There are a wide variety of different tools available in Studio Artist for converting raster images into bezier path renditions of the image. These include techniques to generate bezier path edge sketches (like above), as well as bezier mass sketches based on cross hatching, and complete cartoon style vector renditions of of color imagery. This tip will provide an overview of different approach to generating bezier renditions of raster images.

The example above is a bezier path edge rendition made from the raster image called ‘model’ in the ‘a few source images’ folder provided with Studio Artist. The bezier paths were generated from the source image by running the Path : Generate Paths : from Source Edges menu command.

The generated paths are stored in the current layer’s bezier path frame after they are generated. The bezier path frame is a hidden buffer associated with each layer that can store and display a set of bezier paths. You can view the current layer’s bezier path frame by switching to bezier operation mode. Once in bezier operation mode you can also manually edit the individual bezier paths or hand draw new ones.

Each layer has it’s own bezier path frame. Any path menu operations that generate or modify bezier paths are doing so to the current layer’s bezier path frame. Keep in mind that if you are generating new bezier paths you probably want to initially erase the existing contents of the current layer’s bezier path frame prior to generating new bezier paths. You can either use the erase path layer command menu to do this, or shift clicking the erase button in the main operation toolbar will also do this when it resets the canvas to a default coloring.

Generate Paths

There are a large number of different Generate Paths menu options in addition to the one used above. Adjacent edges generate a bezier path on each side of an edge. Skeletons are bezier paths generated at the mid points between 2  edges, and are an attempt to represent the center spines of different image regions bounded by edges.

The NonWhite options are useful to convert a raster edge image into a set of associated bezier paths. For example, you might use some image operation or MSG preset to generate a black and white raster image edge rendition where the edges are black an the background is white. The NonWhite generate path options can then be used to convert than raster canvas image (or selection) into a set of associated bezier paths.

The Generate Paths : from Ip Op menu option is a new version 4 feature that can generate bezier paths from associated image operations.  not all image operations can generate bezier paths. If a specific image operation can generate bezier paths then this from Ip Op menu will be active when that image operation is active in the image operation editor. Image operations that support generating bezier paths include the Sketch Edge, Sketch Mass, and Color Edge.

Path Layer Commands

The Path : Path Layer Commands menus shown below provide a number of different tools that can be used to modify or enhance generated bezier edge renditions of sketches.

For example, running Size Prune , Connect if Close, and Simplify Lite menu commands on the initial bezier sketch of the model shown at the top of this tip results in the following set of bezier paths. Note how these modified bezier paths have a more stylized hand drawn appearance than the original set of bezier paths derived from the raster source image edges.

Sketch Image Operations

The Sketch Edge and Sketch Mass image operations are new to version 4 and can provide for a wide range of different sketch effects derived off of raster source images. While the normal operation of the 2 Sketch ip ops generate raster sketch images, as discussed above you can use the Path : Generate Paths : from Ip Op menu to generate a bezier path rendition of the associated Sketch effect.

The image below is a screen shot of a set of bezier paths generated using the Sketch Mass ip op and the Path : Generate Paths : from Ip Op menu command.

Once you have a set of bezier paths generated that represent a raster image, you can then paint in those paths using the paint synthesizer. This additional step allows for an infinite variety of different artistic styles to be created off of a given set of bezier paths. The bezier path images above are actual screen snaps of the canvas taken displaying the bezier paths when in Bezier operation mode. But you could generate identical raster canvas images by using a simple 1 pixel black line paint synthesizer preset.

For example, the image below shows a set of bezier paths generated using the Sketch Edge ip op displayed on top of a watercolor paint synthesizer rendition of those bezier paths.  A watercolor paint preset was initially selected and then used to paint the bezier paths by running the Path : Paint Paths : Full Layer menu command. This is an example of painting in a set of vector bezier paths with a raster paint effect into a raster canvas for raster image output.

Vector Output

The Studio Artist 4 paint synthesizer allows for vector paint effects. So you could take the initial bezier paths defining a sketch and then render them using vector paint strokes in the paint synthesizer. Or you could render them by drawing them in with raster paint effects. Vector paint strokes allows for tight anti-aliased renditions as well as resolution independent output. Raster paint strokes allows for organize paint textures, wet paint effects, smear and smudge effects, etc.

