[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe try the Pathfinder Tools (Window/Pathfinder).
There are a lot of functions there, so experiment. If you’re trying to make a bunch of objects into one object…
1-Select all of the objects.
2-Click the Add To Shape Area button.
At this point, the process is still editable.
To finalize the function click Object/Expand Appearance. Or, you could Alt+Click as you are clicking on the Pathfinder/Add… button.

Pressing Ctrl+Y (View/Outlines) to view your outlines helps, so you can see everything that you are doing.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Use the Convert Anchor tool (Shift+C in Illustrator, in Photoshop it’s one of the Pen Tools).
Dragging a point will give it handles, clicking a point will make it a corner again.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Especially with the GIFs, make sure you switch to RGB mode before anything else…
Image/Mode/RGB Color.

To check a file to determine if it has an Alpha, click…
Window/Channels.
If there is an Alpha, you will see it there in the palette.

To create an Alpha, after you have made your selection, go to the Channels palette (the one mentioned above) and click the Save Selection As Channel button – at the bottom of the Channels palette.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Converting to “mpeg-2 (Mpeg-1 codec) and .avi (MP42)” would be an additional generation of degradation. This is why I almost always suggest Uncompressed, as it it gives you a visually perfect copy of whichever codec you may be using. Also, it’s easier on your processor, when editing – but you need a good bit of ram also.

You probably wont have enough space to decompress 35min’s into a 40GB space. :(. Could the project be broken down into smaller sections?

Not sure if this is an option, but could you recapture to a DV codec, which is ideal for editing. WMV is not so good for editing.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Not sure if this is a good answer, but could you pull guides onto the image to ‘record’ a particular start point?

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Maybe ‘File/Automate/Contact Sheet’ might set you in a good direction.
Let us know if this is sufficient.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Art Explosion has a ton of vector patterns that are similar, or could be combined to create that type of pattern or brush.

[Vincent Rosati]

Codec: Uncompressed (none)
App: AVS Video Converter

Concerning your space issue, you know the answer to that. Either backup and clear space or add additional/larger drives.
If you have additional internal drive bays, using them would be ideal as it appears you have a SATA setup.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

Illustrator Drop Shadows with the Click of a Button!
Illustrator drop shadows are under…
Filter/Stylize/Drop Shadow or
Effect/Stylize/Drop Shadow

Both options create a raster object underneath the target, which can be controlled by…
Effect/Document Raster Effect Settings.

Using Effects (my prefernce), as opposed to Filters, allows you to access the modification within the Appearance palette…
Window/Appearance, in case you want to make further adjustments.

If you drag a Photoshop text object, with a drop shadow Later style, into Illustrator it will rasterize. It would be, kind of, going in reverse.
My workflow generally considers Illustrator to be more fundamental. That is to say, build your vectors in AI, than go to PS if necessary.
From Photoshop, you can File/Export Paths to Illustrator, where necessary. Or, you can use the text tool to copy text data out of PS, than paste into an AI text object.

Your last solution of creating additional vector objects underneath the main object, of different values, is a good solution.
You might like using…
Object/Path/Offset Path
…to compliment this technique, but you must first outline the type before this option becomes active.

Vince

[Vincent Rosati]

JPEGs don’t hold layers, so a layered Photoshop file will automatically flatten when saved as a JPEG. You’ll notice that the Layers option in the Save dialogue is greyed out when JPEG is selected.
It probably is a JPEG.
I’m thinking you might have allowed Photoshop to be the default viewer for JPEG files, on your system. I’m not sure how to change this setting on a Mac.
It might help to set your OS to display file extensions (again, not sure hot to do this on Mac).
Try opening the image with a web browser. You should be able to drag the file on to one of your browser icons.

Vince