The stroke player is used to play back bush strokes. Brush strokes can be played back on a single frame, or they can be used as a path for something that is being animated.

The Stroke player has 5 ways to play back a brush stroke.

1. Current frame

2. All frames

3. Range

4. Embedded

5. Hancock

The stroke player can be used to repeat brush strokes that weren’t bold enough. Simply press the “A” key (shift a) This is the same as using the ‘current frame’ mode.

Brush strokes can also be played back after altering the brushes attributes or switching to a new color or media entirely.

The “All frames” mode lets you play back a brush stroke as an animation path. It can be very useful when working with particles.

“Range” mode is also used to playback a brush stroke for animation purposes, but it plays back over a specified range of frames. You can type in the frames you want to use, or you can press the ‘current range’ button to select the entire animation as the range.

“Embedded” mode goes a further step by recording the frame that you are on while drawing.  If you advance the frames while drawing, they will be recorded and played back using the same frames.

The “Hancock” mode is used for making animated brush strokes, such as a somebody writing their name.  Other applications might include making an animated treasure map.