Really helpful demonstration, I've watched the full series, and these days I'm planning to write my 1st manuscript for Nature..to understand the terms and tricks your videos are really helpful, but I'm wondering you have only 7 videos..please Prof. do you have any other channel? If convenient, please upload more videos like this....looking forward to more from you...Thank you for your nice work.
Dear Christopher, Massive thanks for this series of tutorials. It provides me with new ideas for visualising the scientific data. Regarding the current video of the series, I experienced a problem after placing a .eps file and embedding it. For some reason, the AI does not recognise the text and fonts. Instead, it shows the fonts as objects. Thus, I could not unify the fonts of the whole figure. I used Origin to create a .eps file. Do you have an idea what it has to do with?
Hi Andrei, thanks! Yes, this is very annoying and happens with certain exporters: A program (Origin, Matplotlib, etc) may sometimes export the text as an image. There is no fix I know of except to literally create *new* text for those objects. One thing to try is to export in another vector format like *.svg. There may be a back-end fix since what is happening is that the .eps is not embedding the font. Will post here if I find a solution!
@@GutierrezArtSci Hello Chrisotpher, It seems to work when I "copy the graph as a picture in Origin" and paste it into AI. Is it possible to control axes parameters like thickness and line style that one may apply to the whole figure? Best Regards, Andrey.
Great catch! -- already planning on a separate video about this. You can use Rasterize in Effects panel. It rasterizes your vector object but as an effect, so it is still editable. However, it *appears* like a rasterized image. This is very tricky to use w/ transparent objects, though.
Hi! Thank you for all the work of doing these tutorials, they come very usefully! Just one question, do you have any particular way to export each artwork created into the single images needed for your manuscript? Following the example of this video, once you are done with the figure 1, do you copy-paste it into a new artwork with the sizes required by the journal and then export it, or something like that? Thanks again!
No copying & pasting! I make the artwork INSIDE the bounding boxes determined by the journal. You can delete the boxes when you're done -- it's there for scaffolding so that you can compose your figure to minimize white space. For initial submission, in order to keep the file size small, I'd submit a high-resolution .png file for each figure. (Export...png.) For final submission (paper accepted), I'll get rid of any "scratch" or duplicate layers or artboards I used for prototyping different versions, and submit the *.ai Illustrator file to the journal.
@@GutierrezArtSci these are really interesting tutorials, thank you! As a follow up to the previous question - isn't there an issue with image sizing when doing it this way? If I just delete the boxes and instructions then my figure is floating in a random location on the page. Or do you also resize prior to submission? I'm asking for initial and final submission.
@@akaLYFE No resizing needed! For final submission, I will send the journal the Illustrator *.ai files including the boundary box (and instructions) in their own layers. Every document is in inches or mm (depending on the journal), and so what's important is the aspect ratio of the composed figure, resolution of any restered images, and the correct sizes of the fonts.
Super usefull series! I have one question though: if you make one figure in a single column, and one in the double column, how to export both so that their captions are of equal size?
I use templates so that the figure has a definite size that does not change when exported. In the template I have saved the actual font size that the journal uses, so that the captions do not change size. However, in my experience the journal will use your proposed caption geometry as a *suggestion*, but they will move it around or rearrange your caption to best suit their stringent page layout needs.
It depends a lot on the program used to create & export the figure. (1) The figure should be vectorized and [most important] (2) it should embed the fonts! For example, vector figures prepared with Matlab allow to change fonts post-export. If you're using Python/Matplotlib you can use settings to embed the fonts in the figure.
Really helpful demonstration, I've watched the full series, and these days I'm planning to write my 1st manuscript for Nature..to understand the terms and tricks your videos are really helpful, but I'm wondering you have only 7 videos..please Prof. do you have any other channel? If convenient, please upload more videos like this....looking forward to more from you...Thank you for your nice work.
This is extremely helpful! Looking forward to your tutorial on Blender.
Hi Prof. Christopher, I have seen all the videos, you have very nicely demonstrated the functions of Ai. Thanks
Could you share links to your templates?
Chris, you are amazing :) Thank you very much :)
Thank you Christopher! Very helpful!
Dear Christopher,
Massive thanks for this series of tutorials. It provides me with new ideas for visualising the scientific data.
Regarding the current video of the series, I experienced a problem after placing a .eps file and embedding it. For some reason, the AI does not recognise the text and fonts. Instead, it shows the fonts as objects. Thus, I could not unify the fonts of the whole figure. I used Origin to create a .eps file. Do you have an idea what it has to do with?
