It's currently only black and white fills with no strokes. so videoscribe is tracing the outlines of the filled paths and then filling them in I suspect.
If you have illustrator, you could try using autotrace again with the original PNG. choose strokes only (no fills) and play with the settings to get the stroked paths that you need.
Otherwise, I'd recommend starting over by importing the png into inkscape or illustrator and tracing it manually using the pen or pencil tool, then deleting the png and saving the resulting strokes as an SVG.
-Mike (videoscribe user)
J
Jamie Stowermark
On
Thu, 12 Mar, 2015 at 10:04 PM
Hi there, I am new to video scribe (pro) and I am new to idraw and do have access to my friend's CS6 illustrator but again... new to that too so about to learn how to use that! I want to be able to create some project management training videos so need a professional look.
I have been creating some simple drawings in idraw, using the pencil tool on a canvas of 1000x1000px and have set video scribe to the same settings for default image quality. I export the image from idraw as an SVG and import to video scribe.
The issue
I notice that I am having the hand draw my little SVG out nicely but at the end of the image being rendered, all the lines go bold. Just enough to look rubbish. All of the videocribe in-house images you use are fine, just my ones. Does it on all of my drawings. Any thoughts? I have read the other comments from 5 months ago but can't see the solution.
Oh and I now have today use of Illustrator CS6 and have followed Mike Metcalfe's instructions on settings but still it does that little "bolding" at the end of the drawing, like a glow. On a 1 point stroke it is really noticeable and on the 5 point stroke is almost not there (but still there as a very subtle second stage where it just bolds it up). Just I want to put a lot of hours into some training scribing and want to get any bugs out of the way early! Cheers for any advice. I am using a Mac and its high spec. Thanks.
Hi, I took a look at the SVG yesterday and your video was helpful too.
As for the SVG, 969 kb is pretty big for an SVG. I opened it in illustrator and received an error regarding clipping paths.I deleted the layer with the photo which reduced the SVG file size. Also, every path in the SVG had a black stoke and a black fill, so I removed the black fills and left the strokes.
When using it in videoscribe I got the same results you mentioned. After trying a few other things (changed from cmyk to rgb, changed all strokes to 3pt and then 5pt, changed the joins to round, scaled the image larger in videoscribe...) I was not able to fix the symptom of the lines getting darker at the end.
As you mentioned, it is less noticable with heavier strokes and it is less noticable with color fills because the lines darken at the same time the color fills appear. The darkening is fairly typical but it does seem to be more noticable with some svgs than with others.
Support may have some suggestions.
-Mike (videoscribe user)
J
Jamie Stowermark
On
Fri, 13 Mar, 2015 at 2:20 PM
Mike, thanks a lot for taking the time to help, I really appreciate that! I have been playing with Ilustrator CS6 today and have now managed to create new drawings with none of the problems. I think it was idraw. I am going to do a lot of online illustrator lessons and become good at it and then get cracking on some great videoscribes!!! Many thanks. Jamie
M
Michael Hislop
On
Mon, 27 Jul, 2015 at 5:40 PM
I am having the same problem with all of my scribes.
My default Image Quality is set to 4000.
My .SVG's are created in Adobe Illustrator CS6, with the settings for SVG set to those recommended on this site.
I'm using version 2.2.4 PC.
Every time a frame finishes drawing, the lines get bolder. My stroke size in Illustrator is 6 pixels, which is my desired size. There are a few strokes as small as 4 pixels.
VideoScribe uses SVGs to draw the lines/paths of an image. Once this is done, the lines are transformed into a bitmap on the canvas.
In certain cases you can see this conversion depending on the image being used,scale, stroke thickness, canvas zoom and default image quality.
Changing these factors in many cases can reduce this shifting effect until they are barely noticeable
Apologies if this does not fully resolve your problem.
M
Michael Hislop
On
Tue, 28 Jul, 2015 at 2:52 PM
Thanks for the response Joe.
Is there a best 'combination' of those factors, (scale, stroke thickness, canvas zoom, and default image quality), to minimize that effect?
