Preparing and importing illustrator files – Adobe After Effects CS4 User Manual
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USING AFTER EFFECTS CS4
Importing and managing footage items
Last updated 12/21/2009
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Working with Photoshop and After Effects
Preparing still-image files for importing
Preparing and importing Illustrator files
Note: For information and instructions that apply to all kinds of still image files, see “
Preparing still-image files for
Import a single still image or a still-image sequence
Before you save an Illustrator file for importing into After Effects, consider doing the following:
•
Crop the image so that you are only saving the portion that you want to import into After Effects.
•
To ensure that Illustrator files appear correctly in After Effects, select Create PDF Compatible File in the Illustrator
Options dialog box.
•
To copy paths between Illustrator and After Effects, make sure that the AICB and Preserve Paths options are
selected in the Files & Clipboard section of the Illustrator Preferences dialog box. If you don’t select AICB in
Illustrator, After Effects prompts you when you attempt to paste the path.
•
To ensure that files rasterize most faithfully in After Effects, save your file in AI format instead of Illustrator 8.x or
9.x EPS format.
•
To separate objects in an Illustrator file into separate layers, use the Release To Layers command in Illustrator.
Then, you can import the layered file into After Effects and animate the layers separately.
When you import an Illustrator file, After Effects makes all empty areas transparent by converting them into an alpha
channel.
Note: When you’ve imported an Illustrator file, you can specify whether anti-aliasing is to be performed at higher quality
or at higher speed. Select the footage item in the Project panel and choose File > Interpret Footage > Main, and click the
More Options button at the bottom of the dialog box.
After Effects does not read embedded color profiles from Illustrator files. To ensure color fidelity, assign an input color
profile to the Illustrator footage item that matches the color profile with which the Illustrator file was created.
Eran Stern provides a video tutorial on the
that shows how to create text in Illustrator for use
in After Effects.
Dave Nagel provides instructions on the
for importing an Illustrator document into After Effects with
the Illustrator objects on separate layers in After Effects.
In a thread on the
into top-level layers. This is a necessary step in preparing an Illustrator file for importing into After Effects if you
intend to animate these items independently.
More Help topics
Interpret a footage item by assigning an input color profile
Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks