Illustrator files look jaggy when scaled up (when used as a particle)

Am i doing something odd? I've got an illustrator vector which i'm using as a particle which scales over life (i want the particles to fill frame for a wipe i'm creating). But when they are bigger that 100% they look really jaggy, even when render quality is set to BEST.
Any ideas?

Howdy,
Particle emitters and replicators render the source image at its current scale and use that bitmap as the starting point for each cell. This means that you might see scaling artifacts if a particle cell is smaller or larger than the source image.
The one exception to this is when the emitter or replicator is in "Global 3D" mode. Each cell is then rendered based on the full size of the source, so with vector sources like shapes or PDFs the results will be higher quality. Keep in mind, however, that this means re-rasterizing that source image for each cell. So with an emitter of 1000 particles, for example, it's almost like you have a project with 1000 PDF images in it.
In other words: use this power for good, not evil.

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Take a look at this screencast for more details.
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I'm moving down the question list
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Hi Mike, Wade & Larry,
Thank you so much for your replies.
Since I posted this issue, I was later informed that the other user is infact opening my files with CS5 and so a quick solution to this was saving it down to a previous version! Sorry for the confusion!
This problem then becomes clear that it was a version error, but I have always had an error message come up if I try to open something that was created in a newer verion - is this no longer the case?
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A little mystery! At least for now it is all working ok again
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An outside agency set up some templates in Illustrator that we need to have in InDesign. What is the easiest way to convert the files? Any info is greatly appreciated.

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You can place the Illustrator file, set it's transparency to 50%, lock it's layer, then redraw the content on lower layers. Delete the template layer when finished.
You can copy and paste content between Illustrator and InDesign. Basic shapes and simple paths work fine, including some gradients. Text is much more trouble than it should be. (Why call it a Suite if the programs can't share simple content like text?)
I prefer option 2, using as little of option 3 as I can get away with. Obviously complex shapes are better copied than retraced.
There is a
plug-in for InDesign that imports PDFs. I have heard mixed opintions, but it's kind of like a pig with wings. Who cares how well it flies, it's
that it flies that makes it interesting.

Importing layered Illustrator files

Hello
I'm on an Intel Power Mac. Premiere 4.1.0
Importing layered Illustrator files does not work properly. It doesn't provide the pop up option box, to tell you what you want to do with the layers - either bring them in individually, or as a sequence, etc. All it does is simply imports the file with all the elements grouped in one file. Photoshop layered files are OK.
I have done everything Adobe has suggested. Please see following -
1. Done a disk permissions check, with disk utility
2. Deleted all Premiere preference files.
3) Uninstalled software
4) Did a cleanup script (provided by adobe)
5) Reinstalled software - to Premiere 4.0 (tried this version and still no good).
6) Uninstalled and reinstalled, clean script, just to make sure (still no good)
7) Upgraded again to premiere 4.1.0 (still no good)
Has anyone had this problem before?
Many thanks
Danny

The problem is that the Help file, and any marketing literature for that matter, is not a good indication of what the software actually does or does not do. Danny, I realize that you want to torch Adobe HQ over this issue, but the fact of the matter is that mistakes happen. And I can guarantee you 100% that when you installed the software and accepted the EULA, you acknowledged that those mistakes do happen, whether they are software bugs or erroneously-advertised features, and you absolve Adobe of any liability. I'm certainly not suggesting complacency--feel free to call the BBB or organize a class-action lawsuit or get the pitchfork-wielding mob to storm the castle--but I think it's a waste of time and energy. Adobe's not going to cop to any bug or missing feature--end of story. And the folks you're talking to at customer support really have, at most, a rudimentary understanding of the software. If you want to be active and proactive, file a feature request/bug report. It's not a guarantee of satisfaction, but it's more likely to bring you to that point than any of the above options.
Not to belabor the point, but the way the Help file is written...
"...you can import a layered Photoshop or Illustrator file as a
sequence, enabling you to set up graphics in these applications and
then import them into an Adobe Premiere Pro project."
...suggests that both layered Photoshop files and Illustrator files will be recognized as sequences when imported. No, it does not specifically say "layered Illustrator file," but from the context of "as a sequence" implies that the layers would be recognized and imported thusly. At present, all Illustrator files, whether they are layered or not, are flattened on import. I would be inclined to believe that this is not so much a bug, as it is a feature that was planned but not implemented, and somewhere along the line the memo between the programming group and the marketing group to this effect was misplaced. Whichever it is, it doesn't matter: this is not a workflow option.
Here are a couple of legitimate workflow options:
Export your AI file (don't use Save As, use Export) to a PSD file. You can maintain the layers as well as text editability by doing this, and the layered PSD will subsequently import as a sequence into Premiere Pro.
Stop using Illustrator for video graphics. Photoshop really is better suited for video graphics, in my view, than Illustrator is. Illustrator is fine for building logos and such, and even doing some text layout that's not possible or at least not easily done in Photoshop, but vector artwork is a poor match for the world of video. Your vector artwork (whether its sourced from Illustrator, Photoshop, or wherever else) is automatically rasterized when imported into Premiere, so I feel it's better to start in Photoshop where you can control this to a greater extent than you can in Illustrator.
As I've mentioned previously, use After Effects to build a comp from your layered AI file, and either render a movie out for use in Premiere, or use Dynamic Link to keep it live between AE and PPro.

