Illustrator Paste Behavior Changed in After Effects 26.3 Breaking Existing Mask-Based Workflow

After updating to After Effects 26.3, I've noticed that copying artwork from Illustrator and pasting it into After Effects no longer behaves as it did in previous versions.

Previous workflow (working in 26.2 and earlier):

• Create line art in Illustrator.
• Convert the artwork to filled shapes (not strokes).
• Copy and paste it onto a Solid Layer in After Effects.
• The artwork is pasted as masks on the solid.
• Apply the Stroke effect and animate the Start/End properties to create a whiteboard or line-drawing animation.

This workflow has worked reliably for years and is used extensively in our production pipeline.

Current behavior in 26.3:
Pasting Illustrator artwork now creates a new "Paste SVG" Shape Layer instead of pasting the paths as masks onto the selected solid. Since the artwork is imported as a Shape Layer, the Stroke effect cannot be used in the same way, breaking existing projects and workflows.

Expected behavior:
Please provide an option to preserve the previous "Paste as Masks" behavior, or add a preference that allows users to choose between:

• Paste as editable SVG Shape Layer (new behavior)
• Paste as Masks on the selected layer (legacy behavior)

This change has disrupted established workflows for creating whiteboard animations and line-drawing effects, and it affects compatibility with existing projects. For now, I've had to roll back to an earlier version of After Effects to continue working.

Thank you for considering adding a legacy compatibility option.