Copying Brush stroke doesn't work

[baboncjusz]

Hey!

I'm trying to do glowing scribble, smth like that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn0pKAWRn48&ab_channel=Cinecom.net

there's a problem. When i Ctrl+C Paint and Ctrl+V Paint to the Solid color, brushes don't appear on a solid color's timeline. I was looking for this problem on the Internet but didn't get any answer...

I have the lates After Effects.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

Try using the Edit menu to copy, then paste the Paint effect. Make sure your CTI (current time indicator) is at the first frame of the timeline when you copy and paste. 

Another option, and the one that I would use, would be to duplicate the footage layer and paint on the top copy of the footage. When you have the animation the way you like it, you can create a new solid in the timeline, delete it, select the footage layer with the paint animation,  then grab the solid you just created in the Project panel and hold down the Alt/Option key as you drag it to the timeline. This will replace the footage with the solid. 

If you need to go back and do some more editing on the paint layer,, you can always grab the footage in the Project panel, hold down the Alt/Option key, andlace the solid with the footage. 

If you have set in and out points for the footage so that it is shorter than the original, pre-compose the footage making sure to move all attributes to the new composition and trim the comp to the layer length. Now replace the pre-comp with the solid. 

I would give that tutorial a D for explanation and a C- for workflow. It is a pretty amateurish approach to that kind of workflow. You don't have to do this kind of animation one frame at a time. 

[baboncjusz]

Thank you, I got this!

btw. Why do u think this tutorial is for a C-/D? 😉 Im kinda new and I thought this channel is really good for tutorials.

[Rick Gerard]

I gave the tutorial such a low score because there was no explanation of the paint tools, no use of the keyframing you can do on a single brushstroke, and no explanation of the start and end properties available in the timeline properties for each brushstroke. Drawing a new paint stroke for every frame is a terribly inefficient workflow. For example, if your brush stroke was a line extending from the tip of the actor's finger, and the finger moved at a fairly constant rate for 20 frames you could move down the 20 frames and redraw the stroke. It would morph between the two shapes and with just two brushstrokes you would create a 20 frame animation. You can also animate the start, end, size, rotation, position and a lot more properties on each brush stroke which would save you a ton of time. I created the animation I uploaded by motion tracking the actors hand, adding a brush stroke, and using an expression to attach the Brush 1 position to the tracker. There are only 2 keyframes and it took me less than 5 minutes.  Here's everything I did to the layer.

Check out the uploaded Screen Recording.

Almost all of the tutorials from that site oversimplify the approach and leave out critical explanations. They are mostly just simple recipes and they often leave out critical information that leave users confused.