Adobe After Effects CS4 - Manual (Page 309)

303 USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Drawing, painting, and paths
Last updated 12/21/2009
Note: You can manually manipulate the time and coordinates from which sampling begins by modifying the Offset,
Source Time Shift, Source Position, or Source Time values in the Paint panel. You can reset them to zero with the Reset
button.
3 Alt-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) with the Clone Stamp tool on the source layer in the Layer panel to
set the sampling point.
4 Open the target layer in a Layer panel and move the current-time indicator to the frame to which to begin painting
the clone stroke.
5 Drag in the target layer to paint on cloned pixel values from the source layer. To help you identify what the Clone
Stamp tool is sampling as you apply clone strokes, a crosshair identifies the point being sampled.
Each time you release the mouse button, you stop drawing a stroke. When you drag again, you create a new stroke.
Shift-drag to resume drawing the previous stroke.
Click the Difference Mode button next to the Clone Source Overlay option in the Paint panel or modify the
opacity of the overlay to help you better line up elements and see the results of your clone strokes. To temporarily show
the clone source overlay, press Alt+Shift (Windows) or Option+Shift (Mac OS). Alt+Shift-drag (Windows) or
Option+Shift-drag (Mac OS) to change the position of the source layer.
Each clone stroke includes properties in the Timeline panel that are unique to the Clone Stamp tool and correspond
to settings made in the Paint panel before the clone stroke is created:
Clone Source The sampled layer.
Clone Position The (x, y) location of the sample point within the source layer.
Clone Time The composition time at which the source layer is sampled. This property appears only when Lock Source
Time is selected.
Clone Time Shift The time offset between the sampled frame and the target frame. This property appears only when
Lock Source Time is not selected.
After clone strokes have been created, their properties in the Timeline panel can be modified and animated. For
example, you can clone a bird flying across the screen by cloning it in one frame, tracking the motion of the bird, and
then linking the Clone Position property to the Attach Point property of tracker with an expression.
You can set a blending mode for clone strokes, just as for other paint strokes. For example, consider using the Darken
blending mode to remove light-colored scratches, and using the Lighten blending mode to remove dark-colored
blemishes and dust.
Work with clone presets
Use clone presets to save and reuse clone source settings: Source Layer, Aligned, Lock Source Time, Source Time Shift,
Offset, and Source Position values. Clone presets are saved in the preferences file, so they can be reused in other
projects. To work with clone presets, first select the Clone Stamp tool.
• To select a clone preset, press 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 on the main keyboard, or click a Clone Preset button in the Paint
panel.
• To modify a clone preset, select it and adjust the Clone Options settings as desired.
• To copy the settings from one clone preset to another, select the clone preset from which to copy, and Alt-click
(Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS) the Clone Preset button for the clone preset to which you want to paste the
settings.