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Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

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Derek Howard

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Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostWed Feb 12, 2020 8:49 pm

I'm having an issue with SVGs I've converted from AI or EPS working correctly upon Fusion import.

It looks fine before AND after I convert it to SVG in Illustrator. It only seems to go crazy when I try to import it into Fusion. Here's an example of the type of thing I'm seeing:

And ideas on how I can fix this? Maybe there is a better way to convert them? Any help would really be appreciated!
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Feb 13, 2020 12:17 am

Did you convert everything to outlines first? Fusion has a hard time understanding a stroke. This isn't something that I do very often at all, but I remember that being a fix that seems to work most of the time.
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Derek Howard

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Feb 13, 2020 3:10 pm

I re-exported one and made sure that there were no strokes. Unfortunately it had the same effect. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Also, I went through both the Resolve Manual and the Fusion Training pdfs and couldn't find anything more about SVG import other than that it supports it.

I do a lot of motion graphics with quick turnarounds at the studio so we rely on illustrator stock for elements when we are in a hurry. They usually come in EPS format so I need to convert to SVG to use them.

I was wondering if it had any issues with compound paths. Two of the files I'm having trouble with have those in the original, but I think it should apply that when converting to SVG.
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Feb 13, 2020 5:54 pm

Can you share the SVG? Like I said, this isn't something I do often, but I might be able to at least offer more theories if I'm looking at the actual splines.
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Derek Howard

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Feb 13, 2020 6:48 pm

Sure thing. I'll PM you with it. Any help you could offer is really appreciated.
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Feb 13, 2020 10:49 pm

Having looked at the offending svg, I can confirm that Fusion 9.02 seems to be doing something wrong on import. Slightly nudging one of the points in Inkscape prior to resaving it fixes part of the image, but that slanted line in the base couldn't be fixed the same way. There is one point that's offset on X to the wrong side of the image.

If there's any member of the engineering team paying attention, I have advised Derek to send the SVG to support in hopes that someone can determine if there's a bug here.
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rsf123

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostTue Apr 28, 2020 6:18 am

Has there been any resolution on this?

I'm hoping to purchase some stock images from Shutterstock in EFS to convert to SVG, but won't if the conversion process would mess up the images.
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Bryan Ray

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostTue Apr 28, 2020 7:55 pm

I've not heard anything more about it. And this was the first SVG that I saw exhibit the behavior, so it's more than likely that yours will be fine. I'm not willing to give you a money back guarantee on that advice, though! :D

Maybe you should just grab a few freebie EFS files from somewhere to test your conversion and import pipe.
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Derek Howard

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostWed Apr 29, 2020 9:28 pm

I'm been emailing the BM team back and forth for a couple months now. They have turned all the info over to the development team and are looking into it.

So far I'm still have issues with basically any EPS file I transfer into SVG and some standalone SVGs as well.

I'm really hoping for a fix in the next version. :D
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joymonger

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostMon Jul 06, 2020 4:23 pm

I find I get these results when I use SVG 1.1 which is what Adobe Illustrator exports to by default, and is the only option for exporting from the handy assets tool.

What you want to try is opening the SVG in AI and doing a "Save As", choose SVG, then choose 1.0

Usually when I go through a folder of SVG assets I find I have to do this for one in every 5 or so.
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Derek Howard

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostMon Jul 06, 2020 7:36 pm

Thanks, I'll give that a shot. I haven't been able to get it to work well with any other settings I have tried out of Illustrator.

However, I recently switched to the Affinity apps to replace Photoshop and Illustrator (trying to get off the Adobe subscription) and I noticed that I have much better results from Affinity Designer. It gets it almost perfect each time, it just tends to swamp the order of the masks so you have to manually re-arrange the nodes a bit, but it's a lot better than anything I got from AI.

Still haven't heard anything new from the DEV team about it though. Last I heard, they were still working on it.
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joymonger

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostWed Jul 08, 2020 4:01 pm

Derek Howard wrote:Still haven't heard anything new from the DEV team about it though. Last I heard, they were still working on it.


I really hope they're overhauling fusion, the node based thing is brilliant but the UI and a lot of the features are really dated.

Another good example of the "dated" quirk in the SVG importer is it doesn't support file names with non-ASCII characters. So if you import a file called contrecœur.svg or LÉpiphanie.svg it doesn't do anything, no error, just nothing happens until you figure out the the pattern and spend an hour renaming 100s of svgs.

I find a lot of people on these forums have been using the tools for so long they see shortcomings as a preference thing, or say stuff like "Well, you should store files with ASCII names". But that's just crazy. It'd be like if the software only worked between 7am and 7pm because "I should sleep" and that timezone was locked to PST. It's just not lined up with modern international reality and a measurably productivity drain.
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Andrew Hazelden

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostWed Jul 08, 2020 8:17 pm

Hi joymonger.

joymonger wrote:Well, you should store files with ASCII names". But that's just crazy.


I'd like to make a small comment that the BMD forums are for "end-user to end-user" support and assistance. Generally speaking, none of the people in the BMD Resolve and Fusion forums', other than Peter Chamberlain, Steve Roberts, and Dwaine, are BMD employees.

When a forum member posts a message saying they have an issue doing X or Y or Z, the Fusion artists are simply letting you know a stop-gap workaround to let you get a project done. The people trying to help you are volunteers from the community who have zero sway in the outcomes of what changes happen in new versions of BMD software.

That's why you see a pattern of responses like you mentioned since it is one of the few pragmatic things that can be done to try and assist.

