Copy path and fill information from illustrator to after effects?

[Kevin Camp]

in illustrator try moving your paths to separate layers in illustrator. an easy way to do that is to select all the paths, then click on the menu button in the upper-right corner of layers palette and choose ‘release to layers (sequence)’.

then save that of as an ai file (you’ll want ‘pdf compatibility’ checked in the window that follows the first ‘save as’ window).

import that into ae as a comp, and the rectangles should be on there own layers.

however, they will not be editable paths but can have ‘continuously rasterize’ enabled, and the fill/stroke properties should be maintained.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Walter Soyka]

[Kevin Camp] “however, they will not be editable paths but can have ‘continuously rasterize’ enabled, and the fill/stroke properties should be maintained.”

You can also convert vector art to shapes [link] with Ae CS6 and CC, subject to some limitations outlined in the linked doc.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Kevin Camp]

[Walter Soyka] “You can also convert vector art to shapes [link] with Ae CS6 and CC, subject to some limitations outlined in the linked doc.”

yet, another reason my stations’ management need to let us upgrade…

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Walter Soyka]

I won’t debate CC subscription in this forum, but if it’s a concern, Adobe is still selling and supporting CS6 with perpetual licenses.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Kevin Camp]

yep… the ownership group that owns the stations i work for has been talking about upgrading all it’s stations (i’ve lost count of how many, but it’s over 20 now) to the same version so we can exchange files for years (at least since cs5.5 was current).

i usually point out to our IT guy or chief engineer (whichever mentions it) that we will also need to upgrade our os’s before we can even install something new and we will need to upgrade our third party plugins to have the same functionality… and then i never hear anymore about it.

i guess the osx update is free now, and i think our effects machines would be fine with mavericks (though i’d need to do a full software check), but there may be issues with mavericks and fcp 7, which our promo producers are clinging to for dear life…. and even if they were ok with a switch to fcp x, there would be one more thing to have to upgrade… and they have third-party fcp plugins too.

however, i do get a little tired of having to rebuild network packages in CS4…. however that is job security, and i can rebuild their projects to be significantly easier to update.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Michael Garske]

I see I need to do this for each individual group to get it to work. Thanks for the tip Kevin!

The only other question I have is if there is anyway to retain the opacity of each layer in after effects?

Thanks for your help. Illustrator is totally foreign to me.

[Kevin Camp]

the original opacity for a shape in illustrator should be maintained after importing into after effects, however after effects will say the opacity is 100%…

ex: a path in ai has an opacity of 50%. when imported into ae as a comp, ae says the layer is 100%, however if you placed a layer under that ai layer, you’d see that the layer is in fact transparent.

ps, sorry for hijacking your original post.

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Stephen Pusser]

I know this is an old questions, but in case anyone else is looking for the fix:

I traced a photo in AI to make paths to animate in AE

Copy and paste your path in AE
Ctrl click the layer, select effects/generate/fill (or however you choose to apply effects)
In the effects properties select “All Masks”, or select ON depending on your workflow

This will fill your path.