For example, the sketch image above is a vector eps sketch rendition of a raster source image of George Carlin. It was generated by first running the Path : Generate Paths:  from Source Images menu.  This generated a bezier edge sketch from the raster source image. That set of bezier paths was then painted in with the paint synthesizer by running the Path: Paint Paths : Full Layer menu command shown below.  This menu command paints in the set of bezier paths in the current layer’s bezier path frame using the current paint synthesizer settings.

For this particular example, i used a paint synthesizer preset that is capable of vector drawing and eps output of the associated vectors. Each bezier path is actually rendered as a bezier region by the paint synthesizer preset used for drawing the bezier paths, where the shape of the generated region defines a simulation of a paint or ink stroke that varies in width over the course of the path drawing. Because the final output was a vector eps file, the sketch is resolution independent and could be printed at extremely high resolutions or large print sizes if desired without losing any detail in the print.

When outputting vector artwork in Studio Artist 4 you can choose between eps, pdf, and svg vector formats. Note that in the example above the initial bezier paths have actually been converted into bezier shapes or regions that the user interprets as thick paint strokes in the final artistic rendition.

Additional Information

There are some additional tips that discuss generating and working with bezier paths and the various vector output formats.

For more information on generating EPS vector files, check out this tip.

For more information on generating and outputting SVG vector files, check out this tip.

For more information on the new Sketch image operation effects, checkout this tip.

For more information on things you can do with bezier paths in Studio Artist check out this tip.

To learn more about how to generate paint presets that do vector drawing check out this tip.

The Vectorizer is a completely different way to generate bezier region renditions of raster source images that was not discussed in this tip. For more information on the Vectorizer check out this tip.

Studio Artist has 5 different Bezier Path Memories.  Four of them are global memories and one is internal to the paint synthesizer.  The bezier path memories can be used to record, store, and playback sets of bezier paths.

You can use the path memories as working storage when editing a bezier sketch or animation. You can also use the path memories to build paint synthesizer presets that incorporate bezier paths or shapes as a part of the way a paint preset draws. This tip will discuss how to work with the bezier path memories.

Each Studio Artist layer consists of a raster image buffer as well as a bezier path frame. The current layer’s bezier path frame is normally hidden from view but is displayed in the working canvas when you are in bezier operation mode.

Each of the 5 bezier path memories can record, store, and playback one or more bezier paths. The bezier path memories playback their contents into the current layer’s bezier path frame. Or they can record a snapshot of the current layer’s bezier path frame into their internal storage for playback at some later time. The contents of the bezier path memories are also available in the paint synthesizer, and can be used to define dynamic path shapes or path start locations.

There are 2 different ways to access the individual bezier path memories. As shown in the screen shot at the top of this post, you can use the Path : Path Memories menu commands to playback or record the contents of the one internal and 4 global path memories. You can also use the bezier memory toolbar located at the bottom of the bezier editor to access the path memories as memory buttons.

Like all Studio Artist memory buttons, you option click them to record the current contents of the interface into the memory button, and click them to playback their contents into the interface. Since they are bezier path memory buttons, the current interface content refers to the state of the current layer’s bezier path frame.

Bezier paths are a kind of mathematical spline curve which you can think of as a series of contiguous points that define a smooth flexible curve. The smooth bezier curve is defined by a series of control points which you can use to adjust the shape and position of the curve. The screen shot below shows a bezier curve consisting of 3 control points on the curve and 2 sets of additional control points (or handles) that define the shape of the curve between the 3 on-curve control points.

Embedding Bezier Paths in a Paint Preset

The BezSmartHatch1 paint preset in the Auto Sketch category is an example of a paint preset that incorporates an embedded set of bezier paths.  The bezier paths are stored in the internal bezier path memory and are used to define a cross hatch pattern. An example of a cross hatch sketch created with this preset is shown above.

If you import the BezSmartHatch paint preset, switch to Bezier operation mode, and then click the internal path memory button at the bottom of the bezier editor palette,then the contents of the internal bezier path memory will be displayed in the working canvas. The screen shot below shows the 4 bezier paths that make up the set of bezier paths used for the cross hatch patterning generated by the paint preset.

