Importing graphic curved vector lines

[Scott Rossi]

On 4/29/03 12:57 AM, "Sannyasin Sivakatirswami" <katir at hindu.org> wrote:

> I would like to be able to have our art director, or myself, create
> graphics in illustrator which would be smooth curved paths/lines that
> would later be used in animations as a vector graphic with points ala
> Rev's native freehand curve too line (which is really too crude... I
> couldn't find any way to make true smooth, bezier curves with it). And
> then import his graphic for moving images using the "along the points
> of" syntax.

First of all, if you're looking to display antialiased (smooth) bezier
curves in Rev, I don't believe this is possible (unless the Rev folks have
built in an antialiasing algorithm that isn't mentioned).  The reason
Illustrator lines look smooth is because of Illustrator's built-in
antialiasing capabilities.

On my end, the only way I have been able to get curved line information into
Rev/MC is ironically via an old version of SuperCard on MacOS.  I can create
a path in Freehand (Illustrator-like vector app), copy and paste this into
SuperCard, get the point information of the resulting line in SC and then
paste this data into Rev/MC.  It's a very roundabout method but it works.
The resulting line however is a polygon object that does not appear smooth
-- it can't since there is no built-in antialiasing.

Not sure if the following would work for your needs but one thing you could
do is create your curved paths in Illustrator, save them as *images* that
your import into Rev so they appear smooth, and then trace over the images
with the draw tool to create polygon paths which are then hidden from view.
Now you can move objects by referencing the path data, but users of your
stack will see the moving objects travel along the smooth imported image
paths.


> I created such a line in Illustrator using the bezier curve tool, saved
> it as an Illustrator 10.eps file and tried Import from the menus... EPS
> is dimmed.

I have yet to find a way to use EPS files in MetaCard on Mac/Win systems.
Perhaps someone can explain what is supported on what platform.

Regards,

Scott Rossi
Creative Director
Tactile Media, Multimedia & Design
-----
E: scott at tactilemedia.com
W: http://www.tactilemedia.com