Importing paths into after effects

#1

hi,

I have searched the forum for an answer to this but have yet to find one so I was wondering if there is anyone that can help me.

I am trying to take a shape from Illustrator CS4 and bring it into After Effects CS4 whilst keeping my paths intact. Basically i want to be able the animate the path points in after effects.

Any help that you guys could provide would be great.

Thanks,

Chris M

#2

Tried Copy&Paste already?

#3

I tried copy and paste but it never worked :frowning: Any other suggestions?

#4

In AI preferences >file handling> try checking the boxes for copying to clipboard pdf and AICB preserve paths.
Select your path, copy, then in AE try selecting a layer first maybe create a mask and then paste.

#5

Perhaps give the “autotrace” command a try after importing into AE. (It’s near the bottom of the “layer” menu…)

This will (re)generate the paths for you if you can’t get them to transfer over directly.
For complex paths, you may need to do some tweeking but it works quite well for me most of the time!

:slight_smile:

#6

have you selected the path property in either a shape layer or a masked layer? you need to have that first before you past the path data into ae.

Dan

#7

It works without any ambiguity. A typical workflow: Open AE, Open AI, Create comp in AE, Create doc in AI, Create Solid in AE, Create Path in AI, Copy Path in AI, switch to AE, select solid in AE, Paste and done.

#8

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