Why in year 2017 Ae cannot properly display Ai-vector image?

[ChristianAaltonen]

Hi there,

Have you ever experienced a situation, when you want the vector images to be just sharp and nothing else? I mean without collapsing transformations. Collapsing transformations is great, but can be pretty unwanted in some cases, but sharp image is the thing, which you usualy want.

Please, would you kindly spend some time and explain me, why are those two functions (Collapsing Transformations and Continuously Rasterizing) hidden under one button? Why Ae does not show sharp images by default?

Why does not rasterizing and collapsing have separate switches? Why do I have to use that ugly sharpening filters when I need comp containing vectors enlage more than 100% and avoid collapsing? OK, I know that Ae uses different vector-universe than Ai, but I really don' understand why I have to click the button, when I want imported vector to be crisp. This should be matter of course. Just imagine such switch when browsing webpages (Enable sharp images, Enable color in images, Enable radable text).

I need collapsing sometimes, but sharp vector always.

The think I wonder most is, that nobody complains about this.

[Mylenium · Accepted solution]

There really isn't anything to explain. AE simply strictly operates in pixels and every function is dictated by that. Even continuous rasterization merely acts as a shortcut of coercing the underlying vector engine. Could it be different? No doubt about it, but given the shabby state AE already is in currently I wouldn't hold out hope to see a complete change to vector rendering or effects becoming "vector aware" any time soon.

Mylenium

[ChristianAaltonen]

OK, thank you Mylenium.

What do you mean by the Ae shabby state? Is Adobe going to dicsontinue this product?

[Dave_LaRonde]

ChristianAaltonen  wrote

What do you mean by the Ae shabby state? Is Adobe going to dicsontinue this product?

It means that Adobe hasn't kept up with the times.  Much of AE's core code has not been touched in 20 years.  It's old software that should have been kept updated as operating systems, processors and graphics cards evolved but it wasn't.

Think of AE as a road that was built years and years ago when 80 kph was very fast, but not maintained and certainly not improved for today's cars that easily travel at 130 kph.  You have to watch out for potholes.  The side of the road is deteriorating.  You have to slow down at the curves. Instead, the road builder has put up signs -- "Keep off The Shoulder".... "Watch for Potholes".... "Slow Down At Curves".  Signs are much cheaper than actually fixing the road, you see.

I now wait for others to rush to the defense of Adobe.

[Mylenium]

Is Adobe going to dicsontinue this product?

Certainly not. That would be disastrous. They have nothing else. Regardless, AE similar to pretty much all Adobe programs is like an old piece of clothing - barely holding together at the seams, patched over yet still with holes, worn out, barely being able to keep you warm and long out of fashion. As Dave said, Adobe missed the opportunity to truly modernize the app some 10 years ago and are now in a race to keep it functioning while at the same time trying to implement new features. Wasting time on crap like Raytrace 3D or Cinema 4D clearly didn't help and so AE pretty much still is what it was some years ago - an old rag that tries to disguise its shortcomings with some colorful iron-on patches. It simply has lost its focus as a compositing tool and is riddled with bugs that make your hair stand on end with little or no hope of improvment in sight.

Mylenium

[kaczorefx]

You can see it all over the place.

You can either use an old established software that can do it all, but is probably not the most efficient. That's because a 20 year software has already tens and hundreds of thousands of lines of code so it's humanly impossible to update everything without breaking it in a hundred places.

Or you can use a fresh new app that runs lightning fast BUT has a lot of features missing.

The funniest thing is the new and fast app if it's popular, is going to evolve more and more, grow in size and after years of development it's going to become this old and established not so well optimized dinosaur

Look at Nuke - it was a God send 10 years ago, everyone was switching to it like crazy, it was a breath of fresh air. Now look at it, since version 7 - almost no development apart from bug fixing, new features like new codecs and a RAM player and that's basically it. Not to mention Nuke Studio which is a complete disaster There is just not much that can be added now feature wise because it already has everything, they just have to keep up with the times, with new hardware which as mentioned before is nearly impossible for an app this big

From all the "promising new apps" I feel only Houdini is still keeping strong - the development team must be a bunch of geniuses.

Think of all the apps that were dashit 10-15 years ago: 3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, xsi, after effects, Shake, Fusion - they are all on the side lines now or at the very least most of their users are already fed up with them looking around for something new.

Just get used to learning new software all the time and always go with the best one that's currently offered - DO NOT count on developers to "rewrite the core from ground up" - I have heard this a thousand times and I can't think of single app that that has happened to Brand loyalty is the stupidest thing a professional can do - you already paid them for the software, you don't owe them anything

[P.M.B]

kaczorefx  wrote

From all the "promising new apps" I feel only Houdini is still keeping strong - the development team must be a bunch of geniuses

I know it's very different typ of software but it's Just whenever someone mentions genius developers I have to shout out to Pixologic.   Not only is what their software does mindbending, but they respect their customers & show that they appreciate your business.   Unlike some companies which I won't mention.  ADOBE     

[Szalam]

Another great company is Insydium. Granted, they're just making plugins for Cinema 4D, but their plugins are amazing/vital, they always provide great updates chock full of features, and the customer service is outstanding.

[kaczorefx]

One solution I always use is create a 4k comp, import AI file there, upscale it to the max using the switch. And for the rest of the project use that comp instead of AI. It calculates quite a lot faster than AI on continuous raterization. Unless you need to zoom in to the AI like 20000% then CR is your only option at the moment