How To Animate Illustrator Files In After Effects
A pace-by-step guide for importing Illustrator files into After Furnishings.
Yous're about to learn a little skill that will have your Illustrations to a large place; I'thou going to teach you how to become your Adobe Illustrator drawings fix for blitheness in After Effects!
Step 1: Create Your Graphics in Adobe Illustrator
To begin, you should have your Illustrations built in Adobe Illustrator; chances-are, you lot've probably congenital an object with kinematic limbs or wheels y'all'd like to roll with. Since #VanLife is all the rage these days, I'thou edifice a lilliputian MiniVan Camper for this example.
Don't have an Illustrator file laying effectually? Y'all tin can follow along with this example tutorial.
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Stride 2: Group Your Objects in Illustrator
This is a pretty simple step; have any role of the illustration you'd like to individually pick-out to animate. Use Command+G to grouping these items.
Y'all'll desire to select them individually with the direct select action (A) and select the unabridged entity with Alt + Shift + Click. This helps to grouping specific vectors of the analogy you're working with into their own pieces and speed-upwardly the workflow to grabbing and moving items as we proceed to the side by side part.
Step iii: Create Layers
Later you've set specific groups, you're going to want to designate your items into layers then y'all can dispense them in Subsequently Effects to animate them.
Before jumping in, information technology'southward best to strategize what individual items y'all want to command when you breathing. It'south all-time to think of how your detail has hinges, anchor points, rotations and moves around in your animation.
First, you're going to want to create a new layer by typing Command + 50.
Pace 4: Name Your Layers for Organization
After you lot've created your new layer, you'll want to name it so you know what specific particular you desire to animate later. To rename your layer in Illustrator, double-click the new layer you've created through the Layers Panel and blazon in the new proper noun of that detail.
Step five: Bring Your Items into Layers
From here, y'all will accept to pick an Illustrated item to bring into the new layer. Once you lot've selected your detail, use command+x to cut your object and Command+F to paste the item into its erstwhile location.
Step half dozen: Save Your Illustrator File
Once you've brought all your items into designated layers, and y'all feel your illustration is prepare to turn into an animation, you're on your mode to making a new animation in After Effects. All you take to do is salve your AI file into a designated folder. See how quick & easy that was?
Step seven: Import Your Illustrator File into After Effects
Now that you've created some amazing illustrations and prepared them for animation, it's time to hop into After Effects!
Tips for Importing your Illustrator File into Subsequently Furnishings
To bring an Illustrator file into Afterwards Furnishings you just need to use Control+ I, or alternatively, File>Import. When you import your projection file, you will see a few options appear; You lot'll desire to choose to Import as:
- Footage
- Composition
- Limerick - Retain Layer Sizes
In most cases, yous'll pick the Limerick with Retained layer sizes. What's the difference between Retaining the layer styles and a standard limerick? If you bring-in your file equally a composition lonely, every layer will exist the size of your Artboard in Illustrator; this will require much more piece of work to anchor joints and reposition items where they need to go.
If you import as footage, you'll be able to import your unabridged AI file as one detail, or you'll have the choice to select one layer within the Illustrator file.
There's another way to import your AI file not oft-used, and that is to bring-in an AI file into Subsequently Effects and convert information technology to a layered comp in the Projection panel. This is a dandy way to do things if you're going from an animatic directly into animation.
To do this, when the menu appears for import, bring-in your Illustrator file every bit "Footage" and select "Merged Layers" under the Layer options menu that appears secondly. Then, in the Project panel, create a new comp out of the AI file by dragging it into the Composition icon. Once you lot're in that new comp, you can right-click on the individual file (seen every bit footage) and select "Convert to Layered Comp". Immediately after, the comp will turn into a multi-layered comp you lot'll be able to create an animation out of.
IMPORTING TEXT
Delight note, importing Text from Illustrator isn't piece of cake; this has e'er been a asking for Adobe sent by many animators and Illustrators for years; maybe i-day nosotros'll get the update we've all been wishing for that magically imports text without an issue. Until then, there are a couple of workarounds.
