Draw with a pencil

[Kevin Camp]

there are a few ways to something like this, the way i’d probably do it is with a mask and the stroke effect.

create a new solid and use the pen tool to create a shape on it (make sure the solid layer is selected when you start to use the pen tool).

then add the stroke effect.

by default the effect should see the mask path and select it from the path dropdown in the effect. if you want it to use multiple paths, click the ‘all masks’ option. for ‘paint style’ set it to ‘on transparent’. to animate the stroke, animate the end value from 0 to 100. then just set the other stroke properties as needed.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Jesse Degger]

Thanks for your response.

I created the solid object and drew my line. I also found the option of the end value, but how do I animate it?

I’m now struggling with key-frames or something but when I change the value I change it for the whole object (at the beginning and the ending).

Thanks again for the fast response!!

Kind regards,
Jesse

[Jesse Degger]

Another question which relates to this:

When I’m drawing with the Brush-tool there opens a new tab, I can’t see the other layers.

Is it possible to see the other layers while drawing (so I know where I’m drawing at)

Kind regards,
Jesse

[Jesse Degger]

I now found a view which shows the painted brush directly on the total composition but it still isn’t very handy to draw.

When you draw at the right side (left is not possible) it will appear at the left site when you’re done drawing.

Is it possible to do it another way?

[Michael Szalapski]

As someone new to AE, I would strongly suggest you stop what you’re doing right now, go here [link], and go through all of the links there to start building a strong foundation in the basics first. AE is a very wide AND deep program. It’s rather frustrating trying to learn in the middle of a project. Much better to crawl before you walk before you run.

That being said, check out this tutorial [link]. It’s for revealing lines and might help you out.

Now, as to your painting with the brush question, that tool works in the layer panel, not the composition panel (as mentioned here [link]).

– The Great Szalam
(The ‘Great’ stands for ‘Not So Great, in fact, Extremely Humble’)

No trees were harmed in the creation of this message, but several thousand electrons were mildly inconvenienced.

[Kevin Camp]

jesse,

the brush tool that you are using is one way to accomplish what you are after.

i was referring to the pen tool (looks like an old fountain pen tip). this will create a vector mask path with vertexes that the stroke effect will use to draw a line/stroke.

if you use that method, you can simply hid the layer that you are drawing the path on and still see the path as you draw over the footage/image layer.

as for animating (or key framing), the manual describes this pretty well… click the stopwatch for the property that you want to animate. this adds a keyframe with the current value at the current time in the timeline. scrub to another point in the timeline and change that value, and ae will automatically add a new keyframe for that property with the new value, and automatically tween (or interpolate new values) between the keyframed values.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW