Import single layers in After Effects out of a psd file

[nicot22]

I'm currently working on a animation movie. For this reason i am drawing frames in Photoshop. From time to time i want to import the new drawn layers in psd to after effects so I can see the process of my work. My problem is, that i've now imported the whole PSD file like 20 times already. But I actually only need the few new layers and not the whole file.

Is there a way to import single layers out of a PSD file to After Effects ?

Thanks for helping me !

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[Rick Gerard]

You can do it one layer at a time. The option comes up when you choose Import and do not select as a composition. You will lose position data.

If all you are doing is updating or editing Photoshop Layers all you have to do is save the file and AE will automatically update all changes. The only time that gets fouled up is when you change the layer size.

[nicot22]

Thanks for your answer.

Sure, I can do one layer at a time but this takes me too long because I regularly need to import more than 40 layers..

Everytime I safe the PSD file, AE tells me that it's searching for changed footage. After that it tells me that the 'changed footage is found' but actually I can't see any of the new drawn layers.

Any idea why this happens ?

[angie_taylor · Accepted solution]

It would be mich easier to export the frames from Photoshop as PNGs and then import these into AE as a sequence. Then you can just import the new onea when they are ready. After Effects will not see your new layers unless you re-import them so thats why the PNG option is preferable.