Chapter 10: Painting the Town - Getting more from AE s new paint tools
Chapter 10: Painting the Town ”Getting more from AE's new paint tools
The Paint Effect is new to AE 6 and we love it. Learn to get more out of the new tool as well Vector Paint effect. Vector Paint has been available, first as a plug-in by Cult Effects for AE 3 and 4 and was then integrated into the AE package in version 5. Learn to harness the power of all the Paint options as a compositing tool and to create eye-catching
Window Treatments
To use the Brush Tool, you have to launch a layer in the layer window. It will be opened as a tabbed window where your Composition window is.
-
To
open the Layer Window, double click the layer in the timeline that you want to paint. -
It's a good idea to view the Layer Window and the Composition Window
simultaneously by dragging the Layer Window to it's own space on the desktop. Click on the Layer Window tab in the and drag out
You can do this with many other
Paint, Clone, and Erase Palettes
Once you have launched the Layer Window, you can click on the
Brush Tool in the Tools Palette.
If you prefer to use the keyboard to select tools, press Cmd+B (Crtl+B). Keep pressing Cmd+B (Crtl+B)to toggle between the Paint, Clone, and Erase Tools. If you are using the keyboard shortcuts because you lack monitor real estate, double-clicking on any palette will collapse it and save you room.
Paint Palette Options
Besides the usual options you'd expect to have in a paint palette (like a Color Picker), you can also choose the duration of your stroke and which channel you want to paint on (Alpha, RGB, or RGB+Alpha Channels).
If you are unsure what effect you are looking for, or got
excited and started painting before you
You can animate the duration by
Vertex Mania
Sometimes the masks from Paint Strokes have lots of Vertex Points. It's not a bad idea to smooth the mask. If you have access to Illustrator, this extra step will make you work, but the results are great.
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In Illustrator, paste a stroke from AE.
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Choose>Object>Path>Simplify.
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Choose Preview to see the Simplification, and Show Original to see the original mask. Turn the curve precision up quite high. The goal is to vastly reduce the number of points while retaining the mask shape. Or, close the mask shape, depending on how much smoothing you want.
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Click OK
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Select and copy the new mask.
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In After Effects, paste the simplified Mask into the Mask Shape keyframe.
Dynamics
The Paint, Clone, and Erase Brushes have a selection of dynamic
properties:
You can link these dynamics to pen pressure, pen tilt, or a stylus wheel. (Some tablet accessories such as Wacom's Intuos Airbrushes include a stylus wheel). Using Dynamics adds more professional functionality to the Paint Effect and you may want to get a tablet if you don't have one. Other than the ease of drawing with a pen you can vary the size, angle, roundness, opacity, and flow within the same paint stroke.
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