Having lots of trouble trying to add a white solid background layer to my animation.

[CHARLIE255502082r7e]

So I made a paint stroke animation.

This consists of:

1. Adjustment layer

2. Paint stroke shape (which I made and just added motion and stuff here to make it look real)

Well, I need the file to be an mp4 but when I did this it automatically added a black background but I really need to the background to be white or transparent. 

When I try to add the whiter solid background as a layer in the back, it messes with my animation, it turns my adjustment layer into a dark block on top of the white background. I still see my paint stroke shape moving as it should but without any of the effects it doesn't look like the paint stroke anymore.

What did I do wrong???

See pictures below (one is with the white background hidden and the othe ris when you can see the white background)

[Rick Gerard]

Never use paint on an adjustment layer. An adjustment layer has no pixels. Everything you do on an adjustment layer happens to every layer below it. When you paint on a layer, it adds s colored stroke to that layer. If the layer has no pixels (an empty nested comp or an adjustment layer, you get no pixels. 

I don't see any need at all for the adjustment layer. 

[CHARLIE255502082r7e]

Hi, okay, I just started using After Effects today, is there an easy fix so I can get the background to be white when exporting to an mp4 without having to remove the adjustment layer and redo all the effects (I follow a youtube video to make the initial animation so I'm not very good at After Effects). Or what's the easiest way to get my animation onto a white background in an mp4 from this point?

[CHARLIE255502082r7e · Accepted solution]

Nevermind! If I select the adjustment layer and the paint stroke (without selecting the background) then I can right click and choose the "pre-compose" option and this will only apply the adjustment layer to the paint-stroke or logo or whatever it is!