Ai To After Effects



Cover image via

Ai To After Effects

Use your Adobe Illustrator files to create stunning motion graphics for your next project in After Effects.

Cover image via Shutterstock.

Adobesoftware applications work quite well together; you just need to know the ins and out of each program. In this tutorial, we’re going to take a look at how to work with Illustratorfiles in Adobe After Effects. Specifically, we’ll look at how to bring AI layers into AE and prepare them for animation. I’m going to show you how to prepyour file in Illustrator, and I’ll also teach you all of the ways to importyour file in After Effects. Finally, I will go over a few methods of manipulatingthe AI file further once it’s in After Effects.

Let’s get started!

The Project

If you’re looking to animate an image or vector, Illustrator will allow you to break that image up into individual parts so that once you open up After Effects, you’re able to move them around, add expressions, or do whatever you want to those individual objects. - we talk about how to take files from illustrator to after effects. We cover some of the neuances, pitfa. Among other things, After Effects can be used for keying, tracking, compositing and animation. For this workshop series, we work with Motion graphics. Illustrator to After Effects is a 3 session workshop series that introduces attendees to simple illustrate-animate workflow: from Illustrator – vector graphic – to After Effects – motion.

I’m working on a motion graphics project that consists of animatinga map of the United States. My client has provided me with a layered EPSvector graphic file of the United States that they want me to use in the animation. They’ve asked me to take this map and create a variety of animations, including an animation for each individual state. Let’s take a look at the file and see how I can work with this file in Adobe After Effects.

Prep the Illustrator File

First, I will save my EPS file as an .ai or Adobe Illustrator file since After Effects provides more support for this file format. To ensure that Illustrator files appear correctly in After Effects, I’ll select Create PDF Compatible File in the Illustrator Optionsdialog box. Another issue I have with this file is the fact that everything is located in one layer. Since AE only displays AI layers, I need to put all of the individual states in their own layer. To do this, I’ll select all of the states in layer 1 and select Release to Layers. Now my AI file is prepped for import.

Import into After Effects

I have several options when bringing an AI file into After Effects. When I importan Illustrator file, I get the import dialogue box, which provides me with two options: Footage and Composition. If I import my file as Footage, I can choose to mergeall of the layers into one, or I can import a specific layer on its own. I can further specify if I want the layers to retain their size or scale up to be the size of the document. If I choose Composition, a new composition will appear in my AE project that will include all of the imported layers from the file.

Create Shapes from Layers

Once I have my Illustrator files in After Effects, I can make further adjustments. To provide myself with more versatility when animating, I can turn all of my Illustrator layers intoshapes. To do this, I’ll select my layers in the comp I imported and go to Layer > Create Shapes From Layers. Using shape layers opens up a number possibilities, including quickly changing the fill and stroke options, adding a gradient, changing the path, adding a wiggle effect, and a handful of other features.

Looking for more tips and tricks? Check out these resources.

Today’s post is about how to convert Adobe Illustrator files to shapes in After Effects.

Note: remember to watch the video tutorial Jeff, our Adobe certified instructor has prepared for you.

Import ai to after effects layers

Another way to make a shape is to use an Illustrator file.

Here’s an Illustrator file – the fish file.

Filme ken park dublado torrent. Drag it down here to the comp

It is a little bit large.

Let me go get the Selection Tool here and move it around a little bit since it’s still large. There we go.
Now let’s scale it down for a bit.

S for scale.

So, this is now an Illustrator file – the things you can manipulate typically are just the Transform properties.

You know, Position, Scale, Rotation.

And you can apply effects to it just like another layer it would work, just like any other asset in a comp.
But I want to convert this to a shape.

So right-click on it.

And there’s a thing called Create Shapes From Vector Layers

An Illustrator file is a Vector File. When you make it smaller or larger, it retains its quality because it’s defined by vectors.

Convert it now to a shape.

