Color and sharpness change when importing into After Effects from Illustrator

[Jonas30323975vter]

Hey there, 

I have an After Effects issue that is driving me nuts, also because it's a little subtle but noticeable: 

I have an Illustrator file with photography and when I import the file into after effects to make some stuff move this happens:

1. The elements get just a tad blurrier. I am working in AE at 1920x1080 and it's clearly a little blurrier then when I export a png of the same res from AI. 

2. The colors fade just a little bit. Then they fade more when I export. The final video is a lot more washed out compared to what I get when I export from AI. 

I am using the same color profile (sRGB) in both applications. 

Thanks in advance! Any help will be highly appreciated!!

Best, 

Jonas

[Jonas30323975vter]

also I want to add that the difference in sharpness is not as significant as depicted in the screenshots, but it is there. 

[kglad]

in the future, to find the best place to post your message, use the list here, https://community.adobe.com/

p.s. i don't think the adobe website, and forums in particular, are easy to navigate, so don't spend a lot of time searching that forum list. do your best and we'll move the post (like this one has already been moved) if it helps you get responses.

<"moved from cc desktop">

[Jonas30323975vter]

Thank you!

[kglad]

(you're welcome.  your posts are now in the ae forum, https://community.adobe.com/t5/after-effects-discussions/color-and-sharpness-change-when-importing-i...)

[dua_6270]

When importing Illustrator files into After Effects, you may notice changes in color and sharpness. This is often due to color space settings or resolution mismatch. To fix this, ensure that both programs are using the same color profiles (e.g., sRGB) and enable Continuously Rasterize for sharper vector elements, especially for detailed projects like Samehadaku anime graphics.

[Jonas30323975vter]

Thank you! The thing is I already have sRGB set for both files - and still the colors get faded. The lack of sharpness is also not so much a problem with the vector elements but more with the imagery in the file

[Shebbe]

What is the source resolution of the Illustrator file in pixels? I always stress the fact that for video ideally despite being able to continuously rasterize, making the document size exact or slightly larger than you think you need is a better approach. 

AFAIK, continuous rasterization does not aid in preserving the resolution of raster images in an Illustrator file, only vector data. So you'll have to make sure that the document itself has plenty of resolution for the video output you're creating. Often overlooked.

Regarding the fade, between AI and AE it looks like a perceptual difference due to blurring. You'll want to check the code values to verify they are correct and make sure the Illustrator file is tagged as sRGB inside AE.

The difference after export is a whole other can of worms. sRGB is actually not intended to be put into a video file, SDR video standard is Rec.709 gamma 2.4. There are many topics and controversies around this and how to handle it correctly for web video since many web browsers, video players, software, computer monitors are not properly color managed.

I'm hesitant to give you my recommendation on how to tackle it as it is not just a simple tick of a box and just one 'workaround' to the issue that just happens to work good enough for the work I do.

[sskaz]

AFAIK, continuous rasterization does not aid in preserving the resolution of raster images in an Illustrator file, only vector data.

I’ve seen this as well. My solution is to save out all bitmaps/raster images from the Illustrator document (Illustrator calls this “unembed”) and import them separately into After Effects. Even though original embedded bitmap files may be very large, After Effects may only “see” the final scale/transformations applied to it.

[Shebbe]

That is also a good alternative if the workflow allows it/makes it practical.

If the file is complex this may not be the best option because you only get the most upper level Illustrator layers as separate objects in AE. What tends to happen as well in a lot of our cases is that the designers do not actually embed the images into their Illustrator file. This causes the image to look low res when it needs to be recalculated. It uses a sort of cached version otherwise I think. So even if you keep the images inside AI, best to embed them so it's properly shared across multiple users.