COW Tutorials: After Effects Importing Paths from Illustrator and Photoshop

[Spritemaster]

Aharon, this is a hexagon, not an octagon 🙂

AA

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

I think it’s pretty clear that I drink a bit before I do those podcasts…

Sorry.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Tom Brooks]

You can also create text in Photoshop, then convert that to shape (Layer/Text/Convert to Shape). Using the Path Selection Tool (arrow), you can then draw a box around the shapes to select them, then select Edit/Copy. These shapes or paths can then be pasted into After Effects and used as masks or in the ways you describe in the tute. The nice thing about this is that you can modify the shapes of the letters or arrange them any way you want in Photoshop before they are copied and pasted into AE. The modified shapes can also be used to “Create Custom Shape” in Photoshop, giving you access to the whole arrangement any time you need it. It’s a fast way to make customized text shapes and combinations of text shapes that can be used as masks or paths in AE.

Final Cut Studio, FCP 5.0.4, Quicktime 7.0.4, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V1.1.6, 4.5 GB RAM, Nvidia 7800, G-RAID 1TB FW800.

[Brihanrohan]

I am trying to paste a path from illustrator into the “position” field of a solid layer in after effects. However, the path from Illustrator always gets pasted as a mask instead. Any ideas why this might be happening?

Extra info:
In Illustrator, using the pen tool, I traced an image of a scroll/calligraphy type pattern. I have changed the preferences of Illustrator to allow the “preserve path” as was mentioned in the video.

Thanks,

bri

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

In case you didn’t catch it in the tutorial – make sure you have the position property of the layer selected before pasting the path as a motion path. If you don’t have the word position highlighted, it won’t work, and you’ll get a mask instead.

If that isn’t working, add a position keyframe at the first frame, and then select the keyframe, and then hit paste.

If that still doesn’t work, I’d suggest shutting AE down, and if still not working, shut down your PC. I’ve seen this happen a few times on 6.5 and 6.

Finally, if this is still not working, try trashing your preferences. Sometimes, AE just gets it in its head that it should do something the wrong way…

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Brihanrohan]

Thanks for the advice. I tried all of your ideas but to no avail. How do I trash my preferences?

Thanks again,

bri

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

I can only tell you for a PC – I don’t know where it is on a mac:

AE 7:

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\7.0\

Delete the file called: Adobe After Effects 7.0 Prefs.txt – AE will create a new file the next time you start it.

AE 6.5

C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\Application Data\Adobe\After Effects\Prefs

Delete the file called: Adobe After Effects 6.5 Prefs.txt

USERNAME = your name (or whatever is used for your user profile/account in windows XP).

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Brihanrohan]

Ok,
I feel a bit of a fool, but I got it. The line I had drawn in Illustrator was actually a shape with no fill; hence it only being pasted as a shape/mask in AE.
I just drew a line with the pen tool and it pasted into AE with no problems, as a motion path.

This throws up a couple of questions relating to the use of Illustrator for me, but I guess I’d better head over to the Illustrator forums for those.

Thanks for the great tutorials and prompt replies to posts!

bri

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

That should not make a difference. A path is a path. AE doesn’t recognize fills, so it should have just come in the way yopu expected it to. That’s odd.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com