Choose board surfaces and stroke materials

Scribe Animator can combine a semantic board surface with a separate stroke material. The board establishes the environment; the material controls how drawable vector paths look. Keeping them separate lets you use Chalk on a blackboard, Pencil on paper, Highlighter on a whiteboard, or any deliberate custom combination.

Activeuserdesktopmobile12–15 minutes

Verified against frontend@2.0.0

Quick result

1. Open Canvas Settings from the gear in the canvas toolbar.
2. Choose Project to set the default for the whole project, or Scene to create an override only for the active scene.
3. Choose a board surface.
4. Under Drawing Style, choose the default material for drawings created from this point onward.
5. Pick a readable stroke color, create a short test line, and preview it.
6. Use an object's Properties or a Draw Step override when one path should differ from the scene default.

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The current Canvas Settings panel: board scope and surface are independent from the default material for new drawings.

Screenshot callouts

1. 1
   Project or Scene

   Project sets the inherited default; Scene preserves a local override for the active scene.
2. 2
   Board surfaces

   Choose a semantic board instead of approximating it with an anonymous solid color.
3. 3
   Drawing Style

   Choose the material inherited by newly created drawable paths in this scope.

Creation defaults do not rewrite existing artwork

Changing a board or Drawing Style sets sensible defaults for new content. Existing object colors, materials, photographs, videos, fills, and multicolor SVG artwork remain authored as they were.

Which board surface should you use?

Use the story and expected contrast—not novelty alone—to choose a surface.

Surface	Best for	Recommended new stroke	Color guidance	Avoid when
Whiteboard	General explainers, product walkthroughs, training, diagrams	Marker or Solid	Black, charcoal, and saturated brand colors	The story specifically needs a tactile or classroom setting
Blackboard	Mathematics, science, teaching, historical or classroom scenes	Chalk	Warm white plus a few readable chalk colors	The scene depends on dark logos or dense dark artwork
Green Chalkboard	Traditional classroom, language lessons, school-style demonstrations	Chalk	Warm white, pale yellow, and restrained light colors	Bright green content must remain visually dominant
Glassboard	Modern presentations, polished product stories, light visual layouts	Marker or Solid	Strong dark colors with high contrast	Fine pale artwork would disappear against the light treatment
Paper	Sketch notes, storyboards, handwriting, concept development	Pencil	Graphite, dark ink, muted color accents	You need a clinical, screen-like technical presentation
Kraft Paper	Handmade brands, craft stories, history, packaging, tactile explainers	Ink Brush or Marker	Dark brown/black; warm white or vivid Crayon for accents	Low-contrast tan or muted-brown artwork dominates the scene
Blueprint	Architecture, engineering, systems, process diagrams, technical plans	Marker or Solid	White or light cyan; reserve warm colors for emphasis	Existing artwork is mostly dark and cannot be recolored safely
Custom	Brand colors, gradients, or a local background image	Depends on contrast	Test foreground contrast against the actual background	A named semantic surface already communicates the idea more clearly

Blackboard surfaces use deterministic grain, faint streaks, and erased-chalk residue. Paper and Kraft use deterministic fibers. Blueprint adds a visual technical grid; it is not an editing or snapping grid.

A practical scene strategy

Use Project for a consistent visual identity. Use Scene when the surface itself communicates a story transition—for example:

Scene	Surface and material	Story role
1	Whiteboard + Marker	Introduction
2	Blueprint + light Marker	System diagram
3	Paper + Pencil	Rough idea
4	Blackboard + Chalk	Explanation or proof

A scene override wins over the project surface. If you choose a project board and the visible scene does not change, inspect the Scene scope and choose Use Project to remove the local override.

Which stroke material should you use?

Material	Visual behavior	Best uses	Good surfaces
Solid	Clean original vector stroke; lowest rendering cost	Precise diagrams, icons, technical paths, compatibility-first work	Whiteboard, Glassboard, Blueprint, Custom
Marker	Smooth physical stroke with restrained softness	Default explainers, callouts, arrows, headings	Whiteboard, Glassboard, Blueprint
Chalk	Grainy deposition, irregular edges, and subtle gaps	Classroom writing, equations, hand-drawn emphasis	Blackboard, Green Chalkboard, Kraft accents
Pencil	Fine graphite texture and lower-opacity density	Sketches, notes, storyboards, detailed outlines	Paper, Whiteboard
Crayon	Waxy, colorful pigment with granular coverage	Playful explainers, children’s content, colorful emphasis	Paper, Whiteboard, Kraft Paper
Dry Marker	Directional depleted ink with repeatable small gaps	A worn whiteboard feel or occasional physical emphasis	Whiteboard, Glassboard
Ink Brush	Dense expressive core with a soft feathered edge	Bold illustrations, handmade headings, expressive contours	Kraft Paper, Paper, Whiteboard
Highlighter	One broad translucent pass that preserves content beneath it	Annotation ranges, review emphasis, highlighting a term or region	Whiteboard, Paper, light Custom backgrounds

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Phase 2 material comparison, top to bottom: red Crayon, blue Dry Marker, black Ink Brush, and yellow Highlighter. All four are normal drawable vector objects.

Screenshot callouts

1. 1
   Crayon

   Waxy red pigment with deterministic granular coverage.
2. 2
   Dry Marker

   Blue marker body with path-aligned depleted-ink streaking.
3. 3
   Ink Brush

   A dark expressive core with controlled feathered passes.
4. 4
   Highlighter

   One broad translucent yellow pass for stable emphasis.

