Paste Illustrator path as path (not mask)?

[Todd Kopriva]

To paste a path as a shape path, you must select the Path property of an existing shape in a shape layer. This selection tells After Effects what the target of the paste operation is; if the target isn’t specified in this way, After Effects assumes that the target is the entire layer and therefore draws a new mask. If there is no Path property—perhaps because the shape layer is empty—then you can draw a placeholder path with the Pen tool and then paste the path from Illustrator into the placeholder path.

See “Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks” for more information.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
putting the ‘T’ back in ‘RTFM’ : After Effects Help on the Web
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[Nick Wedeking]

There are also scripts available online that will convert the mask into a path. The one I have used is available at:

https://www.redefinery.com/ae/view.php?item=rd_MasksToShapes

I use this script frequently, though I’m only on CS3, and have never had any problems with it. Should suit your needs well.

[Kat Mcmahon]

I’ve done these steps. Exactly. Multiple times. Every time I still get masks. Using AE CS4. (sigh)

[Praneet Tulshyan]

for some reason, you can copy only a single path directly into path node. For instance, if you have many letters written in an AI file, if you copy them all together and paste, they will come as masks, but if you use the directly selection tool and select only one path, copy and paste that into Path node of AE layer, it will paste as a path and no masks will come. It would be a tedious task as you will have to rearrange and align your file/logo/text whatever that is.

Alternate is, which you can use, to copy and paste all together as masks, and just add a stroke from the ‘add’ menu and then add a fill.