To Enable Paint On Transparent; Animating Paint Strokes; To Animate A Paint Stroke Automatically - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

To enable Paint On Transparent

You can hide or display the layer that you paint on by enabling the Paint On Transparent option. You can enable the
Paint On Transparent option in the Timeline panel or Effect Controls panel. When you enable this option, paint
strokes appear on a transparent background instead of on the source layer.
1 Select the layer to which paint is applied in the Timeline panel.
Choose Effect > Paint > Paint.
2
Select Paint On Transparent.
3
You can specify all of the options listed in the Paint panel and the Brush Tips panel in the Timeline panel. Paint On
Transparent is also available in the Effect Controls panel.
See also
"To specify paint tool options" on page 313

Animating paint strokes

You can animate a paint stroke by setting keyframes for paint stroke properties. After Effects animates paint strokes
automatically when you choose Write On from the Duration menu in the Paint panel or when you replace paint
strokes (referred to as stroke targeting) in the Timeline panel. The time you take to apply the stroke determines the
stroke's duration; the speed of your movements determines the speed of the stroke.
Note: When you change the shape of an animated paint stroke, After Effects alters the speed of the paint stroke with the
new shape such that the animation is smooth. If the speed of the original stroke was constant, the speed of the stroke with
the new shape will also be constant.
See also
"About animation and layer properties" on page 188
"Using keyframes" on page 192

To animate a paint stroke automatically

Open a layer and select a paint tool in the Tools panel.
1
In the Paint panel, choose Write On from the Duration menu.
2
3 Apply a paint stroke to the layer. As you paint, your movements are recorded in real time and determine the
duration and velocity of the resulting stroke.
In the Timeline panel, open the layer to view the paint stroke in the Stroke Options section. Two keyframes appear
4
in the End parameter.
Drag the second keyframe to the frame where you want the complete stroke to appear. The stroke begins on the
5
frame indicated by the first keyframe.
You can reverse the order of the animation by cutting and pasting the first keyframe in the Timeline panel to a later
time than the ending keyframe.
See also
"Using keyframes" on page 192
ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 7.0
326
User Guide