The paint preset is using an Internal Path Memory 1 path type in the path shape control panel (shown below). Because the Symmetry option is set to Sym the pattern will be repeated twice with a 180 degree angular offset. Changing the Symmetry option to Non Sym will get rid of the second pattern flip and just draw the set of bezier paths stored in the path memory. The path angle setting for the preset in the path angle control panel is set to Orient which means the angular orientation of the cross hatch patterns will track the source image orientation as the cross hatch sketch is drawn.

You can customize the cross hatch pattern any way you want by drawing your own set of bezier paths and then recording them in the internal bezier path memory. For example, i switched to bezier operation mode and then used bezier draw to create the following new circular spiral hatch pattern.

I then option clicked the internal path memory button located at the bottom of the bezier editor. This records the current contents of the layer’s bezier path frame (the spiral pattern i just created) into the internal bezier path memory.

I then generated a new cross hatch sketch with the new custom hatch patterning i created.  To save a new preset with the custom bezier hatch pattern stored in the internal bezier path memory you can just export the modified paint preset.

How to generate a morph

To start off, open the Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) editor and erase the current PASeq by pressing the Erase button in the PASeq editor toolbar.

Choose the first source image you will be using for your morph sequence and open it as the current source.

Then, record a Morph Context action step by running the Action : PASeq Timeline : Record Context : Morph menu command.

After running this menu command you will see a single Morph Context action step recorded in the PASeq editor.

Now switch to Bezier Draw operation mode. An easy way to do this is to use the Operation : Bezier : Bezier Draw menu.

Once you are in Bezier Draw op mode, you can draw in a series of Bezier paths that will anchor features in your source image.  Turning on the source onion skin is a good way to do this. Or you could drag the source image into the canvas if you wish.

For example, if you are morphing a series of faces, try drawing a series of Bezier paths around the facial features like the eyes, nose, mouth, and head.

When you are done drawing your set of Bezier anchor paths, option click the first keyframe in the Morph Context action step in your PASeq Timeline.

Now choose your second image for your morph and open it as the source image. The onion skin will turn off when you open the new source image, so turn it on again. Now switch to Bezier Edit op mode.

Note how the original Bezier anchor paths are still displayed, but they no longer correspond to the facial features of your new source image.

You now need to edit the existing Bezier paths so that they correspond to their associated facial features in the new source image you just loaded. An easy way to do this is to use the new e hotkey function available in Bezier Edit. 

First select a single Bezier path. Then hold down the e hotkey and redraw the selected path where you would like it to be located. The old selected path will vanish and appear as the new path you just drew in.

You can now quickly select the remain paths one by one, and then redraw them in their new locations while holding down the e hotkey.

Once you have edited all of the old anchor paths to their new locations, option click a new keyframe in your Morph Context PASeq action step.

At this point you’ve defined a morph between 2 still images. The frame capture below shows the mid frame of the simple morph we defined in this example between the 2 face images.

You can continue adding additional morph context keyframes for additional source images if you want to morph between a series of images. For each additional image, you would open it as the source image, edit the Bezier anchor paths to correspond to the new source image, then option click record a new morph context keyframe.

Generating a morph animation movie file is the same as generating an animation movie from any other PASeq.  You just run the Action : Animate with Paint Action Sequence : to Movie menu command.

A Bezier morph animation example created using the same technique described above with a different starting source image is below:

bezier morph example

Bezier Warps or Filtering

Bezier warps or Bezier defined spatially variant filters are created using a similar technique to that described above.  They use Warp Contexts or Filter Contexts depending on whether you are warping or filtering.  As described above, the movement of Bezier paths over time defines the warp or spatially variant filter operation.

By using the series of steps described in this tip you can automatically generate a sketch or other paint style animation from a series of still images with no manual drawing.

Recording your source context keyframes

The first thing to do is to record a Source Context PASeq action step with a keyframe for each of the still images you are interested in painting in your animation. To do this, first erase the current PASeq. Then choose the first source image you want to use in your animation. Then run the Action  : PASeq Timeline : Record Context : Source menu command. 

A Source Context action step will be recorded in your PASeq after running this menu command.

You can then open a new source image and option click a keyframe in the PASeq timeline associated with the Source Context action step. Continue this cycle until all of your source context keyframes are recorded. If you click on a source context keyframe you will see the source image change to the one stored in the keyframe you clicked.

