The Paint Bucket effect (formerly Basic Fill effect) is a nondestructive paint effect that fills an area with a solid color. It works much like the Paint Bucket tool in Adobe Photoshop. Use the Paint Bucket effect for colorizing cartoon-type outlined drawings or replacing areas of color in an image.

This effect works with 8-bpc color.

Fill Point

The effect fills an area that contains the Fill Point. The area is determined by analyzing pixels that neighbor the Fill Point and expanding the fill area by adding matching pixels. How far the fill color spreads depends upon the Tolerance setting, as well as the option you choose from the Fill Selector menu.

Fill Selector

Which values to operate on:

Color & Alpha

Specifies that the effect fills the fill point’s RGB and alpha channels with the new color.

Straight Color

Specifies that the effect fills only the fill point area’s RGB channel with the new color.

Transparency

Specifies that the effect fills only the transparent areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in a transparent area for this option to work.

Opacity

Specifies that the effect fills only the opaque areas near the fill point. You must set a fill point in an opaque area for this option to work.

Alpha Channel

Specifies that the effect fills either the opaque or transparent areas in the whole image, depending upon the alpha channel value at the point you set the fill point.

Tolerance

How far a pixel’s color values can be from the Fill Point color values and still match. Higher values expand the range of pixels that the effect fills.

View Threshold

Shows what pixels match—that is, which pixels are within the Tolerance value of the color values of the Fill Point pixel. This option is especially useful in tracking leaks. If there is a small gap, the color can flow over and fill areas not intended to be filled.

Stroke

How the effect treats the edges of the filled area:

Antialias

Anti-aliases the edges of the filled area.

Feather

Creates a feathered edge for the filled area. Feather Softness values create a more gradually disappearing edge.

Spread

Expands the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color extends beyond the edge of the fill area.

Choke

Contracts the area of the fill color. The Spread Radius value indicates the number of pixels the fill color shrinks from the edge of the fill area.

Stroke

Confines the fill to just the border of the selected area. The Stroke Width value indicates the width of the stroke, in pixels.

Color

The fill color.

Opacity

Opacity of the filled area.

Blending Mode

The blending mode to use to composite the result of effect on top of the original layer. All of these blending modes operate like those in the Timeline panel, except for Fill Only. Use Fill Only to show only the fill.

Note: If you apply multiple instances of Paint Bucket to a layer, be sure not to set more than one to use the Fill Only blending mode. If you set more than one instance to use this blending mode, only the first application of the effect is shown.