Brush Style: Mesh Fills, Alive Glow, Shadows & Outlines for Brush Stamps
A white brush stamp on a video is a starting point. The Brush Style sheet is where it becomes a neon splat, a sunset ornament, a ghost of smoke or a sticker with a hard edge — and where the glow behind it gets a heartbeat. Here is every tab, what it does, and the six combinations worth memorising.
Quick answer
Select a raster brush layer in ExpoCut (a stamp from the Brushes catalog or an imported .abr) and tap Style in the toolbar. The Brush style sheet opens with a Looks row — Neon, Sunset, Aurora, Soft light, Sticker, Ember — and five tabs: Fill (Solid, Gradient with Down / Across / Diagonal / Radial, or Mesh with four corner colours), Glow (colour, size, strength and a Motion: Still, Pulse, Heartbeat, Breathe, Twinkle, Flicker, with Tempo and Swell), Soft (edge blur), Shadow (offset, blur, opacity) and Outline (colour, width). The canvas previews live; Done renders the style into the layer. An animated glow lives on its own row directly under the brush and follows it when you move or resize it.
- Style works on raster brush stamps — the catalog categories (fireworks, smoke, drips, grunge, chalk, snow, textures, splatters, paint) and anything imported from an .abr.
- Looks are presets: Neon (cyan + pulsing glow), Sunset (gold→pink gradient), Aurora (4-colour mesh + glow), Soft light (softened, white glow), Sticker (outline + shadow), Ember (radial fire gradient + breathing glow).
- Mesh blends four corner colours across the stamp — the fastest way to make a splatter look painted rather than tinted.
- Glow Motion puts a companion light layer under the brush: Pulse, Heartbeat, Breathe, Twinkle or Flicker, with Tempo (0.25×–3×) and Swell.
- Done bakes the style into the layer, so the timeline, the preview and the export draw the same pixels.
Brush stamps arrive white. The Brush style sheet is one tap away and does five things to them — fill, glow, soften, shadow, outline — with six presets on top for the days you don’t want to think. The glow is the headline: it can beat.
Which brushes get the Style sheet
ExpoCut has two kinds of brush. The hand-drawn strokes (arrows, circles, underlines, scribbles) are vector shapes and use the Shape Style editor. The stamps are pixel brushes — the catalog categories (Fireworks, Smoke, Drips, Grunge, Chalk, Snow, Texture, Nature, Paint, Splatter, Sparkle, Marker, Scribble…) and every pack you import from an .abr. Stamps get the sheet described here.
Vector families and stamp categories share one chip row
Raster stamps — acrylic, chisel, painterly, random strokes
Full-height contain fit, centred
Style
The Looks row
Six presets, one tap each. They set several tabs at once; everything they set stays editable.
| Look | What it sets |
|---|---|
| Neon | Pale cyan fill, cyan glow, Pulse motion — the sign in the window |
| Sunset | Gold → pink gradient, top to bottom, no glow |
| Aurora | Four-colour mesh (mint, sky, violet, pink) with a cool glow |
| Soft light | White, edge softened, wide gentle white glow — for smoke and bokeh |
| Sticker | Solid coral, white outline, drop shadow |
| Ember | Cream → orange → deep-red radial gradient, orange glow, Breathe motion |
Fill — Solid, Gradient, Mesh
Solid is a colour. Gradient is two colours and a direction: Down, Across, Diagonal, or Radial from the centre out. Mesh is four colours, one per corner, blended across the stamp — the one that makes a splatter look painted rather than tinted.
Aurora look
Mesh
Four corner colours
Glow — and the alive part
Glow is a light behind the brush: Colour, Size (how far it spreads) and Strength. Then Motion:
| Motion | Feel |
|---|---|
| Still | A constant halo |
| Pulse | A smooth swell and fade — the neon sign |
| Heartbeat | A sharp beat, a rest, a beat — the thump of anything alive |
| Breathe | Slow, deep, calm — embers, candles, moonlight |
| Twinkle | The glow blinks on and off in steps — fairy lights, stars, bokeh |
| Flicker | Random dips in brightness — a faulty tube, a torch |
Tempo runs from 0.25× to 3×; Swell sets how far the glow travels between its dim and bright states.
Glow
Six motions
Tempo + Swell
When Motion is anything but Still, Done puts the glow on its own row directly under the brush. It follows the brush when you drag, resize or rotate it, it is trimmed with it, and it is deleted with it. That separation is what lets the glow move while the brush stays crisp.
Stamp
O1 — the brush
O2 — its glow, follows the brush
Soft, Shadow, Outline
Soft blurs the stamp’s edge — the difference between a smoke brush that reads as smoke and one that reads as a cut-out. Shadow is a classic drop shadow: Offset X / Y, Blur, Opacity, any colour. Outline strokes the silhouette with a colour and a width — the sticker edge.
Shadow
Offset X/Y · Blur · Opacity
Outline
Colour · Width
Six recipes
| You want | Do this |
|---|---|
| Neon sign on a night clip | Splatter or Marker stamp · Neon look · Motion Pulse, Tempo 0.8× |
| A title splat that feels painted | Paint or Splatter · Fill Mesh with two warm, two cool corners · Shadow 60 % |
| Smoke that breathes | Smoke stamp · Soft light look · Soft 30 · Motion Breathe |
| Fireworks that twinkle | Fireworks stamp · Gradient Radial, gold centre → red · Glow Motion Twinkle |
| A sticker | Any stamp · Sticker look · Outline 12 px white · Shadow blur 0 |
| An ornament on a wedding reel | Imported baroque brush · Sunset look · Glow Still, small, warm |
Where to go next
- Bring your own tips: import Photoshop .abr brushes.
- The vector strokes and their Shape Style editor: brush strokes & hand-drawn overlays.
- Move a styled stamp: keyframes & motion paths.
- Light the whole frame instead: shaders & generative backgrounds.
Fill it, light it, shade it, edge it — and let the light beat while the brush holds still.
Frequently asked questions
Why does an animated glow add a second row on the timeline?
The light and the brush are two things: the brush stays sharp and still while the glow behind it swells and fades. ExpoCut keeps the glow on its own row directly under the brush so it can animate independently — it follows the brush when you drag, resize or rotate it, and it is removed with it. Set Motion back to Still and the row disappears.
What is the difference between Gradient and Mesh?
A gradient runs two colours in one direction (down, across, diagonal or out from the centre). A mesh takes four colours, one per corner, and blends them across the whole stamp — so a splatter can be warm on the left, cool on the right and lighter on top at the same time. Aurora is a mesh look.
Does the styled brush look the same in the exported video?
Yes. When you tap Done the style is rendered into the layer itself, and the glow motion uses the same layer animation the exporter already renders. There is no separate export effect, so canvas and export match.
Can I style the hand-drawn vector strokes the same way?
Vector strokes (arrows, circles, underlines) use the Shape Style editor with fills, outline and glow of their own. The Brush Style sheet described here is for raster stamps — catalog stamps and imported .abr brushes.
Related guides
Make it glow
Mesh fills, alive glow, shadows and outlines on any brush stamp — styled live, exported exactly.
Get ExpoCut Import .abr brushes