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Activity Forums Adobe Illustrator Cant paste pic from Ai to AE as a mask

  • Cant paste pic from Ai to AE as a mask

    Posted by Steven Källberg on October 18, 2009 at 12:00 am

    ok. so im really stuck here.
    I have this picture of a dragons head that i need to paste into After Effects so I opened it into Illustrator as Tutorials shows me how to do. i use livetracing and made it black and white and blured it just a tad.

    BUT…

    When i try to copy the bloody pic into AE it wont appear as the mask i want it to. (making a logo here with Trapcode 3D stroke here).
    So i went back to Ai and tried livetrace and forcing it to create paths and achors and only then it allows me to paste it into AE. and yes i checked the AISC option (or what it name is again).

    But when i paste it then into AE i get all the anchors and paths showing=( So my 3D Stroke effect wont work properly.

    Why cant i get the picture into AE as the folloowing tutorial shows??? —>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vkm69eiNDCg

    Please explain why! Cause i cant seem to get it right.

    Ronaldo Montalvo replied 16 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Les Nemeth

    October 18, 2009 at 4:25 am

    If you want to make a clean path, learn how to use the pen tool and forget about using live trace. That will never give correct results and you will end up with a gazillion of extra, un-needed anchors.

    You can also post a pic of your wanna be path, since without seeing anything it’s hard to pinpoint what are you doing wrong.

  • Les Nemeth

    October 18, 2009 at 4:27 am

    >>You can also post a pic of your wanna be path
    I meant to say “post a pic of your MASK”…

    (don’t know why can’t I edit my own post…)

  • Steven Källberg

    October 18, 2009 at 9:24 am

    Pen you say!? Ok, i will try to do that.

    Btw this is the picture ive been trying to work with foremost. Have a second picture that i also tried with but its my secondshoice for a logo.

    So if i understand correctly it should all be fine as long as i trace the edges with the Pen tool?

    thank you for all the help.

  • Les Nemeth

    October 19, 2009 at 4:21 am

    That is a very intricate design. Definitely not live trace material. Looks like a combination of brushes and pen work.

  • Steven Källberg

    October 20, 2009 at 6:06 am

    is it possible for me to somehow trace/make the path somehow with the pen-tool?

    I’d really love to have this pic as the logo for a film im working on. And i want to use trapcode 3d stroke to draw it on a solid layer as a mask.

    the idea is to have a camer pan in then pan out while the design is beeing drawn in.

    thanks=)

  • Ronaldo Montalvo

    October 20, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    it doesn’t mattter whether the design came from a pen or a trace. you should be able to use the paths that trace creates after “expand” of the trace. the paste into a shape layer or a solid in AFX will have anchor points and paths, that’s what you’re pasting. twirl down the masks menu and you’ll see the component paths there. a design like yours will no doubt have lots of component parts, it wont be a single element and it will have all the anchor points and paths from illustrator. you can select in the stroke plug-in which paths the stroke effect uses or it can use them all.

    you mentioned an AISC option, don’t know what that is but maybe double check your preferences on the illustrator save panel and check PDF compatible, and maybe double check your general prefs under file handling and clipboard and ensure that PDF and AICB are both checked.

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