How to Make a Brush Stroke Animation for a Video

Step by step

1. 1

   Decide what the paint is for

   Brush Stroke Wipe zigzags across to cover a cut and is a good fit for lifestyle and travel edits. Marker Highlight sweeps behind your words for emphasis in lessons and explainers. Dry Brush Bars streaks rough layers across the frame, a gritty backing for a title in sports or documentary work.

2. 2

   Adjust the paint

   Brush Stroke Wipe has Primary, Intensity, Variation and Easing. Intensity changes how rough the stroke looks, and Variation gives it a new shape. Dry Brush Bars adds Secondary and Accent for its layers. Marker Highlight adds Text, Font, Weight, Size and Text color, because the marker measures itself against your line.

3. 3

   Time it as a wipe or a hold

   Brush Stroke Wipe defaults to 1.5 seconds and covers the frame at its midpoint, so that is your cut. Marker Highlight runs for 3 seconds, which gives the reader time to take in the marked phrase. Dry Brush Bars lasts 2 seconds, so raise Duration if a title must sit on it longer.

4. 4

   Export so the gaps show through

   Four of the five presets start transparent, so footage shows through the gaps between bristles. Use a PNG sequence for Premiere Pro or After Effects and WebM with alpha for CapCut. Marker Highlight starts on an off-white background, so MP4 works if you want it as a paper-style card.

5. 5

   Add a title on top

   Once the frames are unzipped, use File > Import in Premiere Pro, pick the first frame and tick Image Sequence. Put Dry Brush Bars on a track above your footage, add your title on the next track up, and start the text once the first bar has crossed the frame.

Where it is used

• Lifestyle and travel vlogs

  A painted wipe between locations gives a personal vlog a handmade feel, which suits its casual tone better than anything clean, sharp and geometric would.

• Lessons and study channels

  A marker sweeps behind a key sentence on screen, the same way a student highlights a textbook, showing viewers exactly which words they should remember from the lesson.

• Sports and street-style titles

  Rough paint bars behind a player's name or an event title add grit to a highlight video or a skate edit, where a clean box would feel too corporate.

Presets

5

Default duration

1.5 to 3 seconds

Transparent by default

4 presets

Best export

PNG sequence or WebM with alpha

Which format should you export?

Transparent WebM. The appeal of a brush stroke is the paper or footage showing through the gaps in it.

Format

MP4 · WebM · PNG sequence

Alpha

WebM or PNG sequence

Resolution

720p to 8K

Aspect

16:9 · 9:16 · 1:1 · 4:5

License

Commercial use included

Three tips that make it look intentional

• Use a marker highlight behind a keyword rather than around a whole sentence.
• Off-white and muted tones read as ink; pure saturated colors read as UI.
• Let the stroke finish slightly before the word it reveals settles.

Three things people get wrong

• Drawing the stroke slower than someone would actually paint it.
• Using a clean geometric font with a hand-painted stroke, which cancels the texture out.
• Putting the stroke behind text of exactly the same width, so it reads as a highlighter rather than a mark.

Frequently asked