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henrikek22183186
Participating Frequently
March 17, 2025
Question

drawing process reverse function

  • March 17, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 362 views

dear community!

I’m on the lookout for a drawing tool for a live performance. I’d love to be able to draw a simple sketch with my graphics tablet, reacting to a live performance. I know, that After Effects might not be the right platform, but perhaps you have an idea what could be the right app.
I want the drawn line to fade. Suppose I were to draw a spiral, then this spiral would dissolve again starting from the centre when I reach the outer circles...   I’d like to be able to regulate after which time my drawn line starts to disappear, already after 1 second or only after 10 minutes…  So I guess, what I am looking for is a kind of reverse function for the drawing process.
Does anyone have any ideas?
I’d be over the moon if you did!
Cheers!

1 reply

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 16, 2025

@henrikek22183186 

It sounds like you're describing the Live Drawing feature on Final Cut Pro for iPad.

But maybe PaintLink for After Effects ($149.95 with trial available) could work for what you'd like to be doing.

 

 

- Warren

henrikek22183186
Participating Frequently
April 29, 2025

Hey Warren, thank you for your ideas ans the links! They are both looking great!

In FCP I wouls need a rubber gum following the drawing pencil after some time...

And PaintLink, as far as I understand it so far, is not as intuitive and spontaneous to use as I would like. I would love to capture a longer live-drawing process instead of editing individual frames...

Warren Heaton
Community Expert
Community Expert
April 29, 2025

"drAEw" was recently released.  It's not realtime, but looks to be fast.

https://aescripts.com/draew/

 

There are broadcast solutions for drawing live (I think VizRT supports it), but they are very expensive. 

There's also a method to load an Image Sequence into an Adobe Fresco Motion Layer, but it seems best suited for short durations of just a few seconds.