A shortcut way to record multiple source context keyframes is to use the Action  : PASeq Timeline : Record Context : Multiple Keys : Source menu. This menu command brings up a dialog that lets you choose multiple source images one at a time. After pressing cancel a source context action step will be generated with adjacent keyframes for all of the source images you selected.

Record your Bezier generation steps

You’re now ready to record your desired sequence of PASeq action steps to generate a set of Bezier paths for your animation. There are a large number of different approaches you can take to generating a set of Bezier paths. You could use one of the Path : Generation menus (the source edges option for example). You could generate Bezier paths from one of the Ip Op Sketch effects. Or you could use one of more action paint steps to generate Bezier paths associated with a particular painting style.

Make sure the first step in your Bezier path generation process is to erase the current Bezier path frame. Whatever approach you take to generation a set of Bezier paths, the steps are added to the existing PASeq with the source context keyframes.

Generating a Bezier Context

Once you have recorded your PASeq actions teps that generate Bezier paths, you can automatically run the PASeq on all of the source context keyframes and generate a bezier context that has keyframes ar all of the associated frame times. To do this, first select the source context action step. Then run the Path : Convert to Paint Synthesizer : Convert PASeq Source Context to Bezier Context menu command.

When you run the menu command the PASeq will be run for each of the source context keyframes. After running through all the keyframes then a new Bezier COntext action step will be recorded at the bottom of the existing PASeq. You can drop into Bezier operation mode and press one of the Bezier Context keyframes to see the set of Bezier paths stored in it.

Generating the encapsulated paint step

Once you have a kyeframed Bezier context, it’s easy to convert it into an encapsulated paint actions tep in the PAseq.  First choose the paint preset you want your Bezier animation to be drawn with. Then select the Bezier Context action step in the PASeq you will be converting. Then run the Path : Convert to Paint Synthesizer : Convert PASeq Bezier Context to Embedded Autodraw menu command.

The Bezier context action step you selected will change to a keyframed paint action step after running the menu command. Each keyframe will paint the set of Bezier paths that were originally encoded at that keyframe in the original Bezier context.

At this point you now have an encapsulated keyframed Bezier paint animation. You typically would now run an Action : PASeq Timeline : Embedded Bezier Frame : Normalize Split  and an Action : PASeq Timeline : Embedded Bezier Frame : Reorder Minimal Distance menu command. Running these 2 menu commands will insure that each keyframe has the same number of bezier paths for the keyframe interpolation, and that the interpolation takes place between adjacent paths that are close to one another, leading to a smoother animation.

You could now render your animation to a movie file using the Action : Animate with Paint Action Sequence : to Movie menu command. The normalize, reorder, and animate menu steps briefly described above are explained in more detail in this previous Bezier encapsulation paint animation tip.

The following movie example shows off a simple pencil sketch animation that was fully automatically generated using the techniques described above from 4 source keyframes using 2 Sketch Ip Op effects to generate the Bezier paths for encapsulation and a pencil paint preset to sketch the encapsulated Bezier paths.

pencil sketch animation

This tip discusses how to create a keyframed paint animation from a series of freely sketched pencil sketches. Each sketch can have an arbitrary number of pencil strokes. Each sketch is encapsulated into a single paint action step recorded in a Paint Action Sequence (PASeq). The final animation is generated by animating the keyframed single step PASeq into a movie file. By working with keyframes as opposed to hand drawing each frame in the animation you can generate a completed animation in a fraction of the time it would take to draw each frame manually.

Bezier encapsulation is a powerful feature of Studio Artist. Bezier paths are vector paths that underly each paint stroke in Studio Artist. Each layer contains a Bezier path frame in addition to a raster frame buffer. A set of multiple Bezier paths can be encapsulated into a single paint action step, and the bezier paths can then be keyframed in a PASeq timeline.

This tip will discuss how to generate keyframed animation from encapsulated bezier paths. One nice feature associated with encapsulated bezier paths is that an entire drawing composed of multiple paint strokes can be recorded into a single paint preset or paint action step in a PASeq. There are also PASeq Timeline menu commands that can manipulate encapsulated bezier paths so that a series of sketches made with arbitrary number of paths can be configured to smoothly animate over time.

