Guides / Motion and animation
Add motion to your strokes
Choose from 48 whole-stroke motions in five families, with separate controls for mark movement and colour inside marks.
- Free
- Everything in this guide works in Free.
Tap Amount, on the motion half of the stroke wheel. Marks and motion unfold around it, with the suggested motions as moving strokes.
Tap the folded wheel to unfold it, then tap Amount, on its motion half. Marks and motion unfold around it, with the suggested motions as moving strokes.
Click Amount, on the motion half of the stroke wheel. Marks and motion unfold around it, with the suggested motions as moving strokes.
Whole stroke moves the path. The second ring holds every group side by side. Suggested comes first, then the motion families. Float and Drift, Waves and Flow, Bend and Stretch, Bounce and Rhythm, and Shake and Sketch group the motions by how the stroke moves. The marks and effects follow them. Choose Waves and Flow.
Whole stroke moves the path. The second ring holds every group side by side. Suggested comes first, then the motion families. Float and Drift, Waves and Flow, Bend and Stretch, Bounce and Rhythm, and Shake and Sketch group the motions by how the stroke moves. The marks and effects follow them. Choose Waves and Flow.
Choose Still and paint a stroke. It stays put, so you can compare the moving strokes with it.
Choose Still, which folds the wheel, and paint a stroke. It stays put, so you can compare the moving strokes with it.
Open Marks and motion again and choose Wave. Beside Size, Strength and Water, the wheel's own gauges now show its Amount, Speed and Pattern; drag one clockwise, the way its fill grows, for more.
Unfold the wheel, open Marks and motion again and choose Wave. Beside Size, Strength and Water, the wheel's own gauges now show its Amount, Speed and Pattern; drag one clockwise, the way its fill grows, for more.
Tap More motion for the full panel. It sets the motion for your next strokes. To change strokes already on the page, select them with Select stroke, in Tools.
Tap More motion for the full panel. It sets the motion for your next strokes. To change strokes already on the page, select them with Select stroke, in Tools.
Click More motion for the full panel. It sets the motion for your next strokes. To change strokes already on the page, select them with Select stroke, in Tools.
Below the motions, drag Amount well up so the wave is easy to see. Speed sets how many times a second it moves.
Below the motions, drag Amount well up so the wave is easy to see. Speed sets how many times a second it moves.
Tap Done and paint a second stroke. The top one is still; this one ripples along its length.
Tap Done, tap the page to fold the wheel, and paint a second stroke. The top one is still; this one ripples along its length.
Click Done and paint a second stroke. The top one is still; this one ripples along its length.
Tap Amount, then More motion, then Advanced motion, for the brush's Motion page. Under Advanced motion, Phase, Anchors and Move paint fine-tune how it moves.
Tap Amount, then More motion, then Advanced motion, for the brush's Motion page. Under Advanced motion, Phase, Anchors and Move paint fine-tune how it moves.
Click Amount, then More motion, then Advanced motion, for the brush's Motion page. Under Advanced motion, Phase, Anchors and Move paint fine-tune how it moves.
Set Anchors to Start pinned, tap Done and paint a third stroke. Its start stays where you put it while the rest waves.
Set Anchors to Start pinned, tap Done and paint a third stroke. Its start stays where you put it while the rest waves.
Set Anchors to Start pinned, click Done and paint a third stroke. Its start stays where you put it while the rest waves.
The Marks and motion ring
Tap a motion gauge 1 on the stroke wheel, Amount, Speed or Pattern, and Marks and motion unfolds around it: one ring for what a stroke leaves and how it moves. The motions are rays, each one a stroke in your brush and colour, already moving. The medium's suggested motions come first, after Still. Choose a family to browse more; the wheel shows one group at a time. Tap a motion to choose it: it applies to your next strokes at once, and the ring stays open so you can try one after another. Painting folds the ring away.
The same ring opens from Marks and motion, a chip on the ring of brushes: tap the medium in hand to find it.
A motion or an effect moves as soon as you choose it. If Still was holding the stroke's marks, or the painting was paused, choosing one lets them go and plays the painting, so you see it move without tapping Moving as well. Still, the first of the motions, stops the path and starts nothing. A lesson keeps its painting paused until the step that asks you to tap Play.
