How to Import Illustrator Layers into After Effects for Animation
Go from Illustrator to After Effects. Here are two ways to quickly prepare your Illustrator files and import them into After Effects for animation.
Shape layers in After Effects are your secret weapon for dynamic compositions, though they might seem a bit elusive if you’re new to the game.
Good news for Illustrator pros: importing your work into After Effects is getting smoother with each update. Of course, there’s still a bit of prep work required in Illustrator to get your files ready for After Effects.
Let’s dive into the nitty-gritty of getting your designs animation-ready!
Why Learn How to Import Illustrator Layers into After Effects?
Importing Illustrator files into After Effects—rather than crafting shapes directly inside After Effects—can be a real game-changer.
Illustrator’s robust toolkit allows for more sophisticated design capabilities and finer control over vector graphics. This means you can create complex, detailed components with ease and precision.
When these are imported into After Effects, you maintain the quality and versatility of the vector shapes, making it easier to animate and adjust them in your compositions. It’s about leveraging the best of both worlds for a more efficient and refined animation workflow.
If you’re unfamiliar with Adobe Illustrator, we’ve created an in-depth beginner’s guide that covers getting started and what to look for when working in Illustrator.
- The Total Beginners Guide to Vector Illustration Pt 1
- The Total Beginners Guide to Vector Illustration Pt 2
Learn How to Import Illustrator Layers into After Effects
When you review the steps outlined below, you’ll understand the specific method required. You might ask why this is necessary. After all, Illustrator files can be imported directly into After Effects, right? Yes, indeed, that is correct.
But typically, Illustrator files comprise numerous layers for a single image and, as a result, when you import your image directly into After Effects, these layers become individual “groups,” which can lead to a cluttered layout that’s difficult to manage.
Likewise, depending on your After Effects settings, you may also find that your Illustrator file is importing as one single image, not as a vector built of many different shapes and layers.
Therefore, following this guide helps maintain a sense of order and cohesiveness when working with Illustrator files in After Effects.
For a step-by-step look at how to do this, we recently published a tutorial on how to do this exact thing.
For today’s example, I’m going to start off with this Shutterstock image.
Step 1: Open Illustrator and Prep Vector
Start by creating a new Illustrator document, and it’s advisable to ensure the document matches the size of your AE composition for seamless integration. For me, that’s 1920px by 1080px.
Then, copy your chosen image into the new document and adjust its size as desired. Additionally, I’ll remove the blue background from this image.
Step 2: Ungrouping Our Layers
Now, should we import this into After Effects immediately, the camera would behave as one unified object, preventing any animation of its individual components. This would make for a rather dull animation.
Consequently, our primary objective before transferring it to After Effects is to divide each element into its distinct layer. There are two methods to achieve this separation.
Option 1
Open up the Layers panel. If it’s not already on your sidebar, go to Window > Layers.
To generate a new layer, press the icon with a + symbol inside of a square at the bottom of the Layers panel. It’s beneficial to create numerous layers upfront to avoid repetitive trips back to the icon. Then, disassemble all groupings and choose an individual element.
In the Layers panel, you’ll observe a small square emerging on the rightmost side of the layer. To relocate the chosen element to a new layer, click on this square and pull it over to one of the fresh layers.
After relocating, assign a new name to it for easy identification of the shape contained within that layer.
Do this for each shape. After a shape is moved to its own layer, it’s helpful to hide it. This way, you’ll be able to see which ones still need to be moved to their own layers.
Option 2
Access the Layers panel and choose the camera layer. Then, click the icon situated at the top-right of the panel (the trio of horizontal lines) and opt for the “Release to Layers (Sequence)” feature. This action will allocate each distinct shape to an individual layer.
Subsequently, gather all the layers and extract them from their collective layer. The now redundant layer can be discarded.
Proceed to rename each layer to reflect the shape it includes. It might be a lengthy process, but it will significantly enhance your comprehension of the components once you begin using After Effects.
That’s pretty much it. Simple, right? We’re now ready to bring the Illustrator file into After Effects.
Step 3: Import to After Effects
To import an Illustrator file into After Effects, launch After Effects, and navigate to File > Import > File. Choose your Illustrator file and ensure that at the bottom, under “Import Kind,” you opt for “Composition – Layer Size.”
This setting is crucial, as it maintains each layer’s original dimensions and quality from Illustrator when brought into After Effects.
Open up the newly created composition, and you’re ready to animate!
What if I told you that there’s an even easier, more efficient way to import Illustrator files into After Effects? You’d say, “What’s the catch?” And I’d say, “Okay, it’s $55. But it’s worth it, I swear.”
And, that is the extension Overlord.
Overlord is part Illustrator extension and part After Effects extension, and it helps you bridge the gap between the two software, providing animators and designers a seamless, integrated workflow. It’s essentially a conduit that allows for the efficient and flexible movement of assets between the two applications.
With features like one-click animation of vector shapes, editable text, and the ability to transfer intricate gradients, Overlord empowers users to bring their Illustrator designs to life within After Effects without the usual hassle. It’s designed to simplify the animation process, saving time and maintaining the integrity and quality of your designs.
It’s also worth noting that the files remain vector and are not looked at as Adobe Illustrator files, which means that if you need to adjust a shape, you can do so freely.
For example, if you look at the final screen in our step-by-step guide above, you can see that the layers are set out as AI files, as noted by the Illustrator icon. Whereas, in the image below, when using Overlord, the files are now editable shapes.
If we wanted to adjust the shapes from the camera vector, we would need to reopen Illustrator, make our adjustments, save, then open After Effects, and reload the footage. Too much work!
Likewise, the shapes exist inside of After Effects instead of having assets that are dependent on external files outside of After Effects.
For example, in the above demonstration with the camera, if your Illustrator file goes AWOL, then your composition inside After Effects will also end up missing elements.
The plugin doesn’t just transfer data—it enhances it. With functionalities like Ray Dynamic Color for advanced color management, splitting layers for better organization, and automatic detection of parametric shapes, Overlord ensures that every aspect of your Illustrator file is optimized for animation.
For another great Illustrator tutorial, check out this article:
Looking for more ways to up your video editing game? Check these out:
