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Two years and one of the single most useful tools that's ever been a part of AE still hasn't returned. The Paint effect is pretty terrible by comparison, as is any work-a-round based on it.
We should likely just hope a 3rd party writes a replacement and not rely on Adobe. It would likely perform better. Most of the new, actually useful functionality that's been added to AE in the last five or more years has been acquired anyhow. Thank The Maker they bundle tracking that works now, given AE has never had good point tracking...maybe one of the few tools more useful than Vector Paint 
sorry, I guess I have missed it. I actually read all the thread but there are many posts and missed yours or maybe I read it but failed to connect it to your user name. I even refreshed my memory with a few tutorials to see what exactly does the workflow entail. thank you for describing again. excuse me if you already know this but it's worth trying so bare with me. I really want to understand what paint can't achieve with a few tweaks instead of VP
Basically a paint recorder, where one draws in the comp (and not layer) window,
I have seen this come up in this thread and failed to understand how painting in the layer window is such a problem. I know it is essential to see your brush strokes in context of what you are stroking on but why not paint with the paint brush on the actual pixel layer i.e if it's a doodle or some image - why not just paint on it in its layer window? if it's to reveal some pixels, my workflow would be to paint on it then duplicate the layer and use the paint check box to "on transparent" and this will be my alpha matte for my pixel layer.
REAL time, (no going down to TL fixing brush stroke lengths,)
If you set it to write-on then it will paint in real-time. you also get key-frames if you want to manually adjust it so the playback speed will be determined by the keyframes distance. you actually have much more control than using a sequential/simultaneously stroke because you can control each stroke in its mini layer right in the timeline. you can set the brush layers to start at the same time or right after the other, or even create an overlapping reveal. If you want sequential strokes then as soon as you stop painting, you press u and advance to the next keyframe and draw the next stroke - this will give you the next brush stroke right after and the result will be a sequential stroke.
you also wrote this:
Have tried workarounds from Ai to AE, but again not the same, if AE could only get a "fill paths sequentially" option like the stroke fx does.
on a previous thread you wrote this:
just copy paste from Ai to an AE layer which arrives as multiple masks, and then with either stroke sequential masks
if you want to use your Ai paths to be revealed in Ae, it's actually much easier to bring it as and Ai layer and use the "create shapes from vector layer" and now you can simply add a trim path operator- set it to trim individually. you can even use the beautiful wiggle path operator to get some realistic path wiggle.
thoughts?
thank you for this discussion
Paint unfortunately is disappointingly lacking in features other applications had 15 years ago.
yes it is old. not the best tool by far. what applications are you referring to? obviously Ae is not a painting software or recording of paint strokes (I don't know of any). I am sure there are much more robust tool for this so we have to make do with what you can. if recording strokes is what you do a lot, I would suggest finding a software that is dedicated for it. how big is the illustration reveal market ? from my experience every time a painting needs to be revealed it required the careful path's placement of the stroke effect in combination with other matte reveal technique such as luma matte for example. it's either that or cell animation. I would like to know what other options are there too.
Have you personally ever used it for recording the progress of a drawing?
just for practice and when I teach, not commercial use. I know it's not as convenient as VP. I remember using VP a long time ago and enjoying it. it was useful.
the Write-On feature it has, works only on a single stroke.
So if one starts drawing naturally, making hundreds of strokes, in Paint they will all start and end the same time.
yes. it's not sequential by default. but try this. draw, press U, press K - draw, press U, press K - and so on
As for Paints inability to use Comp window, can you kindly explain how to go about using it on precomps not just layers?
alt click on the precomp to open the layer window for that comp. you can also change this shortcut the preferences
I would really happy If one suggested a solution for a fill mask sequentially effect.
I am not sure if I am seeing closed paths or open paths. I was thinking you had something like paths with constant width stroke and a regular brush in Ai. this is the only way you could use the reveal path in stroke or shape layers trim path. obviously this could limit your creativity if you create free line art. if you have a closed path like you do in this illustration, my suggestion would be to paint on as pixel layer and paint on it.
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