MANUAL / PLUGIN

Palf PixelPaint

Two effects for drawing on a binary pixel grid: Write-on and Stroke.

Installation

01
Quit Adobe After Effects completely.
02
Copy PixelWriteOn.aex and PixelStroke.aex (Windows), or each .plugin (macOS), into the Plug-ins folder.
03
Start After Effects. Both effects appear under Effect > Palf. If After Effects was already running, restart it so the plug-ins load.

Windows: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects <version>\Support Files\Plug-ins\
macOS: /Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/Plug-ins/

Requirements: After Effects 2023–2026 / Windows / macOS 11.0 (Big Sur) or later.

Caution (macOS)

If the plug-in is blocked and will not load, run the following command in Terminal with the path for your install, then restart After Effects.

sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/Plug-ins/PixelWriteOn.plugin"
sudo xattr -r -d com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Adobe After Effects <version>/Plug-ins/PixelStroke.plugin"

Caution (rejected-plug-in cache)

If a previous version failed to load once and the plug-in still does not appear after you replace the .plugin, After Effects on Mac may cache that rejected plug-in and keep refusing to load it. Holding Shift while launching After Effects clears the plug-in cache, and the plug-in may then load. Renaming or moving the preferences file before launch is also fine.

~/Library/Preferences/com.Adobe.After Effects.<version>.plist

How to use

Palf Pixel Write-on: apply to the layer and animate Brush Position. Palf Pixel Stroke: create or select mask paths, apply the effect, then set Path and Start / End.

Palf Pixel Write-on

Brush Position: Brush centre in layer space. Sampled from effect time zero to the current time to rebuild the trail.
Colour / Brush Size: Stamp colour (default white) and brush diameter in full-resolution pixels (1–4096, default 8). Cell count scales with Resolution.
Shape: Round / Square. Default: Round.
Stroke Length (sec) / Brush Spacing (sec): Seconds of past brush motion at the current time (default 2.0) and the time interval between stamps (current time always included; default ≈ 1/24 s).
Resolution: Paint-grid resolution 1–100%. At 100%, one cell = one pixel. Lower resolutions expand the binary mask with nearest-neighbour; the source image itself is not resampled.
Paint Style: On Original Image / On Transparent / Reveal Original Image. Changes compositing for covered and uncovered cells.

Palf Pixel Stroke

Path / All Masks: When All Masks is off, specify the mask path to draw. When it is on, every mask on the layer is drawn as a shape. Mode, inversion, opacity and feather are ignored.
Stroke Sequentially: Available when All Masks is on. On: Start–End is split evenly across paths in index order. Off: every path uses the same Start–End independently.
Colour / Brush Size / Shape: Same brush settings as Write-on.
Start / End: Trim along path length (0–100%). No paint if Start ≥ End.
Spacing / Resolution: Stamp distance as a percentage of Brush Size (not a time unit), plus the same Resolution behaviour as Write-on.
Paint Style: The same three compositing styles as Write-on.

Tips

Only the paint mask is binary. Reveal Original Image keeps source colour / alpha inside covered cells. For a progressive multi-path reveal, enable All Masks and Stroke Sequentially, then animate Start / End. Combine both effects when you need freehand trails and mask strokes together.

DEMO edition

The free DEMO includes both Write-on and Stroke with the same controls as the full set, plus a red cross watermark on every frame. Effects appear as “Palf Pixel Write-on DEMO” and “Palf Pixel Stroke DEMO” (PixelWriteOn_DEMO / PixelStroke_DEMO) and can sit alongside the full plug-ins.