Why does my path change position when I paste it (to a mask, or position, ...)?

For anyone needing a fast and "easy" answer, you can also manually reshape masks by pressing command T 

I'm sure there are more elegant solutions but this one saved me.

The easiest way to do that for me is: 
in illustrator make a path that is exactly the shape of you artboard (like a square) copy the path you want to move plus this new (artboard) path. When you paste it in after effects it will know the exacly position of your path. Then delete the extra path (artboard one). 
1) In AI I want Just the central object (fountain). I selected the central object path + the (artboard) path.

2) In AE when I paste it places in the exaclty position. Then I delete the unwanted mask.

This was driving me crazy and I couldn't find any real solutions online but worked out a really easy fix that will hopefully be useful to some:

• create your ai file same dimensions as your comp

• the scale of the layer you are pasting into must be 100%, this is what was causing my problem, if your layer scale is not 100% see below for a work around

• now if you copy and paste from your ai to your ae the path will be the correct size but in the wrong position (likely in the centre of the layer), read on...

• to retain the position of your path add a path around the edge of your ai file, so if your comp is 1920 x 1080 add a path 1920 x 1080 to your ai file. Copy the outer path and the path/paths, now when you paste into ae the paths will be in the correct position

If the layer scale you are pasting into is not 100% a little math is needed, in this example lets say I have added a jpeg to my layer and scaled to 60%, the calculation would be as follows:

• 100/60 = 1.666 (move your decimal 2 places, 166.6)

• select your paths (including the path around the edge of your page) in ai and enlarge by 166.6%, copy and paste into ae and the position and scale should now be correct

I had the same issue doing a write on effect, I solved doing this:

Copy the path from AI

Paste the path as a mask

move the path to the desired place

Cut the mask path

Paste the path over the null or effect position

So I'm having an issue that is kind of related to this and it's driving me insane. So I have a vector (eps) file that has to travel along a path, I set up a null object, used the pen tool to mask out the path copied the mask path data and pasted it into the position values and it copies it in but the path scales up! any ideas as to why this is happening? is there a way it won't do this, or a way i can scale a path down?

The most annoying thing is I did this very same method for another animated vector file and it worked no problems at all!! I just can't find the issue!

Thanks in advance guys!

Karl

Im having this problem but Im not importing anything from illustrator. Im simply trying to paste my path into the position of my shape or solid and it does not paste correctly in CC 2015. 

Finally found a work around:

import the ai file, convert to shapes, add mask to shape layer and copy shape path to the mask path.

Create null layer, add mask, copy the previous mask path to this mask (which causes it to jump to a new location). Fix all four shape values of this mask by subtrackting the correct position coordinates. The mask now doesn't overlap with the original image, but effects applied using this mask do follow the original image and not the mask.

I doubt this is the way to do it, since the program has all the info it needs to do this by itself but nothing else seems to work.

Added an image to show what I mean: the mask is the corrected mask, the outline is a stroke set to "luma matte" the original image. And the stroke was made using the corrected mask... If that makes it clear

Thanks for the help. If someone knows what I'm doing wrong or how i can do it faster i'd be happy to hear it.

So here is what i got so far:

imported the illustrator shape and made a mask from it (Image 1). When I copy paste the mask path to the centre of the circle, it jumps to a new location away from the original (Image 2).

Is it possible to have something follow the shape (or path) without having it jump to a new location?

Thanks for the help, but still no luck so far.

I tried with all new documents:

Created a new 1920*1080px document in AI,

Drew a square in the top left corner

Created a new 1920*1080px composition in AE

created a new solid (and made comp size)

added a lens flare to the solid

Didn't move or scale anything

Now if I copy/paste the path from illustrator directly (through the clipboard) to the flare center, the path (the motion path that the flare follows) gets moved from the top left where i drew the square to the center of the document.

If I open the AI document in AE and create shape from vector layer, everything looks right (square in top left corner) but if I copy/paste this path to the flare center,  the path (the motion path that the flare follows) gets moved from the top left where i drew the square to some seemingly random position.

Is there something else i should do? Things I should look out for when I create the documents for example?

I'm basically trying to follow this tutorial:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/no-stupid-questions-with-colin-smith/illustrator-to-after-effects-motion-paths/

But, the problem is that my motionpath (for the lensflare) has moved compared to the original image. I don't know why, the guy in the tutorial doesn't have that problem?