Hi Andrei, thanks! Yes, this is very annoying and happens with certain exporters: A program (Origin, Matplotlib, etc) may sometimes export the text as an image. There is no fix I know of except to literally create *new* text for those objects. One thing to try is to export in another vector format like *.svg. There may be a back-end fix since what is happening is that the .eps is not embedding the font. Will post here if I find a solution!
@@GutierrezArtSci Hello Chrisotpher,
It seems to work when I "copy the graph as a picture in Origin" and paste it into AI.
Is it possible to control axes parameters like thickness and line style that one may apply to the whole figure?
Best Regards,
Andrey.
Thank you so much Christopher for your awesome series, I am definitely looking forward to seeing your tips and tricks videos.
Very cool. Thanks for all of these. I agree that getting the templates would be great.
Thanks very much! This course is amazing! I'm very anxious for your tutorial on blender! The figures in my thesis and articles will be more beautiful!
That's the best thing to hear! Best of luck writing your thesis. I hope to have more time for Blender in the summer.
Very useful tutorial series. Thanks! Eagerly waiting for your tutorial on Blender.
Very useful - thank you for sharing these videos!
Thank you for the tutorial. This was exactly what I was looking for :)
Nice tutorial! Thank you for your work!
Very useful. Thanks!
good work. Thank you!
Awesome video! Is there a way to take care of the thin white lines that arise in between layers from the 3D extrusion?
Great catch! -- already planning on a separate video about this. You can use Rasterize in Effects panel. It rasterizes your vector object but as an effect, so it is still editable. However, it *appears* like a rasterized image. This is very tricky to use w/ transparent objects, though.
Aah great, very much appreciated! Will wait with great anticipation for the future videos too :)
This is wonderful! If you ever get around to the Blender tutorials, I know we'd all be much obliged!
You may be interested in the Blender tutorials over at CG Figures and Ryo Mizuta graphics!
very helpful
Hi! Can you please tell me, how to put a 3D design on the top of another 3D block on illustrator?
Hi! Thank you for all the work of doing these tutorials, they come very usefully! Just one question, do you have any particular way to export each artwork created into the single images needed for your manuscript? Following the example of this video, once you are done with the figure 1, do you copy-paste it into a new artwork with the sizes required by the journal and then export it, or something like that? Thanks again!
No copying & pasting! I make the artwork INSIDE the bounding boxes determined by the journal. You can delete the boxes when you're done -- it's there for scaffolding so that you can compose your figure to minimize white space. For initial submission, in order to keep the file size small, I'd submit a high-resolution .png file for each figure. (Export...png.) For final submission (paper accepted), I'll get rid of any "scratch" or duplicate layers or artboards I used for prototyping different versions, and submit the *.ai Illustrator file to the journal.
@@GutierrezArtSci great, thank you very much for your answer! I'm looking forward for more of your tutorials! Thanks again!
@@GutierrezArtSci these are really interesting tutorials, thank you! As a follow up to the previous question - isn't there an issue with image sizing when doing it this way? If I just delete the boxes and instructions then my figure is floating in a random location on the page. Or do you also resize prior to submission? I'm asking for initial and final submission.
@@akaLYFE No resizing needed! For final submission, I will send the journal the Illustrator *.ai files including the boundary box (and instructions) in their own layers. Every document is in inches or mm (depending on the journal), and so what's important is the aspect ratio of the composed figure, resolution of any restered images, and the correct sizes of the fonts.
Love this series. Could you share this template?
Super usefull series! I have one question though: if you make one figure in a single column, and one in the double column, how to export both so that their captions are of equal size?
I use templates so that the figure has a definite size that does not change when exported. In the template I have saved the actual font size that the journal uses, so that the captions do not change size. However, in my experience the journal will use your proposed caption geometry as a *suggestion*, but they will move it around or rearrange your caption to best suit their stringent page layout needs.
we are waiting for next episode
When I embed a graphic plot and double click on the fonts, I cannot change the font size as you could. Using Illustrator 27.4 on a MacBook Pro 2023
It depends a lot on the program used to create & export the figure. (1) The figure should be vectorized and [most important] (2) it should embed the fonts! For example, vector figures prepared with Matlab allow to change fonts post-export. If you're using Python/Matplotlib you can use settings to embed the fonts in the figure.