Vector graphics are gappy after export

Harmony Harmony Support and Troubleshooting
1

Hi,

there seems to be an issue concerning exported vector graphics.

http://fs5.directupload.net/images/160823/uvuzj623.png

While it’s all good looking in TB, my vector PDFs always have these gaps as seen in the screenshot.

It’s even worse when the drawings aren’t flattened since then the drawings still contain all of their vector paths.
Once exported, it’s like each path will be turned into a gappy outline.

In this screenshot I already flattened the drawings to reduce the problem, but it’s still noticable.
After making a quick sketch in Illustrator I figured that Illustrator doesn’t have these problems, so I guess it’s TB related.

Is this caused by the way TB handles paths? Is there anything I can do about it?

Thank you.

2

Is it painted in the same layers as the line or is it painted in the artlayer?

3

Thanks for the reply.

I’m not sure what you mean.
In my layers view next to the timeline, it’s only one layer for the shoe.
To find out what you mean by layers and art layers, I checked the two buttons for “Set line art as current layer” and “Set color art as current layer”.
And when "Set color art as current layer"is turned on, I have no longer access to the drawing. It’s still visible, but I can’t select it with the select tool.

Is that what you mean and does this answer your question?

4

I was thinking of these layer:
http://docs.toonboom.com/help/harmony-14/advanced/paperless-animation/about-art-layer.html?Highlight=art%20layer

Every image has 4 layer within itself.

If you dont choose a spec layer everything will probably on the Line Art layer

5

Hi 10tacle,

I have created 2 shapes, one with the Pencil tool and the other with the Brush, and tested the export to PDF through the Write node. I haven’t managed to run into the issue you are describing.
Could you tell me which version of the software you are using, as well as any detail that would be relevant to the way the artwork has been created?

Thank you,
Matisse

6

Thanks for the reply. I’m using the latest Harmony build 14.0.0 (11461).

Now I created a test project just to see if the problem persists or only affects my previous projects.
At first when I only used the brush tool, the PDF came out fine.
But as soon as I add some strokes with the polyline tool it’s just like I said.

http://www.file-upload.net/download-11878523/test.zip.html

This is how it looks now:

https://s3.postimg.org/yz00n5m5v/Screen_Shot_2016_08_24_at_20_16_35.png

The gaps are exactly where I used the polyline tool, so it must be a polyline specific issue.

I couldn’t live without the polyline, so I’m really hoping there’s a solution.

7

I recognize this issue from vector illustration software. Basically, what is happening is that the shapes’ edges are aligned exactly, and the anti-aliasing causes the ‘gap’. Turn off anti-aliasing, and the issue is resolved. It is a screen/resolution problem.

If you have access to Illustrator you can open your art, and apply object>path>offset path, and offset all the objects to 0.1mm.

Or add a new object behind things that is the same, solid, color of the object above, which will force the anti-aliasing to use that as a background colour instead of white.

Another option is to use compound paths, but I have no idea whether that is supported directly in TB.

8

Where do I turn off AA? When I open up the preferences > open GL, full scene AA is already disabled.
I turned it on, set it to 8 and relaunched Harmony just to see what happens, but it won’t make any difference.
Then I found the AA prefs under preferences > node view, but it stays the same.

So I guess AA only affects the stage, not the export, right?

Coming to Illustrator.
Applying an offset does the trick, though I had to set it to 0.01 mm to make it work without destroying the graphics.
This could basically the perfect solution, but doing that over and over again for every single frame in a 300 frames animation would be a real pain, so I’m wondering if it’s possible to put that into an Illustrator script.

Thank you.

Edit:

I can’t believe how blind I am.
I hadn’t figured that I could simply use batch processing for actions. I do know that from Photoshop of course, but in Illustrator’s actions panel I didn’t see the batch processing button which is hidden in a drop down menu. In contrast to Illustrator Photoshop has it’s own batch processing entry in the menu bar.
This even makes my SVG script obsolete.