The motion's settings are gauges on the wheel itself, beside Size, Strength and Water, so you can set them as you paint without opening anything:
| Gauge | What it does |
|---|---|
| Amount | How far the stroke moves, as a multiple of the brush's width (0.40× is four tenths of it), up to 32 points; it follows Size, so a smaller brush moves less. Drag it clockwise for more; at the bottom of the ring its fill grows from right to left, so a straight drag left is more. Reads Still when the brush has no motion. |
| Speed | How many cycles a second it moves. Noise-based motions, such as Wiggle and Crawl, count steps a second instead. Reads Frame rate for Stop motion and Random redraw, which hold poses like frames: how many new poses a second. Slow paces take most of the gauge's arc, and the fastest is still at its end. |
| Pattern | How close together the waves are: a longer stroke gets more of them, and a bigger brush makes them longer. Reads Detail for Random redraw: how many small bends each redrawn line has. Dims for motions that move the whole stroke, such as Sway, Orbit or Bounce. |
Tap any of the three to unfold Marks and motion. Its inner ring holds:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Still / Moving | Whether the next stroke moves, in one tap. Still keeps the path still and holds any marks where they are; Moving brings their movement back (or the medium's first suggested motion, for a line that never moved) and plays the painting if it was paused. |
| More motion | Opens the full motion panel. |
| Whole stroke | Which part the gauges move. Whole stroke moves the path. With marks in hand, their own movement has a chip here too, and Inside the marks where the marks support it. |
The second ring holds every group side by side:
| Group | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Suggested | The medium's own motions. |
| The five families | Float & Drift, Waves & Flow, Bend & Stretch, Bounce & Rhythm and Shake & Sketch: every motion, by how the stroke moves. |
| Line | One tap takes the marks off, back to a plain stroke. |
| Shapes, Hatching, Liquid marks | The stroke's marks. |
| Fire, Smoke & Steam, Sky, Weather, Water, Nature, Creatures, Magic, Explosions | The effects, by category. |
There are more groups than fit at once, so this ring turns: drag along it to reach the last ones. A faded end shows there are more. The chosen group's motions, marks or effects fill the outer rings. Marks and motion are separate parts of the stroke, so choosing one keeps the other. Tools that edit paint already on the page have no marks, so with one in hand the ring holds only the motion groups.
Variations of the stroke in hand, nearer or farther, broader or finer, open with a second tap on the brush in hand, on the ring of brushes: see Variations for layering.
The gauges turn like Size: drag clockwise, the way the fill grows, for more. With Still there is nothing to set, so they dim.
On iPhone the wheel rests folded. Tap it to unfold it, then tap a motion gauge. Picking a motion folds the wheel; touch and hold one instead to keep the ring open and compare. A stroke drawn over the open wheel paints and folds it.
The motions
| Family | Motions |
|---|---|
| Still | Still |
| Float & Drift | Sway, Orbit, Drift, Wind, Bob, Buoyant, Feather float, Rosette, Spiral, Teardrop orbit, Square orbit |
| Waves & Flow | Wave, Crawl, Ripple, Flutter, Ribbon, Zigzag, Whip, Breezy ripple, Swimming, Slither, Surge, Counterwave, Sidewinder |
| Bend & Stretch | Stretch, Swing, Spin, Curl, Squash & stretch, Breathe, Jelly, Accordion, Travelling folds |
| Bounce & Rhythm | Bounce, Heartbeat, Living pulse, Spring, Pluck, Recoil, Shuffle, Hop |
| Shake & Sketch | Wiggle, Random redraw, Shiver, Stop motion, Nervous float, Tick, Tremolo |
Wind is shared: every stroke with Wind moves in the same breeze across the page, and their roots stay put.
The motion panel
More motion opens a larger panel beside the wheel:
- It sets up the motion of the strokes you paint next.
- A family picker and larger moving tiles. One tap applies a compatible choice.
- With marks selected, What moves chooses Whole stroke, their contextual movement, or Inside the marks. Unsupported components are absent.
- Stop all motion stops the whole stroke, individual marks and interior colour.
- Amount (in widths of the brush), Speed (or Frame rate) and Detail as sliders, with their units.
- Advanced motion… opens the brush's Motion page in Brush Studio.
At the largest text sizes, the panel's title takes a line of its own. On an iPhone on its side it leaves out the title and the motion's description, and Done keeps to a bar's size (press and hold it to see it large), so the motions show as the panel opens.
- Done closes the panel.
Advanced motion
The Motion page in Brush Studio shows Choose motion (every motion, grouped by family, with a description), the motion's Motion cycle (how long before it repeats exactly), Amount, Speed and, for motions that travel along the stroke, Pattern: how many waves fit along it. Open Advanced motion for:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Phase | Where in its cycle the motion starts, from 0 to 1. Two strokes with different phases move out of step. |
| Anchors | Free, Start pinned, End pinned or Both ends pinned. A pinned end stays where you painted it; the rest of the stroke moves. |
| Move paint | How much the stroke itself follows the motion, from 0 to 100%. At 0 its shape holds still; in wet media its motion can still stir the water around it. |
| Motion drives water | Watercolour and other wet media: how strongly the stroke's movement pushes the water around it. Under Flow. |
Combine motions below adds up to eight motions to one brush: see Combine motions.
Tip: Motion belongs to the brush, so it changes only the strokes you paint next. To change strokes already on the page, select them with Tools → Select stroke: see Change how painted strokes move.
Plus: All 48 motions and motion stacks are Free.
On the Mac, click a motion gauge on the wheel, or secondary-click the page to bring the wheel to the pointer first.
Try it in the app.
Download on the App Store Free for iPad, iPhone and MacSomething not behaving as expected?
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