Guides / Motion and animation
Motion inside a wash
Keep a wash's outline still and move only its colour, with Current, Ripples, Eddies and blooms.
- Free
- Everything in this guide works in Free.
Water Current is a joined, soft wash with a still outline. Open the brush library, search for Water Current and choose it.
Water Current is a joined, soft wash with a still outline. Open the brush library, search for Water Current and choose it.
First choose Still and paint a wash. This gives us a static example to compare with the moving colour.
First choose Still and paint a wash. This gives us a static example to compare with the moving colour.
Return to Motion and choose Current inside the marks. Keep outline still stops path and mark movement while the colour keeps moving. Amount controls how visible it is; Rate controls the pace.
Return to Motion and choose Current inside the marks. Keep outline still stops path and mark movement while the colour keeps moving. Amount controls how visible it is; Rate controls the pace.
Paint below the first wash. Its outline stays put while the colour drifts. Lower the amount for a quieter wash, and raise it when the movement should be bolder.
Paint below the first wash. Its outline stays put while the colour drifts. Lower the amount for a quieter wash, and raise it when the movement should be bolder.
For a living wash, start with Water Current, Water Ripples, Water Eddies, Wet / Dry Loop or Edge Bloom in the brush library. These use densely joined liquid marks with a soft outline. They work best when the outline stays still and only the colour moves.
In Brush Studio → Motion → Inside the marks:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Current | Pigment drifts down the stroke, following its direction, in irregular patches. |
| Ripples | Drops fall at random places and times; their soft rings spread and fade. |
| Eddies | Pigment turns in slow swirls about a width across, carried gently downstream. |
| Wet / Dry | Wet patches spread and dry back each cycle: paler inside, with a dark bloom along their edge. It does not reverse physical drying. |
| Edge Bloom | A ragged front carries pigment from the middle out to the wash's shared outside edge, where it pools. |
| Interior amount | Sets the strength (Swirl on the wheel). The Water brushes start at 0.6; try 0.3 for a quiet wash. |
| Interior rate | Sets the speed (Flow on the wheel). The Water brushes start at a cycle every 4 or 5 seconds. |
| Interior scale | Sets the size of the pattern, relative to the brush: at 1, its patches are a little under half a stroke wide. |
| Keep outline still | Stops whole-stroke motion and holds individual marks, preserving interior movement. |
Still in this section stops the interior only. Stop all motion stops every moving component on the brush. Existing strokes retain their settings; select a stroke to change it later.
A still outline is optional. For a stronger wash, raise the interior amount, turn on Marks move, or add a Whole stroke motion such as Breathe or Ripple. Local movement and whole-stroke motion can swell or reshape the outline while the interior colour keeps moving.
A looping painting fits interior movement into its loop. For a slow wash, use a longer duration in Actions → Playback → Living paint settings. These are appearance effects inside compatible marks, separate from physical pigment transport and from the layer's Current, which moves the wash itself. Ordinary Line brushes do not yet have these interior controls.
Plus: Every interior movement is Free.
Try it in the app.
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