To import text straight from Illustrator to AE, you'll first need to keep your Illustrator project file open while working between the 2 programs. Select your text and copy (Command + C), switch over to Afterwards Effects, utilize the text tool (Command + T) and click in your comp, then Paste (Control + 5) the text. All the color and sizing, leading an kerning should stay the same as long equally your comp in AE is the same size as the Artboard in Illustrator.
When merging text from AI to AE, yous will nigh-likely lose any effects you applied in Illustrator, simply if you want to re-apply that manner in After Furnishings, you'll exist able to go over to the Appearance console in Illustrator to notice your upshot and the parameters of it to add together to your text now that it'southward in After Effects.
If you created text on a path, you'll just desire to hop dorsum into Illustrator and use a straight select tool (A). While holding Command + Shift, click on the bend the text was written-on. Later on you lot've copied that, you'll want to paste information technology onto the text in After Furnishings, so use Control + ` (the little dash adjacent to "1" on your Keyboard) to see everything applied to the layer. You'll be able to select the mask under Text>Path Options>Path. Post-obit that, you tin can suit where on the curve your text will land using the adjustments below or manually with your cursor.
A 2nd option is to install a Third-Party plugin to After Effects that tin can import text when it's in an private layer in Illustrator. This seems to work well, only some business organization with sending files dorsum-and-along between animators is that the plugin may not piece of work on all systems as properly as it would on your computer, resulting in someone's project file not being able to open or read the text.
CREATING VECTOR SHAPES OUT OF LAYERS
Optionally, you can create animations within the layers; this works especially great for minimalist animation styles where strokes are used equally the primary nugget - but at that place is a catch to this process; using the Bureaucracy organization in Later Effects can dull-down your workflow in some instances. Creating shapes from layers may also affect your illustration if it includes whatsoever vectors or varying stroke widths. If the layer has a lot of item, this may not be ideal.
To piece of work with shapes from Illustrator layers, you lot want to correct-click your layer in the Comp and select create shapes from layers. This will build you lot a new layer that contains the native items you built them out of in Illustrator. This isn't ever the most ideal process but information technology does come in handy for certain styles. Most of the time when I work with shapes from layers I apply the Trim Paths on strokes to animate a drawing-on issue, which is the most mutual approach for this style.
Sometimes, this is a bang-up way to add customizability to your illustrations. In the attached case, and the gravel the van drives on is made into vector shapes. This was to add together an outcome called "Wiggle Paths" to make the ground announced more than rugged.
CONTINUOUSLY RASTERIZE YOUR VECTOR ILLUSTRATIONS
Hither's a part that can end up being disquisitional to your blitheness; When Subsequently Effects imports an AI file, it sees the layer as a raster object; similar to what you'd see in Photoshop. When you scale-upwards the AI file this way, you will encounter the edges get more than pixelated. Thankfully, because you chose to work with vector you'll take the option to constantly rasterize the artwork leaving you with clean, crisp edges. All you lot demand to practise is click on the "Continuously Rasterize" checkbox beside your layer.
Don't see information technology? You may take your Layer switches pane turned off. To enable it, only click on the left-nearly button at the bottom of the piece of work comp window your analogy is in. We actually take an entire tutorial about Continuously Rasterizing in Afterward Effects.
At that place'south an even ameliorate way...
A few months ago Adam Plouff released a new plugin called Overlord that essentially allows you to automatically transfer files betwixt Adobe Illustrator and Afterwards Effects. Information technology'due south friggin' magic and if y'all do a lot of work in Illustrator work you need this in your life.
Now What?...
Well, now that you've brought your graphics into After Effects, information technology's time for you to create amazing new animations out of some rad illustrations. Checkout Later on Effects Kickstart for a fun and piece of cake manner to learn Afterward Furnishings.
Source: https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/import-adobe-illustrator-files-into-after-effects
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