ANR Paint Dabs

Overview

Paint Dabs covers the frame with short brush marks laid on an even grid with random jitter. Each mark takes the colour of the image under its centre, so the picture reads as a painting. Fine detail dissolves into strokes: the bigger the strokes, the more abstract the result.

Stroke Spacing, Stroke Length and Stroke Width set the brush. Direction and Angle Variation set how the strokes lie, from parallel hatching to a loose, random scatter. Underpainting keeps some of the original image behind the strokes.

The strokes stay in place from frame to frame while their colours follow the footage. Change Seed to lay a new set of strokes. Use it for music videos, title backgrounds, flashbacks and painted stills.

Inputs

1. Sourcerequired

   The image to repaint. Strokes appear only where it has alpha, so a premultiplied cutout or title is painted inside its own shape.

2. Maskoptional

   Limits the effect: where its alpha is black, Source passes through unchanged.

Output. The brush strokes over a faded copy of Source (set by Underpainting), premultiplied and covering the project format. With Underpainting below 1, the gaps between strokes are partly transparent.

Quick start

1. Add ANR Paint Dabs after the plate.
2. Set the brush size: Stroke Width for thickness and Stroke Spacing for how densely the strokes are laid. Keep the spacing below twice the width so the strokes overlap.
3. Set Stroke Length: short for dabs, long for streaky brushwork.
4. Set the stroke angle with Direction, and how much it varies with Angle Variation: 0 for parallel strokes, high values for a loose look.
5. Set Underpainting to 1 to fill any gaps with the original image, or to 0 for strokes on transparency.
6. Use Mix to blend the painting back with the original.

The panel

The node's panel as Nuke shows it, with the values of a new node. Click any control to see what it does; tabs and sections work as in Nuke.

All controls

Tips

• For the flicker of hand-painted animation, animate Seed so it rises by 1 every two or three frames: the strokes are laid anew each time.
• With Underpainting at 0, merge the result over a paper or canvas texture so the texture shows between the strokes.
• Use two nodes: large strokes for the whole frame, and a finer one masked to the subject so faces stay readable.
• Grade before the node: the strokes take their colours from the image.
• A smaller Stroke Spacing lays many more strokes and takes longer to render.

Good to know

• The strokes do not follow motion: on moving footage they stay where they are and the image moves under them.

Works with

ANR Contour StrokesRepaints the image in short, curved brush strokes that follow its shapes and edges, for a hand-painted or sketched look.ANR Ink PosterTurns footage into a flat-toned, ink-outlined poster or comic look: it smooths detail, reduces each colour to a few tones and inks the edges.ANR Edge WeatheringWears away the edges of text, logos and cutouts with irregular, noisy erosion, for distressed, grunge and printed-on looks.