Pixel-based artwork in HD after effects?

[Nick Berrisford]

I am fairly sure that AE simply looks at the number of pixels and not what the resolution of them is set to. I believe there used to be a 4000 pixel limit on imported EPSs or something, but I don’t think that applies anymore. I have put HiRes scans in of images with a pixel count of over 8,000 and they work – very slowly though. You don’t say how big the pixel count of your artwork is. But the best way to speed things up is use versions that are no bigger than they will need to be in the comp. Using much larger images and scaling them in AE is going to slow you down. So if they are much bigger than needed, it migght be a good idea to sample them down in PS if render timesa are a real issue.

[Steve Roberts]

DPI is irrelevant inside AE. It is only relevant when going to or coming from the paper-based world: scanning (from inches to pixels) or printing (pixels to inches).

I agree with Nick — don’t scan your images bigger (pixel X pixel) than they need to be. If the images will never be bigger than full frame, they don’t need to be bigger than 1920×1080.

Whoever scanned them should do the math next time: (paper size) X (scanning DPI) = (digitized pixel size). So an 8×10 at 600 dpi becomes a 4800×6000 image, which is way too big for a 1920×1080 (or 1280×720) HD frame, unless you were planning to zoom into (about) a quarter of the image. Use a lower DPI, one derived from your quick calculations. The extra time taken doing that will pay off in a much faster AE workflow.

To solve this and speed up your workflow (on this job), either shrink the images in PS to a size closer to your actual needs (as Nick wrote), or look up “Proxies” in the Help.

[Keri Rainock]

Thanks! This info helps a lot. I think this will speed up my workflow a lot from the last short.