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reloading photoshop files in AE issue
Hello creactivecow!
We’re hoping in our little studio that you can help us with reloading a PSD file in AFTER EFFECTS.
The reload feature seems to be straightforward, but we’re experiencing very unlikely results such as missing aplha channels, opacity, wrong layers and comps.
This is our workflow:
We have a AE project using a Photoshop file “art_01.psd” (for example)
Our plan was to create a new file “art_02.psd” and keep everything the same: dpi size, resolution, bit depth, group (folder), layer order, and layer names… then re-name “art_02.psd” as “art_01.psd”. which theoretically should just reload just fine in AE, since everything, all the naming conventions, all the folders and layers are all in the right place. Unfortunately, it does not!
we’re getting layers in wrong comps, missing alpha channels and invisible layers.
the 2 things that seem to work are:
1. manipulating layers in original psd file
2. replacing individual layersboth are time consuming and not too fun!
Any suggestions?
Thanks so much!
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4 Replies
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I do what your describing all the time. I think the easiest way to answer the question is to describe the process step-by-step and maybe there will be some detail in the description that will help …
- duplicate art_01.psd on the hard drive & rename it art_02.psd
- put art_01.psd in a ZIP file so AE can’t find it
- open art_02.psd and make changes to existing layers
- create new layers identified with “_N” when changes are drastic
- open AE project & replace first altered layer in project window (keeping an eye on the layer description in the project window to be sure I chose correctly either “layer size” or “doc size”) … AE should find others automatically and everything should be in the right place in your comps
- import “_N” layers and place accordingly
- render and go to lunch (optional ;~)
On occasion, I’ve had some of the issues you described to a minor degree using this process, but I’ve found them to be my error in that I changed a layer in a way that confused AE (i.e., changes to alpha channel), but that was often fixable by reinterpreting the layer in AE. On occasion, I’ve also had to replace each layer one by one, but it was still far better than completely recreating all of my animations.
I hope this helps.
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hey david!
thanks for replying! i think that works for you, and for me! because you duplicate the original file… im fairly sure that if you create a brand new photoshop file with exact same specs, down to same layer name and order, it probably wont work…
thanks again!
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Hey Rusty,
I’ve actually never tried it by creating an entirely new PSD from scratch since, for me, the whole idea has always been that there were enough similarities between the PS artwork and/or AE animations that I could avoid starting each one from scratch.
My guess is that, even though everything we see in PS may be identical, there are things that we don’t normally see within the file (metadata, etc.) that tell PS & AE that this is a completely different file and, when we try to force the software to believe otherwise, it simply knows better and AE gets confused and ends up doing unpredictable things with the contents of the file.
That’s the only thing I can think of, but I am curious to know why it doesn’t work since, in theory, it does seem that it would. Perhaps one of the Adobe folks that frequent the COW will see your post and explain.
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I agree that the relationship between psd and ae projects is no longer reliable, layer order mistakes should be unheard of.
Until recently I had been clonking along with PS 7 on Tiger; things were fine (although not officially supported) when I stumped up for the CS3 production pack – including the latest ps, it was a great surprise to find things suddenly going awry.
Can anyone comment if CS4 is better?
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