Convert an illustrator file to a layered comp in After Effects in 18.2.1

[DF23]

Hey, I notice on the latest AE upgrade 18.2.1 (2021) that the 'convert to layered comp' feature has disappeared. Does anyone know where they've hidden it??? It was a really handy feature for splitting out the elements of .ai file from illustrator into separate layers. I hope I'm just being stupid and that's it's hidden in plain sight! Thanks.

[Warren Heaton]

Yes, it's still there if you right-click the selected layer based on AI source footage or use the Layer pulldown menu (Layer > Create > Conver to Layered Comp).

After Effects - Right-click AI layer and choose Convert > Convert to Layered Comp

[DF23]

Thanks Warren. But it doesn't work the same way the previous version use to. I use to be able to take in an .ai file with everything on one layer in the Illustrator file and it would separate each element out into an individual AE layer. From what I can see this will only work if you've already separated the layers out in Illustrator. Hmmmm....

[Warren Heaton · Accepted solution]

Actually, no, when importing an Illustrator document as a Comp or creating a Comp from AI source footage later, After Effects does not see objects nor sub-layers as separate.  AE only sees AI Layers and all AI layer contents are merged onto the corresponding AE Layer.

So, we've always had to move any Illustrator objects that we want to animate separately on the AE side to their own layer at the root level of the Illustrator document (that is, the object cannot be on a sub-layer).  The "Release to Layers - Sequence" option in the Illustrator Layer panel pop-up menu can be helpful for this as it promotes each object on the selected Layer to its own sub-layer which can then be renamed and promoted to Layers.  

Have you tried using Adobe XD yet to export to After Effects?

Export from Adobe XD to After Effects | 1 Minute Tutorial

You open the Illustrator document in XD (File > Open) and then choose File > Export > After Effects.  With this approach, the Illustrator objects become AE Layers in a Comp.  If you take this approach, be sure to review Supported features when you export to After Effects from the Adobe XD User Guide.  What's not listed here that probably should be is that the Illustrator document Layer structure is not supported.  If I could make any change to how exporting to AE from XD works it is that the AI Layer structure would be maintained via AE Comps and pre-Comps on the After Effects side.  That said, Groups, Artboards, and Text Layers are supported.

[DF23]

This is all great. Thanks. The XD tip is a great one too. I'll give that a go. 👍🏻

[Warren Heaton]

For what it's worth, you can edit the Illustrator file after having imported it into After Effects such that the objects that you want to animate are each on their own layer, save the changes on the AI side, and then return to AE to do Create Layers.

[Michael5FEB]

It sounds like the short answer is "you can't do this anymore, you have to go through XD now." Is that correct?

[Warren Heaton]

Not at all.

The options to import a layered Illustrator file as footage, choose a layer, as Comp (maintain Layer Size), and as Comp are all still present and accounted for.  Converting vector layers to Shape Layers after the import is also still present.

Going through XD is just a new option.

There's also a great 3rd party option called Overlord by Battle Axe (https://www.battleaxe.co/overlord/).  If you want to design leveraging Illustrator's tools and send it to an AE comp immediately, it's well worth it.

[LizzardBlueberry]

I was also just looking for 'Convert to Layered Comp'. Like some, it does not show up in my Layer>Create menu. I'm in AE 2022.

I think maybe they replaced the workflow. Here's what I found: When you have an .ai layer in your Comp, you can use Layer>Create> 'Convert to Shape Layer'. Then you end up with 1 Shape Layer in your Comp. In the Contents of this layer, you should have all of the individual Paths in Groups. So my layer has Group1, Group2, etc. With each of the groups you can animate each of the paths separately.

Unfortunately this is still a mess if you need to apply an Effect to just one path- but you can duplicate the layer and throw away all of the other groups and just affect the path you want. It seems like Adobe is moving towards making us use Shape Layers for more....

Hope this helps. I didn't have time to make this a tidy write-up. Cheers!