Design and print in Atelier: vectors, artboards and PDF/X-4

Atelier is the design side of cinemaOS, and it now covers the whole job from a vector logo to a printed poster to a moving title. The Layout room draws real vectors with a pen kit, Pathfinder, symbols and artboards. Print documents carry bleed, margins and spot colours and export as PDF/X-4. And Video Composition adds a real 3D camera, lights and shadows for motion design. It all lives in the same project as your film, so the poster, the trailer titles and the social cut-downs use the same frames and the same brand.

Drawing vectors in the Layout room

The Layout room's tools work on true vector paths, so what you see on the canvas is exactly what every export draws, at any size.

• The Pen group. Draw paths with the pen or in curvature mode, then add, delete or convert anchor points on the selected shape. A double-click in curvature mode turns the last point into a corner.
• Pathfinder. Combine, subtract and intersect shapes to build logos and icons from simple parts.
• Outline Stroke and Join. Turn a stroke into a filled shape, and join open paths that meet at the same point.
• Create Outlines. Turn text into shapes when a headline must never reflow or depend on a font.
• Image Trace. Trace a picture into vector shapes, placed above it in one undo step.
• Blend and Envelope. Build steps between two shapes, or bend artwork into a shape.
• Symbols. Reuse one piece of artwork many times and update every copy at once.
• The transform box. Skew, rotate, scale and move by real distances on the page.

Every command is one undo step, and the Properties panel shows the settings that fit what you selected.

Artboards and pages

A Layout document can hold several artboards. Move and resize them directly on the canvas: one gesture sets both position and size, and the items on the board stay where they are. Each page can have its own sheet size and orientation, so a poster, a flyer and a square social post can live in one document.

Print that holds up at the printer

Atelier now prepares files the way a print shop expects:

• Start from the right document. Create a print document with its size, margins and bleed, or ask J.A.R.E.D.: "Start a new A4 print document with 12 mm margins and 3 mm bleed".
• Spot colours. Turn a colour into a named spot colour, or convert all spot colours to CMYK process when the printer asks for it.
• Preflight. Missing fonts are listed before export and can be swapped with Replace Fonts. Print effects that need attention are flagged.
• PDF/X-4. Export a print-ready PDF/X-4 file, with separations, at the sheet size of every page.

If you are new to print, ask the printer for their bleed and colour settings before you start, and set them in the document first. It is much easier than fixing them at the end.

Motion design with a real 3D camera

Video Composition is where Atelier designs move. This release adds:

• A real 3D camera. Dolly in and out, orbit and tilt around a point of interest, all keyframable. Layers sort by distance from the camera, so depth looks right as you move.
• Lights. Add ambient and point lights to a composition. A point light shades 3D layers by the angle they face it, and can cast soft shadows behind each layer, away from the light. Flat 2D layers ignore lights, as they do in After Effects.
• Puppet pins. Add pins to a layer in the inspector and keyframe them to bend artwork naturally.
• Composition markers and audio. Mark beats in a composition, and hear and export its sound.

When a design is ready, send it to the timeline as a live composition, so a late change to a title updates the film. For animation you already have, open Lottie and After Effects files in cinemaOS.

Brand kits keep it consistent

A brand kit holds your fonts, colours and assets. Apply it to a project, check a document against it, and let cinemaOS fix what is off-brand. You can even make a starting brand from an image or a file, and export the brand for your team.

A poster from your own frames

The most useful thing about having design inside the editor is that your best frame is already there. Grab a still from the cut, build the key art in Layout, add the credits block and export the print file and the social sizes from the same document. Film poster key art from your frames walks through the design side.

FAQ

Can Atelier replace a dedicated vector app?

For film posters, titles, logos, social graphics and print pieces, Atelier now has the core vector tools and print export. If your job is complex packaging or a long book layout, keep the specialist tool for that job.

What is PDF/X-4 and why does it matter?

PDF/X-4 is the print standard most printers ask for. It keeps transparency and colour information intact so the printed piece matches the screen as closely as the press allows.

Do the 3D camera and lights slow down playback?

A composition without lights renders exactly as before. Lights and shadows add work only when you use them.

Design your next poster in cinemaOS

Try a poster or a title sequence on a real project. cinemaOS has a 14-day free trial with no card required.