Why does shape become invisible after clicking Create Shapes from Vector Layer

[Selah24752618bifi]

Hi everyone! I'm trying to animate the page flipping in this book. I'm using After Effects, but I'm having some trouble. To make things eaiser I made a video of everything I did step by step. At the end of the video you'll see the page become invisible after clicking Create Shape from Vector Layer. Any idea why? I'd really appreciate the help. 

[LinSims]

Let me move this to the After Effects forum for you, which is the appropriate forum for your question.

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[Rick Gerard]

It looks like the AI layer has a lot of gradients and other stylized elements in the shape. Converting anything but a solid fill and a simple stroke to a shape layer will cause problems. You end up with a path and a solid gray fill layer. You'll have to recreate the entire look of the page by adding additional gradient fills. 

What are you trying to accomplish? The only reason to convert a vector layer to a shape layer is to extrude the shape using the C4D rendering Engine, animate the actual path, or use shape layer animators. A better approach to creating a curved page-flipping effect would be to use a 3D app or a 3D plug-in like Element 3D. Blender is a very powerful open-source (free) 3D app that is fairly easy to integrate with After Effects and will take vector art. If you just want to make those curved pages flip in 3D then you have to properly set up the orientation before you animate the rotation but there is no easy way in After Effects to change the bending of the page. You could do it if you have flat illustrations for the front and back of each page. If you use the C4D rendering engine you could bend the pages in AE.

[Selah24752618bifi]

Hi Mr. Gerard. Thank you so much for responding! Yes, I'm trying to animate the actual path. I attached a youtube video of what I was trying to imitate. 

[Rick Gerard]

One possible workflow would be to create a rectangular shape layer that was about the size of one of the book's pages. With Snapping turned on, reposition the anchor point at the bottom right corner of the rectangular page. 

Now make the layer 3D, then rotate it in X until the vertical lines closely match the vertical lines in the image of the book. Then add a camera. Try about an 80mm lens. Press the U key twice with the shape layer selected and convert the Rectangle to a Bezier path when you have the perspective lined up. Now use the pen tool to add and edit a couple of points and adjust the path's shape to match the book illustration closely. The last step is to animate the Y rotation of the page, and it will appear to be a natural page turn. 

I uploaded a project file for you to look at. Maybe it will give you some ideas. It took me about 10 minutes. 

[Selah24752618bifi]

Ok, I will try. Thank you so much for your help!