Indian Miniature

Indian Miniature

We left off in our last tutorial about paint with a lead in to a paint setting called 'write on'. It makes some of the paint animation behavior a little simpler, then you can review how it's applied and decide what works best for your current application.

The 'write on' will cause your paint behavior to record your strokes much like motion sketch but what's interesting is when you view the settings it creates, it is really exactly what we described in our last lesson, only it creates it for you. Let's do a very brief review.

The default setting for paint with a 'constant' duration setting is 0% for start and 100% for end. At the beginning of your timeline you paint object is at it's 0% start (it hasn't started! ) and 100% end, it is completely drawn. We played with the start and end percentage settings noting that we were adjusting the percent progress relative to the paint objects start and end. Our simplest illustration was setting end to 0% at the beginning of timeline, then to 100% at time we want our painting to be complete. This animates a paint object in the most familiar way, drawing from left to right as the time progresses completing at the end. We got just a little crazy too, noting that it doesn't have to go this way. It can go backwards. Your start and end can progress at the same time, devouring your object.

When you change the paint duration setting to 'write on' and twirl down the stroke options to see how it was applied, you will see that it automatically applies the same settings we adjusted manually. Start and end will be set to 0% by this setting, just what we did manually before. As you move down the timeline, your paint object will be revealed, painting from left to right. If it took you 3 seconds to draw your paint object, you will see a keyframe for end percentage at 3 seconds and it will be 100%.

What's the difference? The only real difference is with 'write on' duration setting, After Effects records your end percentage on the timeline based on your drawing time. If it takes you 3 seconds to draw a circle, what you will see under the stroke options is 2 keyframes for end %. It will be 0% at beginning of timeline and 100% at 3 seconds. It records the exact same settings we chose only you define the time by your motion.

If they're so similar, why choose one over the other? The 'write on' setting is very easy to use. It records the animation creating the start and end settings for you. But what if there is a timing issue? What if there is 'something else' going on that you want this to precede, or follow, or synchronize with. Having duration set to constant and entering these values yourself simply gives you more control providing more precise timing for the appearance of your paint object. Not bad!

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Web Designer Tom Womack uses Adobe Design Suite creating dynamic sites with rich media.

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Ever seen miniature Marlboro Lights?

My Father picked up a carton for me at an Indian Reservation out West....They are almost 1/2 and inch shorter, and I've just never seen them before.

Yes. Phillip Morris makes them special for midgets. And children.