Relink Illustrator files problem

I've never seen anything like this:
I have a project created in CS4 (unknown exact version) outside my company and I need to continue work on the project. Project and assets shipped over on a firewire drive. Almost 400GB of stuff, so just to verify before I start copying to my system I open the project (in CS4) directly from drive and quickly check things out. Everything seems okay. Copy drive contents. Next day I open the project in CS5 on my system. CS5 informs me my footage is missing so I relink one file and AE finds everything else. However, almost all (but not every) Illustrator file is relinked as the 'wrong size'. That's the best I can describe it. Masking done on the ai files is completely wrong, animations don't work because of this, etc. I though, okay I'll try opening in CS4. Same deal. So I spun up the firewire drive and opened the project from there to make sure I wasn't crazy. Everything is fine. ? So I'm crazy.
My next thought was that the import settings I last used to import ai files as a composition must be hosing things up. But I get no choice when relinking, so I imported one layered file from another project as a comp using retain layer sizes then relinking (didn't fix) and then imported as comp using document size (didn't fix). I tried relinking to the files directly off the firewire drive and that didn't work in either CS4 or CS5.
What's the MOST puzzling to me is that if I open the original CS4 project off of the firewire drive and relink any one .ai file to THE SAME files on my system's drive (in the same directory structure, etc.) the problem appears. If I open the original project off the firewire drive in CS5, the project is fine too but I same probelm with relinking to .ai files on my system. So for now I'm working off of the firewire drive. Not ideal for sure but I'm getting by.
I would entertain any thoughts anyone wants to offer up. Maybe I've missed something obvious, but I've done similar projects plenty of times and not seen any issues like this.
More details:
Mac 10.6.4 2 x 2.8GHz Quad
6GB RAM
CS4 9.0.2.42
CS5 10.0.1.19
Client's Firewire drive: LaCie 1TB external
System storage location: Fibre channel shared RAID
Project has ProRes 422 HQ 1920 x 1080 29.97 QT footage and Illustrator files as assets
Don't know how or what version of .ai files were created in
Illustrator files have been masked/animated so when I relink files on my system as above, the masks are all wrong vs. the ai file dimensions
Every Illustrator file I've opened is a single layer document (there are hundreds, not tried EVERY one, but every one in project is single layer, not comp
Importing as Composition with retain layer sizes OR document size makes no difference in this issue
Thanks in advance,
-Troy Murison
Seattle, WA

Thanks so much for the swift reply. I was afraid of something like that- it is obvious the bounding box is being reset, I didn't know the proper terms. I'm a Illustrator idiot for the most part.
I have not tried to do a collect (that's not how it was sent to me- it was just a straight copy of their project/folders) but will try that and report back.
At least I'm able to work off the drive okay.
-t.

Illustrator vector files look blurred when zoomed on in in AE

I just have text from a illustrator file, imported in to after after effects. When I scale the text, the quality isn't affect, but when i zoom in, the text is blurred, I have the continuously rasterize box clicked, and it's still blurred.
How can I fix this problem? Thanks

> I mean when I scale the text up it doesn't get affected, just when I zoom.
That's not actually a problem. That's normal. When you scale a layer with continuous rasterization, the vector information is converted into a new set of pixels to make things sharp. When you just zoom in a preview, you're not actually changing any pixels in the composition; you're just zooming in on the existing pixels for a closer look.
from After Effects Help:
"Note: After Effects renders vector objects before zooming (scaling for preview), so some vector objects may appear jagged when you zoom in on them. This apparent pixelation for zooms does not affect scaling of layers or rendering to final output. "

I created a file in Photoshop CS5 (a photo) and another in Illustrator CS5 (a graph) to place in my InDesign CS5 brochure. When the Photoshop and Illustrator files are placed in InDesign, they look blurry - whether viewed in InDesign, printed, or saved as

I created a file in Photoshop CS5 (a photo) and another in Illustrator CS5 (a graph) to place in my InDesign CS5 brochure. When the Photoshop and Illustrator files are placed in InDesign, they look blurry - whether viewed in InDesign, printed, or saved as a PDF. Can anyone give me some tips on how to fix this? Thanks!

