Good practices for ai graphics

[backshesh]

So I have drawn up a graphic in Illustrator and it has hundreds of paths and its really big and in depth but it has no gradients or fades, just solid colors, and I have been having trouble importing it into Flash to be animated.

What would help me is if someone would express their opinion/experience with vector graphics and importing them to flash.

The problems that occur is when I go to file import then i chose the .ai file, flash will crash upon importing or it will crash when i try to export it. So, I want to know if there is a general limit to how big a graphic should be. I also want to know if its easier on the CPU to use Vectors over Bitmaps to be animated. I also want to know the best wat to take this vector graphic that is 50 times bigger than the stage and import it and have it move with ease.

[poltuda]

Export as Illustrator Legacy [.AI]


poltuda

[dmb85]

Vector graphics are much harder on the CPU to render. You will get the best performance by converting your graphics to bitmaps, especially for really complex vector graphics such as the one you're describing.

[hansolo]

My experience of flash sometimes even on simple tween can produce jerky animation.

make the paths less as more points on vector path means more calculations for the computer to move.

I say if gonna animate keep it simple in flash. Toon boom might be able to handle more as thats vector animation package. which is not made small web .
file sizes.

[backshesh]

Thank you guys for you're responses, I have given it consideration and tested methods and here are the results:
For the heavy vector I created, I put it into flash as an .ai vector and the fps went down 15 fps.

For the light vector I created, I put it into flash as an ,ai vector and the fps was constant and didn't change, and I could scale it without losing detail.

I then put the heavy vector into Photoshop and set the resolution to 72, a good web resolution. I saved it as a .png and imported it as a bitmap and it was able to animate without hesitation the fps remained constant.

I then also put the light vector into Photoshop and set the resolution to 72 and receive the same outcome, good for animating. But when I scaled it and it decreased detail a lot.

Now I have concluded that when my vectors are deep detail it is better to save and import it as a .png 72 rez and not a vector, and avoid scaling it. If it is a small vector without many individual paths I will keep it as a vector and scale it all day long.

[hansolo]

if convert it to smart object in photshop you can scale down without losing detail. then you can rasterise the image after.. Not sure if it keeps the same fil size as the larger image though