Making your first sketch

The source onion skin is a useful feature that can be used as an aid when manually sketching a source image. I used a source onion for all of my keyframed sketches in this example.

To start, load the source image you want to use as your first sketch. Make sure the canvas is the size you want it to be for your animation.  You can either do this by using the File : New Source and Canvas menu to load your source image and resize the canvas in one step, or you can use the Canvas : Resize Canvas menu.

Make sure the Canvas : Onion Skin is set to Source and then turn on the onion skin by either running the Canvas : Onion Skin : Toggle Onion Skin menu or running cmnd t which is it’s keyboard shortcut. You should see a semi-transparent view of the source image in your drawing canvas, this is the source onion skin.

Nw choose the paint preset you will be drawing with. I used the Default : Pencil : Round1 paint preset, which draws like a soft graphite pencil.

Make sure the paint preset you are working with does not have any path randomization. You can check this by going to the Path Randomize control panel in the Editor palette and making sure both Displace options are set to None. Path randomization interferes with the Bezier path conversion process, so you should avoid it if working with Bezier encapsulation.

Since we want to record the bezier paths associated with our drawing, we need to make sure the Path : Path Layer Record Options : Pen Draw menu flag is turned on. When this menu flag is turned on then any manual drawing will be converted into Bezier paths and the paths will be stored in the current Bezier path frame.

Erase the canvas before drawing to white. You want to make sure you do a full erase, so make sure the default color is set to white and then shift click the erase button in the main operation toolbar. Shift clicking erase runs a full erase, which also erases the Bezier path frame for the layer in addition to erasing the raster frame buffer to the default background setting (white in this case).

Now draw a simple free sketch of the source image. Only what you draw will show up in the final sketch, the onion skin is there for a guide only. When you are finished sketching you can turn the onion skin off (run the Toggle Onion Skin menu discussed above).

To verify the Bezier paths associate with your drawing were recorded into the Bezier path frame switch to Bezier operation mode. You should see the paths appear on top of your sketch strokes. A shortcut to drop into and out of Bezier operation mode is to use the cmnd 5 keyboard shortcut.

Switch back to paint synthesizer operation mode. make sure you haven’t changed the paint synthesizer from the preset you were using for your sketch drawing. We’re now ready to encapsulate the recorded Bezier path frame into a single pain action step.

Bezier Encapsulation

To encapsulate the recorded Bezier paths in the Bezier path frame into the current paint synthesizer preset, you run the Path : Convert to Paint Synthesizer : as AutoDraw Embedded Bezier Frame menu.

This menu command captures the contents of the current Bezier path frame into the internal Bezier memory in the paint synthesizer. It also runs a paint synthesizer macro edit that configures it’s editable parameters so that it will play back the paths stored in it’s internal path memory.

Now we’re ready to record the encapsulated paint preset in a Paint Action Sequence. Open the PASeq palette and erase it’s contents by pressing the erase button in the toolbar at the top of the PASeq palette. Turn on recording by checking the record checkbox in that same toolbar. Then press the action button. The encapsulated paint step should now playback your sketch and a single paint action step should record in the PASeq. Turn off PASeq recording by unchecking the record checkbox.

Recording the remaining keyframes

You can now record the remaining keyframes associated with your sketch animation. You will perform the following cycle of steps for each remaining keyframe.

1. open a new source image
2. turn on the onion skin
3. perform a full erase of the canvas
4. draw you sketch
5. switch to bezier operation mode
6. option click a PASeq keyframe cell to record the keyframe

I prefer to record adjacent keyframes, and then use the Action : PASeq Timeline : Time Compress/Expand menu command to expand the timeline when i have finished recording all my keyframes.

Generating an animation movie from your recorded keyframes

Since i wanted to have the PASeq erase the canvas first for each frame and then draw the sketch, i recorded a second PASeq action step that sets the background to white. I did this by turning on PASe recording, pressing the erase button, turning off PASeq recording, and dragging the recorded Set Canvas- White action step to the top of the list.

The screen snap below shows my finished PASeq for the animation. I recorded 4 keyframes associated with 4 sketches. I wanted to have 10 frames between each keyframe, which leads to a total of 31 frames in the animation, since keyframes are recorded at frames 1,11,21,31.