I can tell it isn't the outcome you likely want to see... but BMD doesn't appear to do public roadmaps or make any forward-looking statement of development focus.

joymonger wrote:It's just not lined up with modern international reality and a measurably productivity drain.


IMHO if your goal is to have better support for internationalization, extended characters, and Unicode style multi-byte character sets, your best route as a paid Resolve Studio or Fusion Studio customer is [likely] to contact BMD's other support channels directly via the contact mechanisms on the main BMD website, or by talking to your local BMD authorized reseller.

Well. That's my 2 cents on the topic. Sometimes it's a crazy world. :)
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joymonger

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Jul 09, 2020 3:32 am

Andrew Hazelden wrote:IMHO if your goal is to have better support for internationalization, extended characters, and Unicode style multi-byte character sets

This is just the thread that is indexed when you search for SVG importing problems, seems reasonable to point out that you'll need to rename your SVGs when you're importing them. Would of saved me some time a few months back.

Like that error where the number in the inspector box suddenly jumps 500% when dragging, I thought that was something to do with my monitor setup until I saw this thread. Probably saved a lot of people time writing emails for a known bug right?
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Andrew Hazelden

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Jul 09, 2020 3:48 am

The most consistently indexed and maintained public bug tracker for Fusion is generally the "Suck Less Fusion Bug Tracker" page on the Steakunderwater forums. It tracks when a bug is fixed and includes a slot for attaching reproducible comps and examples.

joymonger wrote:Probably saved a lot of people time writing emails for a known bug right?


The noise on the BMD forums doesn't clearly separate user error, from program bugs. A priority system is used for developer focus so paid users not making it clear via direct communication that something is a show stopper to them doesn't save time if what you want to be fixed is deprioritized... in place of something like a boring detector v3. :roll:

Here is an example of what happens when not enough people show a need for something to be fixed in Resolve/Fusion:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=75617&p=424663#p425311
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joymonger

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Jul 09, 2020 4:14 pm

Andrew Hazelden wrote:Here is an example of what happens when not enough people show a need for something to be fixed in Resolve/Fusion:
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=75617&p=424663#p425311


I don't get it. Doesn't that demonstrate that staff do read these forums and that people should be on here posting and reproducing bugs more?

It sounds like you'd like me to go away, post bugs on a random forum and write an email a day to BMD with all the new bugs that occur in the fusion tab. OK, this seems like a really crazy solution, but I'll do that.
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Jason Conrad

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostSat Jul 11, 2020 12:56 am

joymonger wrote:I don't get it. Doesn't that demonstrate that staff do read these forums and that people should be on here posting and reproducing bugs more?


I think that's what he's saying.

BMD definitely watches these forums for bugs, and acts on them as quickly as they can, when they can. The 16.2.3 patch included a fix for a small issue that I brought up in a forum post less than a month after I mentioned it: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=114958.

Of course, some things are easy to fix, and other things take more time, and really deep integrations like Fusion/Resolve stereoscopic need to satisfy a cost analysis on a longer timeline, and so it is very important for users to speak up.

joymonger wrote:It sounds like you'd like me to go away, post bugs on a random forum and write an email a day to BMD with all the new bugs that occur in the fusion tab. OK, this seems like a really crazy solution, but I'll do that.


I feel like there's a terrible miscommunication happening here. I don't think Andrew's telling you to go away, I think he's inviting you to participate. The wesuckless forum is a Fusion "home away from home," so to speak, and existed before BlackMagic acquired Eyeon. He and Brian are very generous, very knowledgable, hard-working volunteers who are passionate about the community. I'm a nobody, but I've been along for the Resolve ride since version 9, and I'm also a strong advocate for its success.

My point is that if BMD listens to little guys like ME, and you've got heavyweights like Brian and Andrew willing to help, and if you can exercise a little patience when it comes to the idiosyncrasies of a rapidly-evolving software suite, then you're welcome to ride along, help out, contribute, ask questions, and make suggestions like we all do. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised that A) BMD listens, even if they don't respond and B) the community is very supportive.

As far as the SVG's go, it looks like since Derek's been in communication with the DEV team, they're working on it, and we'll see a patch as soon as they can.
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joymonger

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostTue Jul 14, 2020 3:53 pm

If anyone is wondering I clarified with BMD via email when I messaged them about the SVG thing. They asked for some followup info, this filename SVG import issue may only occur on windows because they couldn't reproduce on a mac.

They also said they're cool with bugs being posted in this forum which is handy.

Probably best to start new threads rather then yes-and something on a related issue.
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Travis Schmiesing

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostTue Jul 21, 2020 11:34 pm

Do you need a vector format?

If not I would just use a basic PNG with transparency and call it a day.
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Derek Howard

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Re: Converting SVGs for use in Fusion

PostThu Aug 06, 2020 11:26 pm

Do you need a vector format?

Short answer, yes. Longer answer: Vector allows me to work with all the paths drawn natively with Fusion and not having to link out to an external file. With my workflow, my team shares these project files back a forth a lot over the internet and the less we have to re-link the better. Not to mention it gives me far greater control of the graphic in Fusion.
If anyone is wondering I clarified with BMD via email when I messaged them about the SVG thing. They asked for some followup info, this filename SVG import issue may only occur on windows because they couldn't reproduce on a mac.

Last I checked with BM, they were still looking into the issue.

It's definitely occurring on Mac and PC, all my original examples were on a Mac.

However, it seems the issue is related to how Illustrator converts SVGs. I have had success by using Affinity Designer to convert them instead.

Unfortunately, even with the best SVGs Fusion still mixes up the node order some the masks aren't in the right place. Not a huge problem as you just need to re-arrange the nodes, but annoying.

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