Working with an existing animated brush

Animated custom brushes let you use parts of an animation to create new animations. You can stamp a changing picture on the different frames of an animation, and create interesting effects by starting at different frames.

This section first steps you through looking at an existing custom brush that changes its shape each time you paint with it. After that, you learn about creating an animation using the custom brush.

A first look at an animated brush

  1. Create a new animation with 10 frames or choose Clear > All Frames from the Anim menu, then press Command - Clear to reset the 3DO Animator default settings.

  2. From the Brush menu, choose Load Brush.

  3. In the Load Brush dialog, find and open the file called Bird.

  4. Click the Brush tool (see Figure 1) and move the cursor to the screen.

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    Figure 1: Tool palette with brush tool selected.

    The brush is shaped like a bird in flight. The bird-shaped brush is an animated brush, made up of frames that flip each time you use the brush. The animated bird consists of 8 frames.

  5. Stamp the brush down once (click the mouse button).

    Note that the picture of the bird has been painted on the document, and the shape of the brush has changed. Each time you click the mouse button, the brush flips to the next frame of the brush.

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    Figure 2: Document showing Bird brush stamped twice; brush is active.

  6. Stamp the brush down again; then paint freehand across the screen to see all the frames of the animated brush.

Creating an animation with an animated brush

You can create an animation if you paint one frame of the brush on each frame of the animation as follows.

  1. Choose Set # of Frames from the Anim menu.

  2. Enter 40 in the Frame number box and click OK. You have 40 animation frames to paint on.

  3. While holding down the backquote key (`), press the mouse button and drag the brush from right to left across the screen.

    The brush changes as you move it and the frame counter keeps track of the place in the animation.

  4. When the frame counter in the Anim control panel reads 40/40, release the backquote key and stop painting.

  5. Click the Play Once icon on the bottom of the animation control panel.

    You'll see the bird fly.

  6. Click the Play Continuously icon if you want to see the animation play repeatedly.

  7. Press Spacebar to stop the animation.