At this point you can generate an animation movie from your recorded PASeq. To do this you run the Action : Animate with Paint Action Sequence : to Movie menu. This menu will ask you to name the generated movie file and will then run the animation rendering the frames out to that movie file.

If you just want to preview the animation without rendering it to a movie file you can just press the Animate button in the PASeq toolbar. You can always use the spacebar to stop an animation or a rendering movie process.

If you now watch the generated animation movie you will notice a few problems associated with it.  The animation between keyframes will not appear to be smooth, and there will be abrupt jumps at keyframe points where paint strokes jump into or out of existance.

There are 2 reasons for the problems associated with the animation. The first is that each keyframe was recorded with an arbitrary number of sketch strokes. But to have a smooth animation we would want to have the same number of paint strokes for each sketch. The second reason is that the stroke transitions between keyframes are totally arbitrary, when ideally we would want spatially adjacent paint strokes in adjacent keyframe times to interpolate.

The solution to both of these problems is to run some Action : PASeq Timeline menu commands on our recorded PASeq prior to rendering out the final animation. The first menu to run is the Action : PASeq Timeline : Embedded Bezier Frame : Normalize Split menu. Both normalize command options insure that each keyframe in the PASeq timeline has the same number of embedded bezier paths. Normalize Split splits the longest paths to normalize the path count. Normalize Recycle duplicates paths.

The second menu command to run is the Action : PASeq Timeline : Embedded Bezier Frame : Reorder Minimal Distance menu command. This menu command reorders the path indexes of the recorded paths to insure that the interpolated paths are spatially adjacent, which leads to a smoother animation. This second menu command may be slow to run if you have a large number of embedded Bezier paths or a large number of keyframes.

3 movie examples are shown below. The first is the original keyframed animation. The second is the split normalized animation. The third is the reordered by minimal distance animation.

original animation

split normalized animation

minimal distance reordered animation

Watching each of these 3 animations should give you a feel for what the various processing steps do.

If you want to create even smoother animation, you can break your sketch up into parts and record each part as a separate PASeq action step. Each of the action steps will have associated keyframed encapsulated Bezier paths. For a face ketch, you could break the sketch up into action steps for each of the facial components (eyes, nose, mouth, hair). Building the sketch this way insure that the keyframe interpolation will only be associated with the transformation of each facial part and not transforming between parts, leading to smoother automatic motion of the component paint strokes.

You can also generate alternative keyframed Bezier animations based on various automatic path generation operations, like generating the sketch paths from the source edges. One advantage of this kind of approach is that there’s no manual drawing, the entire process used to generate the animation is fully automatic. There’s a tip that describes how to do this in more detail.

Each Studio Artist layer has an associated bezier path frame. The bezier path frame is a buffer for bezier vector paths.  Studio Artist has a unique internal graphics model for paint strokes that paints raster paint over vector paths.  The nice thing about vector paths is that they are resolution independent and in the case of bezier paths smoothly editable via control handles when in Bezier Edit operation mode.

Path Generation and Editing via the Path menus

There are a large number of different path generation and editing menu commands located in the main Path menu. The screen snap above shows the result of running the Generate Paths : from Source Edges menu command. The Generate Path commands provide different ways to automatically generate sets of bezier paths from the source or canvas images.

The Path Layer Commands provide different ways to automatically modify the existing bezier path layer.

Path Generation and Editing in Bezier Operation Mode

You can use the popup at the top of the Editor Palette to switch between manual drawing or editing of bezier paths in the current layer’s bezier path frame. Normally the bezier path frame is hidden from view. When in Bezier operation mode the current bezier path frame is displayed on top of the current layer in the main canvas.

Path Layer Record Options

Bezier paths can be generated automatically from your manually drawn paint strokes. Or from auto-drawn paint strokes created by the synthesizer actions. Or from the output of the Vectorizer.  You just need to turn on the appropriate check menus in Path : Path Layer Record Options as shown above.  

Things to do with Bezier Paths

Bezier paths can be used in many different ways in Studio Artist. You could run the Path : Paint Paths : Full Layer menu command to paint the bezier paths with the current Paint Synthesizer paint preset.

