Credit Roll using .ai import – 24fps

[Darby Edelen]

How big is this AI file? You can import AI files directly into AE and enable continuous rasterization on the layer in order to preserve the highest quality at any scale. There may be a reason this won’t work (such as needing the file at such a high resolution that AE chokes on it) but it would generally be my preferred method. If the file is too big then you could separate it into several sections using Illustrator or even Photoshop (the file will be rasterized in Photoshop, but you’ll be able to choose an appropriate scale).

As for the speed of the credit roll I’d say that depends a lot on the text height. Four pixels per frame would probably work okay if the text is at least 20 pixels tall. If your text is shorter then I’d run it slower.

You might also add a small amount of vertical blur to the text.

If you’re going to use an expression to drive it I’d highly recommend that you avoid the timeToFrames() function and instead use thisComp.frameDuration to convert the pixels per frame value like so:

s = -4 / (thisComp.frameDuration);
o = [0, time * s];
value + o;

This will avoid stair-stepping in the position values and is probably better practice. It will also help if you decide to use motion blur to generate your small vertical blur.

Darby Edelen

[Michele Poggi]

The AI file is extremely bigger than any file readable by Photoshop or AE, so I rasterized it to a PSB file as you suggested.

First of all thanks a lot for your answer, I already have a couple of questions about it if you can still give me some support. 😉

* “enable continuos rasterization” – What do you mean by that?

The credits are now rolling at 3 pixels per frame, but I’m really interested in the text height you mentioned.. Is there a better way than simple logic to understand what speed it’s best to use? For example, I found vertical blur to be less useful than the horizontal+vertical one. Same goes for using a little grayer text.

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[Darby Edelen]

[Michele Poggi] ”
* “enable continuos rasterization” – What do you mean by that?”

This is a layer switch in the timeline that is specific to vector file formats such as Illustrator files. It allows AE to read the vector data and “continuously rasterize” it, or put another way: your vector file will look as good as it can at any scale.

The downside of this switch is that if you need your layer to be scaled to a very large resolution AE must rasterize to an appropriately large size and you can end up running out of available memory quickly.

More information here: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f49a.html

[Michele Poggi] “The credits are now rolling at 3 pixels per frame, but I’m really interested in the text height you mentioned.. Is there a better way than simple logic to understand what speed it’s best to use? For example, I found vertical blur to be less useful than the horizontal+vertical one. Same goes for using a little grayer text.”

To use an extreme example imagine that your letter ‘i’ is 10 pixels tall. If it moves 4 or 5 pixels in one frame then it may be harder for someone watching to perceive continuous motion. Generally speaking I would recommend shorter text move slower, but this is not a hard and fast rule and instead something I made up on the spot 🙂

Darby Edelen