C O N S I D E R AT I O N S
I N
M OT I O N
D E S I G N
F R O M I L LU S T R ATO R
TO AFTEREFFECTS
FILE SETUP ARTBOARDS
It’s vital to get your working dimensions correct, right from the start.
Ensure that your artboard is set up to the correct aspect ratio and
pixel dimensions for your final output (eg 1920x1080 for HD video).
FILE SETUP –
CO LO U R S PAC E
AfterEffects cannot import CMYK files.
Be sure to set your working colour space in Illustrator to RGB.
Go to File>Document Color Mode and select RGB Color
ARTBOARDS
SHMARTBOARDS
AfterEffects will only import the first artboard in your AI file.
That means – to hell with multiple artboards! It’s best to design
each frame for AfterEffects as a separate file in a single artboard.
OR:
• Open the Illustrator file with multiple artboards.
• Choose File > Save As, and choose a name and location to
save the file.
• Make sure that you save as Illustrator (.AI), and in the
Illustrator Options dialog box, select Save Each Artboard as a
Separate File. You can choose to save them all or just a range.
ARTBOARDS
SHMARTBOARDS
AfterEffects will only import the first artboard in your AI file.
That means – to hell with multiple artboards! It’s best to design
each frame for AfterEffects as a separate file in a single artboard
OR:
• Open the Illustrator file with multiple artboards.
• Choose File > Save As, and choose a name and location to
save the file.
• Make sure that you save as Illustrator (.AI), and in the
Illustrator Options dialog box, select Save Each Artboard as a
Separate File. You can choose to save them all or just a range.
S E PA R AT E E L E M E N T S O N
S E PA R AT E L AY E R S
Illustrator cares not about layers, it only cares about objects. It thinks layers are for jerks.
You can design everything inside one layer.
AfterEffects, however is a layer-driven application, like Photoshop.
In order to ready your Illustrator files for AfterEffects, you need to layer out your
Illustrator files, so that any elements that will be moving independently are on separate
layers.
This can be done in two ways…
1 ) S E PA R AT E A S
YOU GO
As you’re building your frames, build each element on a new layer.
Remember – any elements that you want to move
separately/independently, need to be put on their own layer (eg. the
wheel of a bike versus the frame of the bike, or the bottletop
separate from the bottle etc).
2) USE ‘RELEASE TO
L AY E R S ( S E Q U E N C E ) ’
COMMAND
Sometimes you receive artwork from a designer that
doesn’t know about the layer problem with AfterEffects
and everything in the AI file is bunched in a single layer.
There’s a quick way to deal with this…
2) USE ‘RELEASE TO
L AY E R S ( S E Q U E N C E ) ’
COMMAND
• Right-click on the layer, and choose ‘Release to Layers
(Sequence)’ from the pop up menu.
• This will lay every element of the design on a new
layer.
• From here you’ll need to group layers together into
objects that will move independently (eg a pot plant
and its pot, or a Roller skate, its wheels and laces).
IMPORTING
In AfterEffects, go to File>Import>File (Cmd+I)
Under the Import As dropdown, it’s generally best to choose
Composition – Retain Layer Sizes (as above).
This means that each layer will only be as big as the elements in the
layer, whereas the Composition setting will import each layer as the
size of the artboard.
NO MONKEYING
ABOUT
Changing Illustrator files after they been used in After
Effects can cause problems.
You're pretty safe if you're changing colors, or doing
minor adjustments to the shape, but adding new layers
(or deleting layers) or making major changes to the
design can cause big problems in After Effects.
What you can do if you need to make big changes is
duplicate the Illustrator file, make your changes, and reimport into After Effects. This does mean you have to
start the animation over again.