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Creating and managing Paint brushes

Last updated on May 24, 2023

Use this topic to learn how to create and manage paint brushes.

Animate introduces the ability to create and share vector brushes (art and pattern brushes) using shapes drawn within Animate. Before introduction of this feature, you could use Adobe Capture app to create brushes, and sync them to Animate from CC library. This feature allows you to create custom brushes from vector assets within Animate.

Draw the artwork or use an existing shape on stage.
Select the shape, right-click, and select Create Paint Brush or click on the Create New Paint Brush button in the Properties panel.
Set the various paint brush options. For more information on setting these options, see Editing Pattern Brushes.
Click Add to add the brush to the document. You can view the new brush in the Stroke drop-down list in the Properties panel.

Use brush from CC library

Saving or deleting document brushes

Click Manage brushes in the Properties panel. Use the Manage brushes option to save the new brushes for future usage or delete unused brushes from the document.
In the Manage Document Brushes screen, select a single brush or select multiple brushes.
Click Save to save the brushes or Delete to delete the brushes from the Brush library. You can view the saved brushes within My Brushes family in the Brush Library.

In the Brush Library, the Brush family name is same as the document name within which it is created. Brushes from two different documents with the same file name are saved within the same family in the Brush Library.

Using Brushes from the Brush library

In the Brush Library panel, select one or more brushes or click on a brush family.
Click on the Use in document button at the bottom left-hand corner of the panel to add the selected brushes to the document. The brush is displayed in the Stroke drop-down list in the Properties panel.

You can also double-click on a brush to add it to the document.
To delete unwanted brushes from My Brushes family, click the Delete button at the bottom of the panel.

Pressure and Tilt in Paint Brush

Animate provides Pressure and Tilt support for strokes drawn using the Paint brush tool. You can draw art and pattern strokes with variable width, dependent on the applied pressure or tilt on the stylus. For further refinement, use the Width tool to adjust the width points.

For more information, see Working with PaintBrush.

Pressure and tilt icons in the tool bar are displayed only if you have connected a Wacom pressure-sensitive tablet to your computer.

Adding Art brushes to CC library

Use the Paint brush tool to draw a stroke on stage and select it.
In the CC libraries panel, click the + button at the bottom of the panel, select Brushes > Add.

Brushes upload option is enabled only if the selected shape on stage uses Art brushes. Pattern brushes cannot be saved to the CC library.

Add brushes to CC library

Using brushes from CC library

Select the Paint Brush tool. Click on the brush or right-click on the brush in CC library, and select Use in document.
The added brush is set as the active stroke style and can be used in the document. It is also added to the Brush library.

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