Creating Paint Branches

There are several ways to create a Paint branch:

• Open footage and add a Paint operator to it in one step.
• Create solid footage and add the Paint operator to it in one step. You can paint on the solid frames if you do not need to paint over a clip. (If necessary, you can replace the solid footage with a clip or single image later.)
• Open footage into the Footage Library, then add a Paint operator to it.

Note: Creating a Paint branch is not the same as adding a Paint operator to a layer in a composite. For information, see Introduction to Paint.

To open footage into a Paint branch:

1. Choose File | Open, or press Ctrl+O (Windows) or Command+O (Macintosh).

The Open file browser appears.

2. Select the footage you want to open. Ctrl-click (Windows) or Command-click (Macintosh) to import multiple files.

Note: If you open multiple clips, a branch is created for each selected piece of footage.

3. Click OK.

The Open Footage dialog appears.



4. Click Paint and then click OK.

The footage is opened and a Paint operator is added to it to create a Paint branch.

Note: If you open a still image, the duration is set to the Default Still Image Duration specified in the File preferences.

To create a Paint branch with solid footage:

1. Choose File | New, or press Ctrl+N (Windows) or Command+N (Macintosh).

The New dialog appears.

Note: You can also right-click (Windows) or Ctrl-click (Macintosh) and choose New.



2. Select Paint from the Type list.
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the new Paint operator.
4. Select one of the standard formats from the Format Options list or select Custom to create a custom format. For more information, see Choosing Format Options.

The corresponding properties (output size, bit depth, frame aspect ratio, pixel aspect ratio, frame rate, and field order) appear in the Format Options box. These properties define the solid footage that the Paint operator is used for.

5. In the Duration field, enter a duration for the solid footage in frames or SMPTE timecode.

Note: You can use the following shortcuts: substitute a colon (;) with a period (.). Type "5." to indicate 5 seconds, or "5.." to indicate 5 minutes.

6. Click the Background Color box to select the color of the solid frames.

The color appears behind the objects you create in Paint unless you enable Transparent.

7. If you want the opacity of the solid layer set to 0% initially, enable Transparent. If this option is disabled, Opacity is set to 100%.
8. Select a bit depth from the Bit Depth list.

Usually, 8 bit is a good choice. You can always change this setting (and all the others) later in the Footage Controls panel.

9. Click OK.

The new Paint operator is added to the Workspace panel and appears in the viewport.



Now you can create Paint objects. You can also replace the solid footage with other footage. For information, see Replacing Footage.

Note: If you replace the footage immediately, you are performing more steps to achieve the same result (footage with a Paint operator on it) as if you opened the footage into a Paint branch.