Animation demands tremendous attention to detail. If it is overlooked, the overall process could go horribly wrong or cease to function. Dealing with layers may not always be easy. That’s why structuring the.ai file is crucial before using it in After Effects. Why are importing layers preferable to importing the file directly? Because After Effect will not really read groups or sub-layers from the.ai file. If you really want to animate a specific area of a vector, it must be on a separate layer.
In this blog, you will know how to set up and import an Adobe Illustrator file into Adobe After Effects. Let’s get started.
Preparing Illustrator File for After Effects: Creating an.ai files for After Effects means creating different layers in Adobe Illustrator. Although some of you may have already used layers to organize your work, there are more benefits to using objects in After Effects.
Text and image segregation into multiple layers is not sufficient. Based on the element you want to animate, you may even have to segregate the path or each letter into its own layer. I’ll use an analogy for you. Given the fact that I copied and pasted this logo into a new project, every element is on the same layer.
Now let’s learn how to set up this vector for modification in After Effects.
- Step 1: Select the vector, right-click and select Ungroup.
- Step 2: From the overhead menu, open the Layers panel, Window > Layers.
- Step 3: Click the folded menu and select Release to Layers. After this action, you’ll see the different sub-layers (Layer 2 to 7) of Layer 1 including shape, path, and text. There are several parts of Layer 1.
- Step 4: Press and hold the Shift key, choose Layer 2 to Layer 7, and drag them out of the Layer 1 group. As you can see, each component is now in its own layer and no longer a part of Layer 1, which is now vacant. You can give names to the layers to help you organize and locate the objects when working on them in After Effect.
- Step 5: Lastly, click on File > Save As and save the file as .ai (Name it as required). Now your files are ready to be imported into After Effect.
Import Illustrator Layers into After Effects: The complex tasks are done. All that has to be done now is to open the Illustrator layers in After Effects.
- Step 1: Open After Effects and then choose a project, either already created or completely new.
- Step 2: Select File > Import > File or press Command + I on a computer’s keyboard (Ctrl + I on Windows).
- Step 3: Find the ai file. Change the Import As type to Composition – Retain Layer Sizes before importing. After clicking the Open button, After Effects should display all the layers as separate files.
Final Thoughts: That’s all there to it. Importing layers is a simple and easy process. If you want to learn more about After Effects or Illustrator, you can always go to YouTube and watch tutorial videos. On YouTube, there are thousands of videos on After Effects. For YouTube hand-holding training, use Career Ninja’s LearnTube. Learn Tube creates a course framework from the results of your YouTube search. If you search for “After Effects or Illustrator tutorial” on YouTube, LearnTube will show you a series of videos that look like an online course. As a beginner, you’ll go through the videos from beginning to end, as if you were taking a YouTube course customized particularly for you.
