To copy a selected part of an instance/drawing and paste into another instance we can choose the ‘copy to brush’ and ‘stamp in place’ options.
Indeed, we might be tempted to use the CTRL+C and CTRL+V combination for such action, but, by default, this combination will do so for the whole image, regardless of if a selection was made or not. On the other hand, using the ‘copy to brush’ and ‘stamp in place’ combination allows us to paste just a selection.
Video demonstration
Procedure
In order to have access to the ‘copy to brush’ option we need to use a selection tool, any of the ones available: Rectangle, Polygon, Ellipse, Freehand, Magic wand, Bezier an B-Splines. For the following explanation we’ll use the ‘FreeHand Select’ tool, whose shortcut is SHIFT + T on the keyboard.
- In the canvas, we first select the part of our drawing we want to copy, using the FreeHand Select tool,
- then press the Copy to Brush option located in the ‘Tool: Select’ panel.1
‘Copy to Brush’ creates our selection into a custom brush. - In the timeline, we go to the instance where we want to paste our selection,
- and finally, in the now named ‘Tool: Custom Brush’ panel, we press the Stamp in place option.
‘Stamp in place’ will paste our custom brush at the exact spot.
Our selection will now be pasted/stamped exactly at the same position as on the original instance/drawing.
Using the ‘Copy to Brush’ option, the actual selection was made a custom brush which gives us the option to ‘Stamp in place’. ‘Stamp in place’ will simply paste our newly created custom brush in the new instance exactly where it was in the instance it was first selected.
The End