Video Production Vector Graphics

Vector Graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon(s), which are all based upon mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics.

Vector graphics formats are complementary to raster graphics, which is the representation of images as an array of pixels, as it is typically used for the representation of photographic images. There are instances within video production when working with vector tools and formats is best practice, and instances when working with raster tools and formats is best practice. There are times when both formats come together in the field of video production. An understanding of the advantages and limitations of each technology and the relationship between them is most likely to result in efficient and effective use of tools

Computer displays are made up from small dots called pixels. The picture is built up from these dots. The smaller and closer the dots are together, the better the quality of the image but the bigger the file needed to store the data. If the image is magnified it becomes grainy as the resolution of the eye enables it to pick out individual pixels. Vector graphics files store the lines, shapes and colours that make up an image as mathematical formulae. A vector graphics program uses the mathematical formulae to construct the screen image by building the best quality image possible, given the screen resolution, from the mathematical data. The mathematical formulae determine where the dots that make up the image should be placed for the best results when displaying the image. Since these formulae can produce an image scalable to any size and detail the quality of the image is only determined by the resolution of the display and the file size of vector data generating the image stays the same. Printing the image to paper will usually give a sharper, higher resolution output than printing it to the screen but can use exactly the same vector data file.

A vector-graphics drawing software is used for creating and editing vector graphics. The image can be changed by editing screen objects which are then saved as modifications to the mathematical formulae. Mathematical operators in the software can be used to stretch, twist, and colour component object in the picture or the whole picture and these tools are presented to the user intuitively through the graphical user interface of the computer. It is possible to save the screen image produced as a bitmap/raster file or generate a bitmap of any resolution from the vector file for use on any device.

The size of the file generated will depend on the resolution required but the size of the vector file generating the bitmap/raster file will always remain the same. Thus it is easy to convert from a vector file to a range of bitmap/raster file formats but it is very much more difficult to go in the opposite direction, especially if subsequent editing of the vector picture is required. It might be an advantage to save an image created from a vector source file as a bitmap/raster format because different systems have different and incompatible vector formats and some might not support vector graphics at all. However, once the file is converted from the vector format it is likely to be bigger and it loses the advantages of scalability without losing resolution. Editing will also lose the convenience of being able to work on individual parts of the picture as discrete objects. Vector formats are not always appropriate in graphics work. For example, digital devices such as cameras and scanners produce raster graphics that are impractical to convert into vectors and so for this type of work the editor will operate on the pixels rather than drawing objects defined by mathematical formulae. Comprehensive graphics tools will combine images from vector and raster sources and might provide editing tools for both since some parts of the overall work could be sourced from a camera and others drawn using vector tools in the software.