What It Does
Paint & Stick 2 brought direct painting into After Effects compositions, letting you draw frame-by-frame animation or texture 3D renders without leaving the software. The beta version (which expired March 2017) let users test the 2.0 release’s headline feature: sticking live compositions onto 3D geometry from Cinema 4D. Any work created during the beta remained usable in the paid release.
Key Features
Custom and Photoshop brushes. Paint with your own brushes or import them from Photoshop, giving you familiar tools inside After Effects.
Onion skinning. See previous and future frames while animating, adjustable by frame step, opacity, and range. Particularly useful for cel animation workflows or making precise tweaks on adjustment layers.
Stick to 3D renders. Map your painted strokes onto 3D geometry, updating in real-time as you paint. Version 2.0 added support for sticking live compositions, meaning you could map entire animated comps (video, motion graphics, text) onto Cinema 4D renders. Helpful for versioning logos or adding dynamic textures without re-rendering 3D scenes.
Improved brush engine. Version 1.5 introduced new brush and swatch palettes, smart fill, hotkeys, path smoothing, and texture anti-aliasing options (Off to High). Performance improvements reduced lag during painting.
Who It’s For
Motion designers doing cel animation or anyone texturing 3D renders from Cinema 4D who wants tighter integration with After Effects. The live composition sticking feature made it practical to iterate on logos or graphics overlaid on 3D objects without bouncing between software.
Pricing
This beta version was free during March 2017 and has since expired. The commercial release, Paint & Stick 2, is available as a paid plugin at aescripts.com/paint-and-stick with two tiers: Paint Only (Stick features watermarked) and Paint & Stick (full license around $29).