Like I said in my original post, I'm at 4000 in the default image quality. In the animation I attached, every item imported comes from a master .svg exported out of Illustrator, with a matching 'invisible' bounding box, so they all import to exactly the same scale and position, relative to each other. From that point on, I use the scale in Videoscribe to zoom in and out. I seem to get the problem no matter if I'm zoomed in or out.
Do thicker strokes work better than thinner?
Does keeping the zoom at 100 or less improve the problem?
Does the percentage of 'edge' created by converting the lines to the bitmap remain the same regardless of stroke size, scale, etc.?
Thx.
J
Jamie Stowermark
On
Tue, 28 Jul, 2015 at 3:00 PM
Hi guys, just to re-iterate from my earlier comment, on the in-house SVG drawings in the system the problem of going bold at the end doesn't exist, just on the ones I made and Michael's too by the sound of it. If Joe you are able to advise the specifications that your team use when they make a drawing so we can try to replicate that might be helpful.
M
Michael Hislop
On
Tue, 28 Jul, 2015 at 3:07 PM
Here is a quick test I just did using elements from the Videoscibe library only.
The first item, with a thick stroke, seems to work fine. The second item, with thinner strokes, also from the library, exhibits the problem I'm talking about.
Sorry for the delay in my reply , I did consult with one of our artists to ensure I can give you the best possible set up.
I would firstly advise when creating an image in Adobe Illustrator to use the following Profile set (This is generally one I use for support although I'm not a professional artist).
The higher the resolution in Adobe Illustrator the better the results:
My colleague uses a minimum of 5pt Stroke thickness when he creates images for our libraries.
As mentioned before as the image is converted to bitmap after drawing (which means they are pixels) the thicker the stroke the better it will convert.
I have attached a 5pt svg file saved using the above settings (please note I have already mentioned I'm not a professional artist so I will not require mockery or accept constructive criticism on this example), please try importing this into VideoScribe and you should find the shift is not noticeable.
With regards to default image quality, I have mine set to 1920px.
I would only use 4000px if I am importing detailed Jpegs/PNG's directly in.
I hope this helps you all going forward.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or I have missed anything.
Hi,
Ive created my .svg and its a simple box made of lines.
the animation works great while it draws a thin lines however after the animation is completed the lines become BOLD.
Is there anyway to disable that?
Thanks
1 person has this question
1) It's easier to diagnose a problem with an SVG if you upload the SVG
2) if you are using adobe illustrator CC then read this thread: http://help.videoscribe.co/support/discussions/topics/1000033902
-Mike (videoscribe user)
i basically created the .png of lines in photoshop and converted it to .svg.
I know i should use a soft for it etc. but the animation works perfectly.
Its super easy picture, if somebody could send me enhanced .svg i would be super greatful.
If you have illustrator, you could try using autotrace again with the original PNG. choose strokes only (no fills) and play with the settings to get the stroked paths that you need.
Otherwise, I'd recommend starting over by importing the png into inkscape or illustrator and tracing it manually using the pen or pencil tool, then deleting the png and saving the resulting strokes as an SVG.
-Mike (videoscribe user)
Hi there, I am new to video scribe (pro) and I am new to idraw and do have access to my friend's CS6 illustrator but again... new to that too so about to learn how to use that! I want to be able to create some project management training videos so need a professional look.
I have been creating some simple drawings in idraw, using the pencil tool on a canvas of 1000x1000px and have set video scribe to the same settings for default image quality. I export the image from idraw as an SVG and import to video scribe.
The issue
I notice that I am having the hand draw my little SVG out nicely but at the end of the image being rendered, all the lines go bold. Just enough to look rubbish. All of the videocribe in-house images you use are fine, just my ones. Does it on all of my drawings. Any thoughts? I have read the other comments from 5 months ago but can't see the solution.
