Participant

Question

Slideshow/Video with hundreds of World Maps

Forum|Forum|8 years ago
September 12, 2017
3 replies
1113 views

Hello!

We design hundreds of world maps with Adobe Illustrator
which we want to include in a slideshow and video. Each world map is a
(multi-layered) Adobe Illustrator artwork (.ai). The layers are needed in order
to create animations (such as pulse effects for different dots
on each map). We save each world map as Flash

(*.swf) file which is the standard way for
creating animated maps.

*.sfw files cannot be imported into "Lighroom" and "Premiere".

So we are thinking of creating animations with "Adobe After Effects".

Question 1:

Is there any automated way of creating animations for hundreds of dots on hundreds of maps?

Question 2:

Does Adobe After Effect incorporate programming languages (such as CSS3, Java...)

With these tools animations can be programmed I think.

Thanks,

Mat

This topic has been closed for replies.

angie_taylor

Legend

You could use the Release to Layers feature in Illustrator and then export this and possibly open it in Adobe Animate?

Create the artwork you want to animate. Use symbols to reduce the file size of the animation and simplify your work.
Create a separate layer for each frame in the animation.
You can do this by pasting the base artwork into a new layer and then editing the artwork. Or, you can use the Release To Layers command to automatically generate layers consisting of objects that build up cumulatively.
Make sure the layers are in the order in which you want to display them as animation frames.

Do one of the following:

Choose File > Export, choose Flash (SWF) for the format, and click Export. In the SWF Options dialog box, select AI Layers To SWF Frames for Export As. Set additional animation options, and click OK.
Choose File > Save For Web & Devices. Choose SWF from the Optimized File Format menu. From the Type Of Export menu, choose AI Layers To SWF Frames. Set additional options, and click Save.

Henrique -- TMMW

Inspiring

I believe you can convert an swf to an mp4 for example.

Never tried but by googling it looks possible.

Then you would work with mp4 files in premiere.

Maybe give it try. This way your workflow wouldn't have to change much.

Cheers

Henrique

Henrique \ TMMWClips Exporter | Text Replacer | Selector for Premiere Pro | Thumbs Up

R

Rick Gerard

Community Expert

If the maps are animated using Animate or flash and they work just fine in a web browser by far the easiest way to turn them into video would be to sun the web browser full screen on a 4K or even 5K monitor and use a screen capture program to turn them into video, then edit the videos in Premiere Pro.

Taking all of you Illustrator files into After Effects and animating the layers individually will work but it's very labor intensive. If your main product is vector based animation delivered by a web browser then it doesn't make any sense to me to redo all of that animation when you can capture it in real time with very little effort.

On the other hand, if you question is about automating the animation of dots on maps in a video you are producing from a layered Illustrator file then the answer is animation presets. I have hundreds of them that I have created that create some pretty complicated animations with a single click. One of them brings a layer in from the left side of the screen, then it bounces to a stop with a little bounce and stretch, then it anticipates the fall and drops off the screen all based on in and out points. It doesn't matter where the layer in on the screen, all you do is set an in and out point, adjust the hero position on the screen and then apply the preset and you get an animation that would take five or ten minutes to create by hand. I have another that animates a dotted line along a path based entirely on an in point and a marker. Start a shape layer or convert a vector layer to a shape where you want it in the timeline, draw the shape any way you like and add a marker where you want the line to be complete, apply the animation preset and you get a moving dotted line using shape layer animators that is perfectly timed, can be adjusted by simply dragging the marker, and the color, stroke width, size of the dots or dashes and every thing else I've ever needed to change can be done in the Effects Control Panel using effects controls.

So yes, you can automate repetitive tasks, speed up your workflow, and get some very complex things done in very little time through expressions, animation presets and scripting, but these things take a bunch of time to set up the first time.

I hope this helps. If you videos are being used to demo and sell your animated maps then I'd just use a screen capture program and edit the footage in Premiere Pro. If you are trying to use your maps in a movie and need to time things to an audio track you may be better off in After Effects and Premiere Pro.

Mylenium

Legend

None of this will work with your SWF workflow, so simply forget about it and ditch it. Even AE can't access the internal structure of an SWF, it merely treats it like any other vector artwork. You are wasting your time even thinking along those lines and from where I'm standing, having a knack for info- and datagraphics, the whole workflow is kinda wrong. You simply wouldn't do it this way. If you were to produce your SWFs natively in Flash/ animate CC, you'd simply use symbols and their instances to animate repetitive elements. In the AE world this translates to using pre-comps and placing them on your static maps. As it is, you are jumping way too far ahead in AI with your preparation work and that throws a wrench into the workflow down the production chain. It simply makes no sense at all. That being the case, I would suggest you rather focus on improving your skills in AE or Flash and learning to use the tools there in tha fashion I described. Yes, of course you can also use expressions and scripts, but a lot of times it won't be necessary if only you learn the fine art of sensibly structuring your pre-comps, work with AE's native text tools and shape layers and of course some clever effects magic to keep things editable in AE without constantly having to use Illustrator.

Mylenium

M

matthiasg44052794Author

Participant

Thanks,

Could you kindly explain me how pre-comps work efficiently if you have many dozens of dots to animate on hundreds of maps. Instead, what do think of this workflow:

(1) Create layers in AI in which the dots are designed according to animation states (e.g. dots of different size);

(2) The AI-layers are imported as AE-frames;

(3) The AE frames can be arranged in temporal order (thereby creating an pulse animation effect);

(4) Save the *.aep file as video.

Thanks for a feedback, Mat

Mylenium

Legend

Nah, sorry, but this still doesn't make any sense. Nothing stops you from creating different pre-comps for dots of different sizes. Likewise, you would simply animate any pulsating inside the comp or by linking it to some global expression formula with a slider. Even if hand-keyframed this then can be simply re-timed by placing the pre-comps at the right times, time-stretching them and trimming them as needed. The only trick is to place the animation at the middle of the comp and create a long enough standard duration so you can do all this snip-snap. You are really overcomplicating this, even more so since there are at least three different ways to create sharp circles natively in AE:

The Circle effect
Shape layers
a solid with a mask set to continuously rasterize

Again, there is no requirement to do any of this in AI where in fact it would be ten times more complicated to boot. You really need to get out of this one-way-road thinking or you'll spend the next year doing your maps and tying up your company's resources when otherwise it might take a reasonably experienced artist two or three days to do at most. A lot of this stuff really can be done in AE and in fact it can be even more efficient because you may not need to place every point because you can recycle points that have moved out of view and reuse them on another spot on your scrolling map. And no, this doesn't only apply to dots, but also complex symbols. Even fancy stuff can be created natively in AE, you just need to get over your own insecurity and insistence on using AI just because you know it and want to play it safe.

Mylenium

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded