Feature Request: Importing SVG files without losing opacity data

Hello, this is Paulo from Italy

I've been using Blender to make things like these: stylized vector illustrations made with Inkscape or Illustrator, imported as layered transparent pngs into Blender. The effect is easier to understand if you watch the youtube video.

youtube.com/watch

I'm using transparent PNGs because SVGs shapes imported into Blender lose their opacity data.

Imported SVGs come with color information all right, but it would be great if one could import SVGs into Blender without losing the opacity data of the individual shapes. I imagine for each individual shape an emission shader with the color information plugged into a mix shader node along with a transparent shader, with the transparency data used as fac.

Why the solution I'm presently using (imported rasterized image planes with alpha) isn't ideal?

Many reasons, especially performance. A vector illustration may consist easily of more than a thousand individual shapes. Blender can handle these numbers easily if imported as curves, but it will crash suddenly if I try to render that many imported rasterized planes. To circumvent that limitation I've been cramming many individual vector paths into a single rasterized layer, but the result is truncated (see the video).

Please compare that video to the richness of depth present in the following one, in which several hundreds imported paths with variable y positions form a great composition: instagram.com/p/CJGrkBEIlYU/

The problem with this last video is that the paths in the original svg had rich variable opacity, which where lost when imported into Blender.

Where the enhanced import svg plugin could find the opacity data for the individual paths?

The plugin already does a great work of attributing the right color to each imported path, rendering it in Blender as a colored curve. In the svg file the opacity information for each object is also readily available as a factor between 0 and 1. This data could directly inform the factor of transparency in a mix shader node.

Thank you for considering this! Blender has already given me many hours of wonder and fun, and I blame you guys.