Best way to work between adobe illustrator and after effects?

For a smooth workflow, I always recommend using "Overlord" if you can, but the native way is to ensure all your layers are separated in Illustrator before importing. Importing as a "Composition - Retain Layer Sizes" usually saves a lot of headache in After Effects.

To work efficiently between Illustrator and After Effects using Overlord, make sure your artwork is on a single active artboard and grouped properly. Overlord uses groups, not layers, so avoid deep nesting. Enable "Split all" in Overlord to import groups as separate shape layers, and disable “centered layer in comp” if alignment is off in After Effects. Only push layers you plan to animate; import static elements normally. Avoid unsupported Illustrator features like mesh gradients or complex fills. If Overlord fails, try reinstalling or manually placing it in the CEP extensions folder.

Hi @benjaminf80448985:

For what you intend to do on the After Effects side, I would take one of two approaches:
- In Illustrator, use File > Export > Export As....  Set the Format pop-up menu to Photoshop, enable Use Artboards.  In the Photoshop Export Options dialog box, set the Color Mode to RGB, the Resolution to Screen (72 ppi), choose Write Layers with Preserve Text Editability and Maximum Editability enabled, Anti-aliasing set to Art Optimized, and embed ICC Profile enabled.  Import the resulting layered PSD file as a Composition into After Effects, select the Text Layers and choose Layer > Create > Convert to Editable Text to turn the Photoshop text layers into After Effects text layers.

- Open your Illustrator file in Adobe XD.  Select the XD Artboard and then choose File > Export > After Effects.

You also have the option of importing an Illustrator file as a Composition, but the Illustrator text objects cannot be converted to After Effects text layers.  Anything you want to animate on the After Effects side needs to be on it's own Layer in Illustator.  If you're working with multiple Artboards that are tiled (that is, they do not overlap inside of a larger Artboard), then you need to use the "Save each artboard to separate files" option before importing it into After Effects.