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Inspiring
December 31, 2025
Answered

Problem with compound paths / “holes” in Illustrator import to After Effects

  • December 31, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 397 views

Je rencontre un problème depuis la dernière mise à jour d’Illustrator. Lorsque j'importe un fichier .ai contenant une défonce, un “trou”, dans After Effects, les paths ne se comportent plus comme prévu. Les deux tracés ne fonctionnent plus ensemble comme la délimitation d'une seule forme avec soustraction, mais apparaissent comme deux contenus superposés. Il est impossible de les animer comme si le second tracé était soustrait du premier.

Ce problème n’existait absolument pas il y a quelques mois. Cette mise à jour d’Illustrator empêche également, par exemple, de copier-coller une forme contenant un dégradé vers InDesign.


Adobe est de plus en plus cher et son workflow fonctionne de moins en moins bien.
Cela devient vraiment pénible...

Merci par avance de votre aide et du temps que vous consacrerez à me demande.
Bonne fetes à vous.

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Hello,

When I import an Illustrator (.ai) file containing a cutout — a “hole” — into After Effects, the paths no longer behave correctly. The two paths no longer act together as a single shape with a subtraction, but instead behave like two overlapping shapes. It is impossible to animate them as if the second path were subtracted from the first.

This never happened until a few months ago. Since the recent Illustrator update, this issue has appeared. The update also prevents, for example, copying and pasting a shape with a gradient from Illustrator into InDesign.

Adobe’s software is becoming increasingly expensive, and its workflows are working less and less reliably. It is becoming increasingly fastidious.

Thank you in advance for your help and the time you take to look into this.

Happy holidays.



Correct answer Nicolas348225006uay

Thanks for sharing the file. Are you importing the .pdf file? Can you try saving that file as .ai and then importing it into After Effects?

Let me know how it goes.


Thanks,
Nishu


Yes i was uploading an .ai but i don't succed to uploaded it in place of the pdf on this forum ("an extention issue").
I had uninstall illustrator and AE and reinstall again and it seem it's working. Maybe you should erase this post to avoid people searching in the wrong way.
Thanks for your help.

2 replies

nishu_kush
Legend
December 31, 2025

That's not great. I'm sorry to hear you have a problem.

 

Can you tell me more about how you work? Do you have the problem right after you import the file or does it happen when you use the "Create Shapes from Vector Layer"? Which versions of After Effects and Illustrator are you using? I tested with the latest versions of the apps and they seem to be working well.

Let me know. Moving this thread from Bugs to Discussions for troubleshooting.


Thanks,
Nishu

Inspiring
December 31, 2025

Bonjour et merci de votre reponse.
Cela arrive quand j'utilise "Create Shapes from Vector Layer". Illustrator est en 30.0 et after effect en 25.6.0.
Je l'ai remarqué en voulant animer mon calque de forme  avec "réduire les tracés".
Merci à vous.
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Hello and thank you for your reply.
This happens when I use “Create Shapes from Vector Layer.”
Illustrator is version 30.0 and After Effects is 25.6.0.
I noticed it when I tried to animate my shape layer using “Trim Paths.” (Not shure of the translation)

Thank you.

 

Inspiring
January 1, 2026

Peut-être que cela peut vous aider, mais une fois importé dans After Effects, je ne peux pas non plus ajouter de points sur mes formes, pourtant vectorielles. On dirait vraiment qu’il y a un problème avec la manière dont le fichier .ai est exporté.
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Maybe this can help you, but once imported into After Effects, I can’t add points to my shapes either, even though they are vector shapes. It really seems like an issue with the way the .ai file is exported.

Inspiring
December 31, 2025

La même chose se produit sur tous les textes vectorisés : les trous dans les lettres apparaissent comme des pleins, et il est impossible de les soustraire ou de les animer comme une seule forme.
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The same issue occurs with all vectorized text: the holes inside the letters appear as filled, and it is impossible to subtract them or animate them as a single shape.