by Vranos·Color Grading
Images © Vranos. Used for product review; image policy.
Composite Brush earns its place in the toolfarm library as a stroke-based color selector and modifier for After Effects, pairing positive and negative color picks with a range of transfer modes and matte-refinement controls.
Composite Brush is a color selector and modifier for After Effects, developed by Vranos. You work by painting on the footage: click and drag to assign selected (positive) colors, and use a modifier-click to assign unselected (negative) colors. With a few strokes you can build a selection, then modify colors, adjust the alpha channel, or pull a key.
Selected colors are processed through transfer modes. Hue, Saturation, and Luminance copy those attributes from a transfer-mode color into the selection, Normal copies the color over it, and HSV combines hue with saturation and lightness. Alpha operations include Increase Alpha, Stencil Alpha, and Silhouette Alpha, while Restore Original RGB and Restore Original RGBA bring back the source image inside the selection.
Matte types control edge falloff, from a fast Hard mode to Medium, Soft, a Hair mode aimed at soft edges on hair, glass, smoke, and fire, and a later Soft 1.6 type. Refinement controls include Precision, Matte High and Low Level, Matte Blur, Matte Choke, and Matte Invert. It is compatible with After Effects CC 2019 through 2025.
Composite Brush is best for after Effects artists who select colors by clicking on footage, then modify hue, saturation, or luminance, adjust alpha, or pull a matte for hair, glass, smoke, and similar semi-transparent subjects.
Composite Brush is completely free to download and use.
Composite Brush lists compatibility with After Effects 2025, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, and CC 2019, so recent and several older releases are covered. The same versions appear as its stated requirements. Its most recent update is dated January 9, 2025, and a changelog entry notes a fix for a possible compatibility error with previous projects. If you run a version outside this range, check the developer's page to confirm before installing.
Composite Brush includes several matte types that control how a selection's edges fall off. Hard processes quickly and grabs large regions of color while limiting the colors it grabs. Medium gives a softer falloff and suits general matting of opaque objects. Soft is noted as likely to be deprecated in favor of the hair mode. Hair is built for very soft falloff when keying hair, glass, smoke, or fire, and a later Soft 1.6 type was added to handle hard, soft, and hair-type edges depending on the shot.
Composite Brush builds selections directly on your footage. Click and drag to assign selected, or positive, colors, and use a modifier-click to assign unselected, or negative, colors. From there you can modify colors, adjust the alpha channel, or pull a key. A Precision control helps when positive and negative colors are very similar, letting close colors keep different designations, while a low precision value removes a nearby conflicting pick when you click again.
Composite Brush was updated to work with all M1 Macs, according to its changelog. Other changelog entries include a fix for a crash on footage with negative color values in 32-bit mode, a licensing framework update, and performance improvements for the Soft matte type. If you're on Apple Silicon, the M1 compatibility update is the relevant note; for other systems, the plugin lists support across After Effects CC 2019 through 2025.
Composite Brush is listed as free in this catalog. Pricing and licensing can change, so check the developer's page for the current terms before you download. The changelog shows an update to the aescripts licensing framework, which points to how licensing is handled for the plugin. For the latest details on how to obtain and activate it, the developer's page is the most reliable source.
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