Keep emphasis materials selective

Highlighter works best behind or across something meaningful, not as the main outline for every object. Dry Marker and Crayon are similarly strongest when they support a visual idea rather than covering every path in a long project.

Apply a material at the correct level

There are three useful levels:

1. Project or scene Drawing Style — the creation default for new drawings.
2. Object Stroke Material — the authored material for one drawable object.
3. Draw Step Stroke Material — a temporary override for one reveal step; choose Inherit to return to the object/default behavior.

The practical precedence, from highest to lowest, is:

1. Draw Step override.
2. Object material.
3. Scene drawing default.
4. Board suggestion.
5. Solid compatibility fallback.

Material remains independent from the animated hand and the tool sprite shown inside that hand. A Chalk material may recommend a chalk tool, but choosing one does not silently rewrite the other.

Use materials with text converted to outlines

Normal editable text stays clean and readable; board texture is not applied to its glyphs. To draw text with Chalk, Pencil, Crayon, Dry Marker, Ink Brush, or Highlighter:

1. Create and finish editing the text.
2. Use Convert to outlines.
3. Select the resulting vector object.
4. Open Vector Path → Stroke Material in Properties.
5. Choose the material and set a readable stroke color.
6. Add or preview Draw In / Draw Steps.

Outlined text becomes vector geometry, so it follows the same deterministic material and partial-reveal pipeline as imported SVG paths and normal drawings. It is no longer editable as live text after conversion, so keep a duplicate if the wording may change.

Surface examples

Paper for graphite and sketch work

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Paper keeps the canvas light while adding subtle fibers. Pair it with graphite Pencil, Ink Brush, or restrained Crayon accents.

Screenshot callouts

1. 1
   Paper surface

   The warm off-white board carries subtle deterministic fibers.
2. 2
   Paper preset

   The selected card preserves Paper as a semantic project or scene surface.

Kraft Paper for expressive ink

12

Kraft Paper provides a stronger physical identity. Dark Ink Brush is the safest default; test pale and muted colors for contrast.

Screenshot callouts

1. 1
   Kraft Paper surface

   Natural tan and deterministic fibers establish the physical board treatment.
2. 2
   Kraft Paper preset

   The selected semantic preset can be applied at project or scene scope.

Blueprint for technical explanations

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The Blueprint grid and material texture remain attached to project content while the editor camera is zoomed and panned.

Screenshot callouts

1. 1
   Blueprint grid

   The technical grid is a deterministic visual surface, not an interactive snapping grid.
2. 2
   Camera zoom

   At 144% zoom, the grid and stroke textures stay attached to world content.
3. 3
   Material paths

   Drawable paths keep their own authored colors and materials over the board.

Preview, export, and compatibility limits

• Desktop, Mobile Lite, and hidden-stage video export resolve the same semantic surface and material IDs.
• Procedural textures use stable seeds, so they do not flicker when scrubbing, moving the camera, replaying, saving, or exporting video.
• Partial Draw In and Draw Step reveals show only the currently revealed part of a textured stroke.
• Authored dash patterns remain intact.
• Board texture affects only the background. It does not add noise to videos, photographs, text, fills, or the completed frame as a global filter.
• Video export is the full-fidelity textured output.
• Static SVG keeps Solid and Marker as ordinary vector strokes and represents Highlighter with vector width/opacity. Physical Chalk, Pencil, Crayon, Dry Marker, and Ink Brush export as safe base-vector fallbacks rather than embedding oversized raster textures.

Mobile Lite

Mobile Lite stores and renders the same board and material values as Desktop. Open the project settings sheet for the board scope and the compact drawing controls for material selection. A project can safely move between Desktop and Mobile Lite without translating to separate mobile-only IDs.

Readability checklist

Before finishing a scene:

• preview from the beginning and at the final camera framing;
• verify every foreground color against the board;
• keep body text and thin diagrams cleaner than decorative strokes;
• reserve Highlighter for transparent emphasis;
• check colored SVG fills instead of assuming the board changed them;
• inspect every scene override separately; and
• compare a short video export with the editor preview.

Troubleshooting

Problem	What to check
Project board is selected but the canvas still shows another surface	The active scene probably has an override. Switch to Scene and choose Use Project.
Changing Drawing Style did not change existing art	Drawing Style is a creation default. Select the object and change its Stroke Material in Properties.
Chalk or Pencil is invisible on a dark board	Change the object stroke to warm white or another high-contrast color. Existing authored colors are intentionally preserved.
Editable text is not textured	Convert a finished copy to outlines, then set the vector Stroke Material.
A material changes for only part of the animation	Inspect Draw Step overrides and choose Inherit where appropriate.
Highlighter hides the content beneath it	Use a lighter color and avoid stacking duplicate strokes over the same range.
Static SVG looks cleaner than video preview	This is the intentional safe vector fallback for physical textured materials. Use video export for full texture fidelity.
Texture appears different after every frame	That is not expected. Reload once, verify the selected material, and report a reproducible project because all procedural effects are deterministically seeded.

Related workflows

• Create a chalkboard animation with real Chalk material
• Build an animated Pythagorean theorem lesson
• Add images, assets, and backgrounds
• Use drawing hands and Draw Steps
• Create text and convert it to outlines
• Choose and verify an export
• Background and Canvas Settings reference