Importing Added PS Layers into AE (CS4)

[Ben Malouf]

Thanks, that is how I’ve done it before. Just wondering if there’s another way to do it that doesn’t involve adding a new file to the mix.

[Jeremy Allen]

I’ve had this same situation. It seems no matter how good your planning is, there is always something new that pops up. Dave’s post gave me this idea for the future: I guess you could include some blank layers in your photoshop file when you import it. If you needed to add something new, you could modify one of the existing blank layers.

Do you see any problem or potential “gotcha” with that Dave?

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8core MacPro, 3.0 GHZ, 10GB RAM, OSX 10.5.2

AE CS3

[Ben Malouf]

If you think that you might add layers to the Photoshop file in Photoshop after you have imported it into After Effects, go ahead and add a small number of placeholder layers before you import the file into After Effects. When you refresh the file in After Effects, it will not pick up any layers that have been added since the file was imported.

That’s straight from the CS4 help file here: https://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f53a.html

Instruction manual? What instruction manual?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Chris Noll]

This has been a huge problem lately for me. Even using blank layers does not allow for layer styles. We use these a lot, so making it a smart object really won’t work as I animate the styles. I have just been re-importing the new .psd, and then moving the new layers to the old .psd folder and deleting the new .psd comp and layers…it’s not elegant, but it works….