Invigorator newbie.

[Jon Okerstrom]

Hi Tim,

The basic problem is that the paths you’re exporting are not quite right and unless I’m missing something, it’s a limitation of Photoshop’s path export functions.

Essentially letters with holes in them, like O,R,P,B, etc need to be turned into compound paths. It’s a one-command fix in Illustrator, but I’m not aware of a way to do it in Photoshop. Invigorator probably sees your two circle shapes as two separate objects.

The best solution is always to get and use Illustrator. Photoshop’s path export commands will be very limiting with Invigorator.

Does this help?

Jon

[Serge Hamad]

Hi,

I answered this question in the AE forum but here I go again:

Check the import as layers box when you import your text and the Os, Ps… should be fine.
It took me ages to figure this one out.

Salut.
Serge

[Jon Okerstrom]

Good to know, Serge!

Do you use often Photoshop paths rather than Illustrator?

Jon

[Serge Hamad]

Actually never. I’s just that I wanted to solve this issue for PS-Invigorator combo users like a couple of my colleagues.
Like you Jon I would advise anyone seriously interested in Invigorator to use a vector program.

Salut.
Serge

[Zax Dow]

Serge what a great little tip. I hadn’t thought of this one but I’ll tell you why it works in the second half of this message.

First, an alternative to your trick would be to create a Letter O using the Photoshop text tool, and then adjust the paths to be a more proper circle. For some reason Photoshop will export paths that were created as letters with the holes intact. But if you draw two circles by hand and try to make one of them a hole, Photoshop doesn’t export the inner one as a hole.

The “Import As Layers” trick works because one of the things that the Invigorator does when opening up a file, is it looks to see if there are any paths that are 1- grouped together and 2- one path is totally contained within another path. If it finds grouped paths that are inside of each other then it makes the inner path a hole.

Two paths in a Photoshop file are normally not grouped so they don’t qualify to be made into holes. On the other hand when you use the “open as layers” option both of these paths would be considered on the same layer, so they get grouped on the way in, thus they now satisfy the condition needed to make one a hole in the other.

So knowing this you would be able to make all sorts of other shapes using Photoshop. As long as the extra shapes are contained within a single object they will become holes when you use the Open As Layers option. For instance a circle with two eye shapes and a smile shape should become a Smiley Face with the eyes and mouth as holes.

Best,
Zax

[Tim O’dwyer]

Jon, Serge and Zax,
Many thanks, your feedback was just what the doctor ordered! Having spent some time trying and failing I’ve now sorted the text issue by checking the ‘import as layers’ box. Serge, please take a bow for your perseverance in coming up with the solution. Sorry I missed your original post on the AE forum.
Again guys,
Thanks for your help!!
Tim