Moho Forum

I brought a vector graphic from Illustrator to Photoshop, separated it into layers and exported it to Anime Studio. There was a huge loss of quality, though, from Photoshop to AS. Is there a way to optimize the output, so I can get a crisper image?

Illustrator to AS directly.

Yes, by all means.

But to elaborate (so you understand) there are two very distinct kinds of computer artwork -- vector and bitmapped. AI and AS are vector drawing programs. While each can manipulate (to some degree) bitmapped art, creating vector art means setting points and curves.

It's incredibly powerful because there is no loss in quality in scaling up or down -- the paths that draw the art are stored, not the actual pixels. Bitmapped art, OTOH, is created in programs like Photoshop. While it has some advantages in terms of gradients and "soft" effects (as well as photorealistic images), it is not scalable at all, as you found out.

If the kind of art you want to animate is something that can be constructred by vector art (nearly any 2D cartoon fits this bill) then by all means stay in vector. However, for some effects (and some animations) bitmapped is the only way to achieve the look. In those cases try and create your art as near your final resolution as possible (and hope for the best).

Is the quality low on the final render or just in the preview?

Make sure when importing the artwork from Illustrator you set the resolution to meet the needs of the final output. If the resolution of the images match that of the final size and output specs in AS the quality should be good or as good as it is in Photoshop. You also need to account for the scaling up of images and zooming in of the camera in Anime Studio. Both of those things will "lower" the quality of images.

I've found that AS's handling of images is extremely good except for alpha mask edges due to antialiasing.

-vern

If the kind of art you want to animate is something that can be constructred by vector art (nearly any 2D cartoon fits this bill) then by all means stay in vector. However, for some effects (and some animations) bitmapped is the only way to achieve the look. In those cases try and create your art as near your final resolution as possible (and hope for the best).

Try synfig.

Genete wrote:
Try synfig.

Doesn't work on Macintosh OS x
Sample galleries look great though.
.
.Bob P