent Paint stroke appears over transparency; the original image doesn't appear.
To the top