A complete set of bezier paths can also be encapsulated in a paint synthesizer preset using it’s internal bezier path memory.

There are different uses for this. One is to provide a way to keyframe interpolate between different sets of bezier paths in a single paint action step to build up fluid paint animation in a Paint Action Sequence.  

encapsulated bezier keyframe paint animation example

Another is to use the bezier paths as a hatching texture while interactively drawing.

This is done by recording the bezier path frame into the paint synthesizer internal bezier path memory and then using that as the path shape in autodraw interactive pen mode.

Or the paint synthesizer can use the individual bezier paths as internal keyframes that are interpolated over time in an animation or while drawing.  

bezier path shape interpolation example

When used with the region Fill as Brush pen mode this provides a way to generate a dynamic brush shape from the interpolating animation of the individual bezier paths.

bezier brush shape interpolation example

The movement of bezier paths over time can be used to specify warps or morphs or spatially varient filtering. This is done using PAseq Context action steps.

bezier morph example

For more information

Here’s a tip on encapsulated bezier keyframe animation derived from hand drawn sketches.

Here’s a tip on automating encapsulated bezier animation.

Here’s a tip on PASeq Contexts.

Here’s a tip on generating a morph animation.

Studio Artist 4 has a new Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) feature called Contexts. PASeq Contexts can be recorded as individual action steps in a PASeq. Contexts can be used to record source, content, bezier, warp, morph, and filtering keyframes within a PASeq.  

Contexts provide an easy to use way to replace a large amount of functionality that in previous versions of Studio Artist was implemented with multiple Layer Timeline keyframes and/or Timeline Animation operation mode functionality. Because of this both the old Layer Timeline, it’s associated keyframe types, and the old Timeline Animation operation mode are no longer available in version 4.  

The screen snap above shows how to access the menus to record all of the various Context types in a PAseq. Running the specific record Context menu will insert that Context as a new action step in the current PASeq. You don’t need to have PASeq record turned on to record Context action steps via these menus.

When the Record Context menu is run to insert a new Context action step the pertinent associated state of the interface is recorded as well. For example, if you insert a Source Context then a reference to the current source image or movie is recorded within the source context action step.

Context Types

The specific types of contexts are briefly explained below

Source Context – records source keyframes. When recorded stores a reference to the current source. When played back will load the source with the source reference stored in the context.

Content Context – records content keyframes. When recorded stores a reference to the current source. When played back will load the current layer with the image or movie frame reference stored in the context. The specified content is resized to fit the current layer if it’s not the same size.

Bezier Context – records bezier keyframes.  When recorded stores the current layer’s bezier path frame. When played back the current layer’s bezier path frame is replaced with the bezier paths stored in the context.

Morph Context - records a source reference and a bezier keyframe. When recorded stores the current layer’s bezier path frame and the current source reference. When played back a morph is generated based on the source reference and bezier paths stored in this and the next morph context keyframe.

Warp Context - records a source reference and a bezier keyframe. When recorded stores the current layer’s bezier path frame and the current source reference. When played back a warp is generated based on the source reference and the variation from the recorded bezier paths to the original bezier paths stored in keyframe 1.

Inverse Warp Context - records a source reference and a bezier keyframe. When recorded stores the current layer’s bezier path frame and the current source reference. When played back a warp is generated based on the source reference and  the recorded bezier paths. The source reference is warped back to match the position of the original bezier paths stored in keyframe 1.

Filter Context - records a source reference and a bezier keyframe. When recorded stores the current layer’s bezier path frame and the current source reference. When played back a spatially variant filter operation is generated based on the source reference and the variation from the recorded bezier paths to the original bezier paths stored in keyframe 1.

Keyframe Editing for Contexts that Record Bezier Paths

If you record a new keyframe while in Bezier operation mode, then both the bezier paths and any additional information needed for the keyframe is recorded.  So a new morph keyframe would also record the current source reference.  However, if you are option clicking an existing keyframe to overwrite while in Bezier operation mode then only the bezier paths will be updated, not any of the additional information stored in the keyframe.

A similar situation existing when you are not in Bezier operation mode.  If you are recording a new keyframe then all of the information is recorded.  However, if you are option clicking an existing keyframe then the non-bezier path information only will be updated.