Illustrator files importing at 10% size

[Matthew Severin]

I have AI files where both layer content and artboards are 1920x1080. But when I import them into After Effects both comps and footage come in as 192x108px documents. I have done this type of importing for years and I've never seen or heard of this. Each Illustrator file I import was previously exported from a master AI with numerous artboards. The outputted AI files that I'm importing only have 1 artboard each.

[Rick Gerard]

Double-check the document settings and Artboard size in AI. It should be 1920 X 1080 Points or Pixels.

I'm not seeing any problems on my end. OSX, latest builds of AE 2019 and 2020. Can you share a sample file? Here's one that I just made: AI Test 2.AI

It works perfectly.

[Matthew Severin]

Hi Rick I've renamed and linked a sample file. The files I've been working with are using pixel units. I tried both AE2019 and 2020 on both OSX and Windows, same issue. My workaround for now is creating a new AI file and pasting the contents in. Seems to work. I wonder if there's some weird setting that happened when I exported the multi artboard AI file into a series of individual AI files...

[Rick Gerard · Accepted solution]

You may have found a bug. When I tried to save your AI file to Legacy AI I got this warning:

Somewhere hidden in the file is the large size canvas info so when you saved the original artwork using each artboard as a separate canvas you got exactly what the warning is talking about. 

I would have to do some more testing, but the only way I can get your sample file to import correctly is to start a new AI document, then copy and paste or drag all of the artwork into the new document.

[Matthew Severin]

Ha, nice find it illustrates exactly what's happening. Thanks for troubleshooting this!

[defaultmknbocar6a0g]

I just encountered this bug a year later using the latest version of Illustrator. So this issue is not solved.

[Warren Heaton]

It's not a bug.

It's just that Illustrator's Large Canvas Size is not supported directly.  Or more specifically, After Effects has not been updated to read the scale.  As such, you get the same scaling in After Effects as you do in a reader app or a browser.

Adobe Illustrator User Guide > Large canvas size | FAQs and known issues
https://helpx.adobe.com/illustrator/kb/large-sized-canvas-troubleshooting.html

There's a feature request for After Effects to support this on the Adobe User Voice page, but it only has two votes.

https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911311-after-effects/suggestions/41445442-import-a-large-ca...

But maybe it'll have a few more votes after people read this here?

[Sam-Kelly]

Damn this is happening to me today, I always use the same workflow and never encountered this 😞

[Warren Heaton]

Illustrator's Large Canvas Size is not supported directly in After Effects.

Work in a standard canvas in Illustrator or scale the artwork up with Continuously Rasterise enabled in After Effects. 

[Sam-Kelly]

I use this workflow all the time and I've never had an issue so I'm assuming it's a bug or glitch..
When saving an Illustrator file with multiple arboards out as individual files, then importing these into After Effects as compositions. Instead of bringing them in at 1920x1080 it bought them in at 192x108

I had to create a new illustrator file for each artboard and copy everything in to each one to get around it.

[Warren Heaton]

Artboards, if tiled (which they usually are), are not supported.

If designing with tiled Artboards in Illustrator, we have to use the "Save each artboard as a separate file" option in the Illustrator Options dialog box.

[Claire27646682ww8n]

I saved as "each artboard as a separate file" as I usually do, and still 10% scaling on 2 of my files. Not all of them, though. Just the 2. I thought this issue was solved as I haven't had it for a couple of years, so I have to assume this new designer is using an old version of AI or something.

[Claire27646682ww8n]

I'm having this issue again too. I haven't had it for a year or 2, but I got some files from a new designer and suddenly BAM 10% scale. But only on their 1088x1080 files. I believe what I did last time to fix this was to scale the AI file 10x which is ridiculous. The idea that AI & AE aren't 100% compatible is offensive considering they have been major Adobe programs for literal decades.

[Warren Heaton]

@Claire27646682ww8n 

While it's certainly frustrating if you are unfamiliar with what's happening, the programs are compatible.

When Illustrator added multiple Artboards, it added the option to save Artboards to separate files in the Illustrator Save Dialog box for After Effects and any other application that does not support multiple artboards.

When Illustrator added Large Canvas, they took an approach that maintained compatibility with the current file format (.ai) rather than creating a new file format like Photoshop did to accommodate large Photoshop document sizes (.psb).

if I could change anything, the FAQ on the "Get started with large canvas" would specifically include After Effects with "Why does my large-scale artwork (.ai and.pdf) shrink when opening in a reader app or a browser?"  

