After effects shape layer not displaying color on preview

Question

Sorry for the french interface, I'm trying to animate a logo so my first step was to import my AI vector layer and then convert it to a shape layer. However, while my AI layer shows all the shapes filled in with black, my shape layer doesnt.

When selecting individual shapes in the group, the background is registered as black as you can see (Fond).

But only three of the shapes actually show up as black on my preview screen.

Is this a visual issue due to hardware maybe? As in, maybe my CPU is too old to render the preview?

Or is it a potential issue with my AI vector layer?

I've tried changing the shape layer's colors and they're unresponsive on the different shapes. Am I misunderstanding how this works entirely?

Mylenium · Accepted Answer

You need to drill into the groups and check the path as well as any fills. And of course you will have to do soem re-ordering to do and use Merge Paths operators to get the same appearance as compound paths in AI. I would suggest you do actualyl read the online help on these things. Contrary to common belief this workflow isn't as simple as converting the AI artwork and then hoping it would work. There's more to shape layers and the workflow is considerably different from AI.

Mylenium

Rick Gerard · Answer

Unless you are actually aminating the vector paths or you need to use shape animators or you are using the C4D rendering engine to extrude shape layers, there is no reason at all to convert vector layers to shape layers. It's a complete waste of time.

Any gradients, brushes, or effects applied to an illustrator object will get lost or fouled up if you convert the layer to a shape layer. The only things that get converted successfully are color fills and simple strokes. You can save the files but you will have to tare into the shape layer and figure out which path is which, where the fills go, add your own gradients, and sort things out. If a brush was applied to a path it will be converted to a filled closed path so trim paths won't work. You'll have to go back into Illustrator and fix the problem and import and convert again.

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