Well, some lines there are just the various paths. I can click that off, by clicking Toggle Mask and Shape Path Visibility off.

Here’s the video tutorial:

See how it works. It looks exactly the same. It took the original Illustrator file and turned it off. And now this thing is a shape. If you open it up, it has a lot of groups.

Each one of these groups is one of those paths in the Illustrator file which is a little much, right?

Probably it wouldn’t work on a lot of them.

For example, I know that 18 here is the body. Let’s open that up. I can work with Transform. I can Skew it, for example.

Or I can go, let’s say, to the eyes which are Groups 1, 2 and 3. I could manipulate them all. I could have them all to get larger suddenly or smaller.

So you can manipulate them now individually like that which you couldn’t do if this were just an Illustrator file sitting inside After Effects.

But, the thing that’s kind of cool about this is that you can work on these attributes.


So one of them is Repeater. It allows you to repeat things and have them go off to the distance that you can only do with shapes.

So, the Illustrator- this Illustrator file. Timeleft deluxe crack full. I can take any shape I want and do the same thing to it that I’m going to do to this guy. But I just want you to see how this works for this particular one.

So this is the one that I converted to an Illustrator file to a shape file or shape layer.

So if you click on this, go to Contents.

All these various Groups and things. But at the bottom here is something called Repeater.

I’m going to delete that now.

And I’ll add that in the second.

After Effects Academy Member Extra

Access your ‘Fun with shapes’ Course in the After Effects Academy.

Jeff Sengstack will show you how
to create and customize shapes from Adobe Illustrator files.

Well, the way you can add an attribute to a shape layer is by going to add, and these are some attributes you can add.

You can add another Fill if you want to.

You can add another shape. But what’s interesting is that these guys down here.

We did the Merge Paths already. And we’re going to talk about these things here.

Ai To After Effects

If I add, let’s say Repeater. And look at Repeater. Repeater has copies. Right now there are three. Let’s see them.

But has these other two, it has Transform. It allows you to, say, what will this thing eventually get to as you repeat it.

Import Illustrator Layers After Effects

I can say- I don’t want to be the same size. I want it to be smaller and I want it to change the Anchor Point turns upward shows up off to the distance like that. And I want to have more than just 3. Okay, let’s see this.


Let me pull them closer together. More copies.

And I can change how they wrap over time. I can rotate them as objects. As they peel away.

I can change what the first one is by changing the Offset. So if I change the Offset.

If I change the Offset it means that I can have things start at the middle instead of the right as the first thing. Change the Offset.

So I can animate all these things- I can animate Repeater which is really cool. That’s one cool thing. Let me delete that.

Effects

Another cool thing to add is called Pucker & Bloat. There it is. After that, it starts doing weird things to your poor fish. How much you Pucker & Bloat it. It’s doing just that bottom layer.

If I make a group- I’ll delete that. I can take all the groups and put them together and I can add- and I think this would do it. I’m not sure if it’s necessary but we’ll find out.

Add Group. Click on all these guys Shift first and last. Drag them all into these Group 38.

The Group 38 I’m going to click on that. Plus the enter key and call it “All Paths.”

And now that one active- I’m not sure if this will work.
We’ll try this out.

All Paths, go to Add. Pucker & Bloat.

And that does it for the whole thing rather than just the one guy there.

They still look similar. Okay, I guess I didn’t do the group. That was just an experiment there.

Click that and let’s see. Go back to Add and you can do Twist.

Ai Upscaling After Effects

Which might figure out what that’s all about. And sort of like Skew but a little more involved.

Here we go.

Import Ai To After Effects Layers

And I’ll give it a Twist.

Ai To After Effects Path

And you can see how all of these guys – You can animate all of these features as well.
And there are a couple of other things here, Wiggle, Zigzag. I tried thinking this Zigzag- Wiggle causes things to, kind of, change over time. But you can try these guys out.

How To Import Ai To After Effects

These are the cool things you can add to shapes to make them look interesting.