Video I made that you can see the bold effect
Many thanks, Jamie
Oh and I now have today use of Illustrator CS6 and have followed Mike Metcalfe's instructions on settings but still it does that little "bolding" at the end of the drawing, like a glow. On a 1 point stroke it is really noticeable and on the 5 point stroke is almost not there (but still there as a very subtle second stage where it just bolds it up). Just I want to put a lot of hours into some training scribing and want to get any bugs out of the way early! Cheers for any advice. I am using a Mac and its high spec. Thanks.
I took a look at the SVG yesterday and your video was helpful too.
As for the SVG, 969 kb is pretty big for an SVG. I opened it in illustrator and received an error regarding clipping paths.I deleted the layer with the photo which reduced the SVG file size. Also, every path in the SVG had a black stoke and a black fill, so I removed the black fills and left the strokes.
When using it in videoscribe I got the same results you mentioned. After trying a few other things (changed from cmyk to rgb, changed all strokes to 3pt and then 5pt, changed the joins to round, scaled the image larger in videoscribe...) I was not able to fix the symptom of the lines getting darker at the end.
As you mentioned, it is less noticable with heavier strokes and it is less noticable with color fills because the lines darken at the same time the color fills appear. The darkening is fairly typical but it does seem to be more noticable with some svgs than with others.
Support may have some suggestions.
-Mike (videoscribe user)
I am having the same problem with all of my scribes.
My default Image Quality is set to 4000.
My .SVG's are created in Adobe Illustrator CS6, with the settings for SVG set to those recommended on this site.
I'm using version 2.2.4 PC.
Every time a frame finishes drawing, the lines get bolder. My stroke size in Illustrator is 6 pixels, which is my desired size. There are a few strokes as small as 4 pixels.
Please help....thx.
I've included a sample below.
Hi Michael,
Thanks for getting in touch.
VideoScribe uses SVGs to draw the lines/paths of an image. Once this is done, the lines are transformed into a bitmap on the canvas.
In certain cases you can see this conversion depending on the image being used,scale, stroke thickness, canvas zoom and default image quality.
Changing these factors in many cases can reduce this shifting effect until they are barely noticeable
Apologies if this does not fully resolve your problem.
Thanks for the response Joe.
Is there a best 'combination' of those factors, (scale, stroke thickness, canvas zoom, and default image quality), to minimize that effect?
Like I said in my original post, I'm at 4000 in the default image quality. In the animation I attached, every item imported comes from a master .svg exported out of Illustrator, with a matching 'invisible' bounding box, so they all import to exactly the same scale and position, relative to each other. From that point on, I use the scale in Videoscribe to zoom in and out. I seem to get the problem no matter if I'm zoomed in or out.
Do thicker strokes work better than thinner?
Does keeping the zoom at 100 or less improve the problem?
Does the percentage of 'edge' created by converting the lines to the bitmap remain the same regardless of stroke size, scale, etc.?
Thx.
Here is a quick test I just did using elements from the Videoscibe library only.
The first item, with a thick stroke, seems to work fine. The second item, with thinner strokes, also from the library, exhibits the problem I'm talking about.
Example attached:
Hello again.
Sorry for the delay in my reply , I did consult with one of our artists to ensure I can give you the best possible set up.
I would firstly advise when creating an image in Adobe Illustrator to use the following Profile set (This is generally one I use for support although I'm not a professional artist).
The higher the resolution in Adobe Illustrator the better the results:
My colleague uses a minimum of 5pt Stroke thickness when he creates images for our libraries.
As mentioned before as the image is converted to bitmap after drawing (which means they are pixels) the thicker the stroke the better it will convert.
I have attached a 5pt svg file saved using the above settings (please note I have already mentioned I'm not a professional artist so I will not require mockery or accept constructive criticism on this example), please try importing this into VideoScribe and you should find the shift is not noticeable.
With regards to default image quality, I have mine set to 1920px.
I would only use 4000px if I am importing detailed Jpegs/PNG's directly in.
I hope this helps you all going forward.
Please let me know if you have any further questions or I have missed anything.
Hi Joe!
I have the same problem even after doing all you say.
Any idea?
Regards