The scrub bar sits under the preview. It holds the play button, the track with one colored lane per brush, and the reveal length on the right.
Play and Scrub
- Click the play button, or click the painting, to play or pause the preview.
- Drag anywhere along the track to scrub. The painting follows the playhead exactly.
- Playback loops, holding briefly on the finished painting before it starts over.
A freshly mixed image shows the finished painting until you first play or scrub, so you see the result before the reveal.
Brush Lanes
Each colored lane is one brush’s time window, tinted with that brush’s average color. The lanes alternate between two rows because each brush overlaps the next. A brush starts about halfway through the one before it, so the painting arrives in waves rather than in separate steps.
While the preview plays, the chip for the brush currently painting is highlighted.
Set the Reveal Length
The number on the right is how long the reveal runs, from 1 to 120 seconds.
- Drag up or down on it to change the length. Dragging up makes the reveal longer. It snaps to half seconds.
- Double-click it to follow the active comp’s work area instead. A small dot appears next to the number while it follows the work area.
- Dragging it again switches back to a length you set by hand.
Painted times every stroke inside that length. A longer reveal gives each stroke more room, up to a natural speed based on its length, so long reveals feel calm rather than slow motion.
In After Effects
The timing you preview is the timing you get. Each stroke becomes a Trim Paths animation with an ease into its end, and each brush layer starts just before its first stroke. See Painting into After Effects for the layer structure.