Ask in the program forums
This forum is about the Cloud as a delivery process, not about using individual programs
If you start at the Forums Index http://forums.adobe.com/index.jspa
You will be able to select a forum for the specific Adobe product(s) you use
Click the "down arrow" symbol on the right (where it says ALL FORUMS) to open the drop down list and scroll

Bought a new Canon MG7540 printer to replace the old HP A618. When printing vector objects from Illustrator, they look like graphics from dandy (8 bits) ... no smooth, all cubes ... if do raster than print perfectly. Who knows how to treat it? No well to

Bought a new Canon MG7540 printer to replace the old HP A618. When printing vector objects from Illustrator, they look like graphics from dandy (8 bits) ... no smooth, all cubes ... if do raster than print perfectly. Who knows how to treat it? No well to rasterize vector before each printing. OS - MacOs 10.10.

Have you read the User's Guide for that printer? Odds are you will get reasonable prints. However, it is a photographic printer. That said, it should print excellent quality photographic files. To get smooth lines in Illustrator, try Preferences > Use Anti-Aliased Artwork. That will smoothen the output. If, for some reason, that does not work, try Print > Save As PDF > open PDF in Reader and print from there. Check the User's Guide for media sizes available for your particular printer. Setup your artboard to the size page you want the image to print on. Use View > Show Page Tiling ( to see where the page's printable area lies. Align the page with the artboard using the Page tool.

Illustrator Files get Distorted when Distilled into PDFs

I haven't been able to find anything like this in the discussions so I will start one. The production folks are using CS3 on Leopard Macs. I am using Tiger and can still reproduce the problem, so I don't think it is the OS.
Here's what happens:
Certain .ai files placed in InDesign become distorted when the user makes a PDF either by using Acrobat Distiller or through our DALiM TWiST server. The distortion does not happen if they export to PDF, but they cannot do that since they must use the TWiST system to preflight their files and create the PDFs. The problem is likely related to the postscript stage of both of these methods of making PDFs. It does not happen to all .ai files that we use. Just some of them. It seems to be random, but with newer (CS3-created) Illustrator files as opposed to CS2 or earlier files. The current workaround is to just save the files as Illustrator eps and then they have no problem, but we are trying to get away from always using eps files.
Has anyone ever had anything like this happen?
Thanks,
Laura K.

Wow, you guys are great. Very helpful. The users who have reported this issue have already discovered the workaround of embedding the problem files. That does work. Their problem is that they don't know ahead of time which .ai files will do this. I suppose they could just embed all .ai files as they use them, but one user reports that the embedded files don't "stay" embedded. They use a droplet that was created for them where they just drop a job to be printed onto it and it will go through the TWiST workflow. It is a highly customized workflow, and we plan to have the engineer come back in and do some tweaking eventually. I think there is something in the droplet that can be altered so embedded .ai files will stay embedded. I suspect that is probably easy if you know what you are doing. :-)
But, meanwhile I was just wondering if there was maybe something we could do at the .ai file creation end to prevent the distortion from happening int he first place. The bad part is that it does not happen to all .ai files in our library, just a few of them. The same user reported a couple of years ago when we switched to InDesign that she had problems with .pdf files placed into InDesign printing properly and I think this is related to that.
Here are a couple of screenshots to illustrate what happens as far as the distortion. I have used one of our company's logo files that has been exhibiting the behavior as the example. The first screenshot (InDesignLogos) just shows the logo placed in an InDesign file as it should look. The bottom one has been embedded. The second screenshot (PDFLogos) shows the resulting PDF that was created using DALiM TWiST. Keep in mind that we also get the same result if we make a PDF using Acrobat Distiller. This is why I think it is something happening in the postscript file. I wish we could just export the PDF from InDesign because that takes care of the problem, but it is not an option with the TWiST workflow. The Illustrator file says it was created on Oct 26, 2009, saved as v.13 Created by v.13.02, if that helps.
Thanks for all of your help and good suggestions so far!
Laura K.

Illustrator files look jaggy when scaled up (when used as a particle)

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