Flash to AE?

[Greg Neumayer]

If I were doing it from Flash, I’d work at 30fps, and then try to use Flash 8’s new alpha abilities to export a quicktime with the alpha still intact. I haven’t actually done it, but Flash now supports import of qt with alpha, so hopefully they support export as well.

That said, if you have Illustrator or some other vector app, creating your artwork may be a lot easier in one of these apps. Flash is powerful, but their drawing tools aren’t really trying to compete with seasoned vector packages, so fortunately they’ve made import easy with the ability to send AI layers to Flash layers, etc.

-Greg Neumayer

Antifreeze Design
https://www.antifreezemotiongraphics.com

[Ktonkin]

I draw every frame in illustrator… then copy and paste each drawing into a new frame in Flash. I don’t really use flash for anything except putting the frames in order. Is this wrong? This is my first time attempting 2d animation and I’ve been trying to figure out how it’s done. I’d like to do it all in AE but every frame would have a different layer… right? I didn’t think that was the correct way to go about it.

Here’s the type of work I’m trying to create
https://www.interspectacular.com/MOVIES/CC_IDS/STUMPY.htm
https://www.interspectacular.com/MOVIES/CC_IDS/COW.htm
https://www.interspectacular.com/MOVIES/CC_IDS/ROBOGIRL.htm

If anyone could point me in the right direction… that’d be a HUGE help.
THANKS!

[Tadeo Cruz]

Why not importing your animation as an EPS (or illustrator) sequence directly in AE.
You may have to rename your files, but I think that would be the right way.
Good luck!

[Ktonkin]

Sounds good! but how do I tell illustrator when I want to draw the next frame in the sequence? Is this possible??
If it is, that’d be awesome. Thanks a lot for your help! sorry, I’m new to animation.

[Paapoopa]

I would actually put all my animation in a movie symbol and tint it to black, and render out as a seperate matt for aftereffects

[Tadeo Cruz]

A sequence is basically all the frames of your animation named in a serie: Draw001, Draw002, and so on… You could have saved your drawings as a sequence from Illustrator. And there are tools to rename your files.
Now you can test it exporting an AI sequence from Flash, and it will load (as EPS) in AE. Or you could export it in the PNG format, a raster format, as I sometimes do.
Bye.

[Brian Charles]

If the files were inititally created in Illustrator why not import them into After Effects as a sequence?

Place all sequentially numbered ai files in a folder and import as a sequence, After Effects will figure it out. Then you can place this in the timeline as a single file. If the frame rate needs adjustment you can either use interpret footage (from the file menu) or time remap.

[Ktonkin]

So I make one drawing in illustrator, and save it as 01 (EPS). Then I make another and save it as 02 (EPS) in the same folder. And so on…
Then I import the fist drawing into AE as an EPS sequence and all the rest will import as well?

This sounds good but then I will have a bunch of illustrator documents and when I’m drawing one frame, I won’t be able to see the previous frame because it will be in a different document. Or is there a way to make each layer in illustrator a seperate frame in the sequence?

It seems like using union skinning in Flash would be the best way… then exporting it as a png sequence for AE.

Sorry for all the questions. All comments are extremely helpful as I’m trying to get into 2D animation but I need help getting started.