Pixely "Glow" on Edges

[Guest_imported]

Okay, I hope this makes sense. I've imported a PDF file into after effects, shrunken it down to about 10% and then animated it growing to 60%. This image is a black silhouette of a figure on a red background. The animation looks fine in after effects, but when I export the movie to watch it in adobe premiere, the black silhouette has a greyish, pixely "glow" around it. What's this all about and how do I stop it? (BTW, I've tried created the same animation in Macromedia Flash with a vector image and got the same result - my friend thought it might be because the after effects image is bitmapped. Obviously, that's not the problem.)

 

[rsandelius]

I'm assuming that you meant a "psd" file instead of a .pdf file. If it IS a .pdf file, then please disregard my advice.

Your problem probably lies in the fact that After Effects may not know how to interpret the footage. When you import the file, make sure tha it has an alpha matte that goes along with it. I'm sorry that I can't explain more, but I know the trick is with the alpha matte and how After Effects interprets it. Maybe someone else can embellish on what I'm trying to say here.

 

[yannosse]

hello...
first: i am french, so forgive my english mistakes...

i solve a pdf problem one time ( a map of the french subway) by converting the pdf file to a illustrator file.
accualy it was not me who did that but a ingenior at my work place... let me know if you want the info.

the kool thing was after i could have a illustrator file format document and have access to the diffrent layer of it...

and i never have the pixel bug you unfortunately experience.

a nice tips :
personaly i usualy "clean" shape comming from Illustrator with flash. because of his very good kind of bitmap vector base philosophie. and after export them as A.I. file.

a less nice tips:
if your timing schedulle allow you that... i suggest you to recreate your shape with a mask tool in after effect (or in whatever external 2d vectorbase software)
and take time to create a separate element for the forground, and the background.
and for sure, after, using those mask combine with a solid layer with the option alpha mask, you won t have any pixel bug.
it s not the kind of solution that we like to think about but... i think it s better to take time in the begining of a work for the preparation of clean elements to animate after.

i hope this will help you.

thanks.
yann

 

[kofilms]

it sound like a 8 bit vs 16 bit problem. does it look like the gradients are banding. i could go into detail about why this happens, but basically you can fix this with a little noise, or you can work in a 16 bit color space.