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nedwint57677076
nedwint57677076
Participant
November 17, 2018
Answered

Maintaining brush stroke quality when zooming in and panning around a picture?

  • November 17, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 577 views

Hello! I've been using AE for a while, but I'm not sure how to do this.

So say, for example, I have a image file of a city's map as a location for a movie. Basically, I would like to create a video showing where everyone should be at certain times, and where they should move. Kind of like these types of army movement maps:

I would want to represent people/movements with the brush tool, using dots and arrows.

But then this is where I have an issue. I want to be able to pan and zoom about the map of the city, WITHOUT loss of brush quality. E.g., the video starts with the map full size on the screen, showing everyone's starting locations, but then it zooms into certain spots, and pans around, panning and zooming to follow the focus of the characters' movements (keyframed brush strokes) so that the small movements are easier to see, rather than staying on the huge map the entire time.

My issue right now is that the brush strokes lose quality when I zoom in. I believe brush strokes are vector-based, but I can't really zoom in because the I can only paint in the layer window, where it goes back to the entire map. Zooming the composition in and then pre-comping doesn't work either, because I can't zoom out.

Feel free to lay out as detailed suggestions as you want. I'll of course gladly answer any questions about what I'm trying to do.

I did try searching for a solution, and the only thing I could find was this:

https://forums.adobe.com/message/10318784#10318784

which I wasn't able to get any working solutions from. Maybe the solution there would help with suggestions, though.

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Rick Gerard

    Don't use paint. Use a shape layer with a stroke applied to a path. You can make the lines animate using trim paths. No matter what scale you use or where you place the camera the shape layer will be continuously rasterized and the edges will remain clean.

    You might want to consider creating all of your lines in Illustrator. Converting the simple strokes to paths will let you use trim paths or you could use shape layer paths as track mattes to reveal more complex shapes.

    Just to clarify things: When you use paint, the brush creates pixels. The path is a vector but the brush is made up of pixels. Paint is the last tool I would choose for a job like this.

    1 reply

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity ExpertCorrect answer
    Community Expert
    November 17, 2018

    Don't use paint. Use a shape layer with a stroke applied to a path. You can make the lines animate using trim paths. No matter what scale you use or where you place the camera the shape layer will be continuously rasterized and the edges will remain clean.

    You might want to consider creating all of your lines in Illustrator. Converting the simple strokes to paths will let you use trim paths or you could use shape layer paths as track mattes to reveal more complex shapes.

    Just to clarify things: When you use paint, the brush creates pixels. The path is a vector but the brush is made up of pixels. Paint is the last tool I would choose for a job like this.

      nedwint57677076
      nedwint57677076Author
      Participant
      November 17, 2018

      Thank you so much! When I tried using the path, I suppose I tried using paint for the path, and it didn't really work very efficiently. Thanks for the extra tips, too!

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