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Paint with the Brush tool



Use the Brush tool to paint on a layer in the Layer panel with the current foreground color.

Important: To specify settings for a paint stroke before you apply it, use the Paint and Brushes panels. To change and animate properties for a paint stroke after you’ve applied it, work with the properties of the stroke in the Timeline panel.

Select a color for the Brush tool

Do any of the following with the Brush tool active:

  • To select a foreground color with the Color Picker, click the Set Foreground Color button in the Paint panel.
  • To select a foreground color from anywhere on the screen with the eyedropper, select the eyedropper in the Paint panel and then click to sample the color under the pointer. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Mac OS) to sample the average color of a 3-pixel by 3-pixel square.
    You can quickly activate the eyedropper for use within the Layer panel by pressing Alt (Windows) or Option (Mac OS) when the pointer is in the Layer panel.
  • To switch the foreground color with the background color, press X or click the Switch Foreground And Background Colors button .
  • To reset the foreground color and background color to black and white, press D.
Note: To change or animate the color of a brush stroke after painting, use the Color property in the Stroke Options group in the Timeline panel.

Paint with the Brush tool

  1. Select the Brush tool .
  2. Choose settings and a brush in the Paint panel and Brushes panel.
  3. In the Layer panel, drag with the Brush tool to paint on the layer.

    Each time you release the mouse button, you stop drawing a stroke. When you drag again, you create a new stroke. Shift-drag to resume drawing the previous stroke.

Paint on individual frames with the Brush tool

You can paint on individual frames over a series of frames to create an animation or to obscure unwanted details in your footage. Rotoscoping is a special case of painting or drawing on individual frames in which some item in the frame is being traced.
If your output will be interlaced, double the frame rate of your composition before painting on individual frames. (See Frame rate.)
  1. Select the Brush tool.
  2. In the Paint panel, choose Custom from the Duration menu, and specify the duration in frames. To paint on each frame, set the Duration value to 1. Set other options in the Paint panel and Brushes panel as desired.
  3. In the Layer panel, drag with the Brush tool to paint on the layer.

    Each time you release the mouse button, you stop drawing a stroke. When you drag again, you create a new stroke. Shift-drag to resume drawing the previous stroke.

  4. Press 2 on the main keyboard to advance the number of frames specified by the Custom duration setting, and then repeat the previous step.
    Note: To move back the Custom number of frames, press 1 on the main keyboard.
    If you use a pen tablet, map the keyboard shortcuts to the buttons on your pen to work more efficiently. See the documentation for your pen tablet for instructions.