Beating Sterility - Not spam, hahahah!

[Blue]

Sometimes the aesthetic look of vector animation can look a bit too sharp and digital. The techniques may or may not rely on other software. Here are some of my thoughts.

-Use a Soften Filter
-Overlay with a "textured" grayscale image
-Use images within the vector shapes (which I'm fond of)
-Add grain or "film look" filter
-Use gradients creatively
-Artistic Look filter (shudder)

[Rosie M Banks]

-Use images within the vector shapes (which I'm fond of)

Could you elaborate on this a little, Blue? I'm not sure what you mean by 'images within the vector shapes.' Could you give an example?

[PARKER]

-Use images within the vector shapes (which I'm fond of)

Could you elaborate on this a little, Blue? I'm not sure what you mean by 'images within the vector shapes.' Could you give an example?

Its simple Rosie M Banks.

1.Create a shape

2.Go to style

3.In effect 1 or 2 click on "image texture"

4.Click on select texture

5.Double click on the image you want to use

6.Select the fill mode: Tile or stretch

7.Click ok.

Thats all, you will have an image inside your shape.

[Blue]

I don't know about other versions of the software, but in Pro6 you can put images in vector shapes using the Style editor, under effects. This is good if you just want a repeating pattern. Here's an example:
viewtopic.php?t=13957&highlight=blue

Another way to do it would be to place the image in a layer and use a vector shape to mask it. You would want to click the "preserve outline" option in the Masking window for the vector layer acting as the mask. The Pro6 manual has a good tutorial on how you can use this technique (the horse example); using images that really "fit" the vector shape.

[Rosie M Banks]

Aha! I looked at that very picture in that very thread but didn't understand how it was done till now.

I do have Pro 6 now, but I haven't done any tutorials since 5 and, obviously, didn't even know what all the new features were. This is AWESOME. I already think AS is a wonder of technology, and then I realize some other new jaw-dropping thing. Or sometimes even an old jaw-dropping thing. Holy crap, yet another facet in that big sparkly.

Thanks for the explanations! I know I will be getting a lot of mileage out of this particular tidbit.