- Warren

[Claire27646682ww8n]

Has Adobe decided to fix this yet? Because I'm working with a designer that delivered files to do the same thing again. It's so irritating to have to recreate the volume of files I need to animate today.

[Rick Gerard]

You don't have to do anything in Illustrator, but add a giant artboard behind the Comp Sized one you use to lay out your artwork in the Hero position. Just open one of the Video Templates and look at the structure. The HD video template has a 1920 X 1080 Artboard (Artboard 1) Centered above a 14400 X 14400 px artboard (Artboard 2), defaults to showing the pixel grid, which I usually turn off, and has Safe Action and Safe Title guides. It works perfectly.

Add Artboard 2 below Artboard 1, and AE will open the AI file as a Comp, retain layer size, properly position all elements in their hero position, not cut off any of the layers, and be ready to use.

The other hint I would give you is to always turn on Snap to Pixel and check the Illustrator files you are creating for video by viewing them at about 400% using Pixel Preview so thin lines don't change color when they are converted to pixels. I should do a tutorial on creating Art for Video because so many people have problems doing that.

[Claire27646682ww8n]

I don't have to "do" anything but these 12 steps on my 18 files each with about 27 individual layers. OR, and I know this is a crazy idea, Adobe could fix this issue that is so well known, they have a not at all useful "what to do when my AI file is 1/10 size" little article. I've been doing this for 15 years, and it's only a problem sometimes, usually when I have a tight deadline. Funny how that is.

My solution has been a mix of:

make the art board 10x size and then scale up (which works for normal sizes like 1920x1080),

or make a new doc with a new artboard and copy/paste everthing to that for the weird ribbon board sizes (like 16000x24).

BUT it's a real PITA. Takes way more time than my usual "import as comp" when the AI files aren't made in that wonky style that only certain of the designers I get files from use.

I tried the "ask the designers to use a different AI file type" which has yet to work.

I just installed Overlord from Battle Axe, and we'll see how that works out. Currently, it brought my files in at the correct size, but everything is a shape layer or live text. This doesn't 100% work well with my workflow which involves reusing a lot of elements across the different animations, but it's better than everything is tiny. It also doesn't work well when designers have put fancy kerning on each individual letter, so I have to make all text an outline for those bits. Another step. Yay.

IDEALLY, Adobe would fix this known issue. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

[Warren Heaton]

If you must accept large-canvas Illustrator documents from your designers, try saving them as "Illustrator CC (Legacy)" before importing the artwork into After Effects.  Append something like "_AICC_legacy" or "for_ae" to the filename.

Pictured: Illustrator Options set to Illustrator CC (Legacy)

Optional:  Place the resulting legacy document in a new, empty Illustrator file using one of the Film & Video document presets.

[Claire27646682ww8n]

Legacy gives me the "your file's gonna be 1/10 size if you do this" warning which leaves me still having to scale things up at one end or the other.

So I did a combo of copy paste into a brand new file (my old standard) and import via Overlord (which hated a text layer on one of my boards for some reason that I haven't had time to investigate and crashed AI when I tried to port that file). It's not ideal, but it's better than scaling the files up 10x in AI. What would be ideal would be for Adobe to fix this known issue. But I've added Overlord to my list of work arounds and highly recommend it. It brings the text in live and objects as shape layers which doesn't always work well with my workflow, but sometimes will save me a step. And you don't have to divide up the AI files. It'll divide them up for you. We'll see if it's smart enough to divide them sensibly.

But honestly, for dealing with this known issue Adobe has been ignoring for years, Overlord was a lifesaver today.

[Warren Heaton]

The very first thing Illustrator asks us to do is set the document settings based on the intended use.

If unsure what to set manually, pick something in the Film & Video category.  Do not pick or create something for billboards, buses, and large stadiums.

[Claire27646682ww8n]

I'm not usually the one setting up the AI files. I receive them from a variety of designers.

When I create a replacement file, I always choose the film/video and set the Art Board size there. Often, however, I'm working on large boards for stadiums. One of the animations yesterday was 28640x64 and was full of a variety of small elements spaced along the board. When I create a new file, build the new art board, and copy/paste my layers, they don't necessarily line up with the new art board, so I have to grab them and drag them into place. I fine AI clunky and cumbersome when I have to do that. I have received boards of this size in the past, they simply pulled into AE no problem. But over the last few years, I've encountered this 1/10 size issue several times, and it's frustrating that Adobe hasn't figured out a way to fix it.