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Painting with Shift-Paint Records (PB only)


    Ordinarily, when you create strokes with Vector Paint, those strokes are associated with the position of the Time Marker when you draw those strokes. After you draw a stroke, you can draw more strokes at the same time setting or at different time settings. The results you see when you preview or render the composition depend on your Playback Mode setting (see Choosing a Playback mode (PB only)).

    The Shift-Paint Records options change the way that strokes associate with time settings. This is called QuickPaint mode. One of the advantages of this feature is that you can create fast continuous recordings of a sequence of strokes without redraw delays after each one. To work using QuickPaint mode, you must do two things:

    • First, choose the Shift-Paint Records option you want to apply before you paint the strokes that will use this option. These options are available only on the Shift-Paint Records submenu of the Vector Paint contextual menu.

    Note: You cannot apply a Shift-Paint Records option to strokes you have already created.

    • Second, hold down Shift as you paint. Otherwise, the Shift-Paint Records options will not apply to those strokes.

    When you draw, the Info palette displays the abbreviation QP followed by a description of the selected option: Current Frame, Next Frame (for To Sequential Frames), Realtime, or Continuously. These options affect stroke start times in the following ways:

    To Current Frame

    All strokes start at the current frame (the Time Marker position when you draw the strokes). This is similar to ordinary painting mode except that Shift-Paint Records has no redraw delays.

    To Sequential Frames

    All stroke start times are offset by one frame. The next frame is calculated according to the composition frame rate at the time of drawing.

    For example, if the Time Marker is at 0:00 when you draw three strokes, then the start point is 0:00 for the first stroke, 00:01 for the second stroke, and 00:02 for the third stroke.

    In Realtime

    Stroke start times are determined by how they are drawn. The strokes are recorded and played back in real time even if you lift the brush while drawing. Strokes play back exactly as they were recorded, including any time that elapsed (gaps) between the creation of the strokes (provided that you continued to hold down Shift during the time gap).

    Continuously

    Stroke start times follow one another, without any gaps. When one stroke is finished drawing, the next one begins immediately. Otherwise, this is similar to the In Realtime option.