An image editing program can include animation brushes. An animation brush enables a content creator to draw as with any other digital brush. The animation brush will automatically generate elements, such as hair or raindrops. Each element can be drawn using a set of pixels that have a particular shape, location, and/or color, as determined by parameters associated with the animation brush. The image editing program can further animate the elements by determining, for each frame of an animation sequence, updated shape, location, and/or color values for the pixels of the elements. The image editing program can then redraw the elements. Redrawing of the elements can thus produce an animation.