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Simplifying Illustrator path
I am trying to simplify an Illustrator path to import into After Effects. The shape is a very simple oval. The oval was created in Photoshop. The path has hundreds of points. I thought it wuld be an easy thing to import it into Illustrator and run the path simplify command. It did a very poor job. I thought it would turn all of the points into 4 points to make a smooth oval. I played with the quality controls. In order for it to make a good shape, I had to put the quality to 100%, which created just as many points. I found nothing by searching this forum.
I know I can redo the shape in Illustrator, but I am curious as to why Illustrator doesn’t know how to automatically create the simple shape with 4 points.
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3 Replies
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If this is a perfect oval, then redraw it in illustrator.
1)Hold mouse down and dragging an oval from center
2)Add the alt key,
3)then the big SECRET (hold down the spacebar while drawing).
4)Once you find you have redrawn a matching oval release the mouse button.ALT is draw from center
Spacebar is to reposition while drawing -
Thanks for the response. I made the shape in Photoshop (using the rounded rectangle option) as you described. That is why it seemed so odd that Illustrator could not trace it with only 4 points. I kind of needed the exact proportions of the shape that was already in use in a project.
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Great to hear you got this done. The simplify tool is truly a miracle worker. When you need a perfect elipse, it is lacking a routine that would say “hey this matches a shape illustrator has a tool for, I should replace it with a fresh vector path.
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