group object in illustrator vs precomp in AE

[Suraiya A]

Hello,

I am a meticulous learner. hence the question.

I am following one tutorial. there the Tutor draws each leg of a Washing machine separately (two part in each leg, one darker shade, and without shed)  in Illustrator. and  pre-comp them in AE, his logic is to reduce the number of layers.

I didn't do that. I draw exactly like him but group them in Illustrator so that I can treat them as one in AE. And to confirm that I check the transform panel of that very layer( which I grouped in AI), and it is indeed one layer.

My question is-

Is there any problem in my mathod? I think what He did is similar to mine as the function is same. he did precomp to reduce layer numbers. and I grouped them in AI for same reason.

Thank you.

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

When you prepare artwork in Illustrator for animation in After Effects, each layer should contain the elements you want to animate as a single layer in After Effects. If you design requires that you move the darker part of the Left Leg component differently than the lighter part, there is no reason at all to put them on separate layers. 

I see a lot of layers on an Illustraton of a washing machine. Unless every one of those layers needs to be moving in a different way than the others, there is no need to have any of them on separate layers in AI. 

[Suraiya A]

Thank you so much.