Grey boxes over Images when creating shapes from Vector Layer

[Whokilledkyle]

So i created a design in illustrator and im trying to animate it. In order to do so i had to create shapes from the layers. And when i do that certain pieces end up with a grey box over it. I read that i had to ungroup but that still didnt work. I read to delete the fill layer and that still didnt work because the image is just not there. And im not really sure how to solve this problem. Please help. I keep reading responses from adobe "Rick" and they are not helpful at all. Very long worded and avoiding the actual solution. If someone could explain in simple terms it would be so appreciated. Thank you

[Rick Gerard]

The only Illustrator objects that will successfully convert to shape layers are objects with solid color fils and not effects. Any strokes that have any kind of brush effect applied will be converted to a filled path with no stroke. If you want a path with a stroke you have to stick with a basic stroke with no brush effects applied. 

Everything else will come in fouled up. The paths will be there but none of the gradients or blends of effects will translate. You can dig through the layers and find the paths and add your own Gradient Fills, but unless the artwork is very basic, converting to a shape layer is not usually a reasonable workflow.

There are only three reasons I can think of to convert a vector layer to a shape layer. 

1. You want to animate the actual vector path in some way
2. You need to use one of the shape layer animators available under the Add popup menu
3. You want to extrude a shape layer using the C4D rendering Engine or export a C4D file you can then extrude in C4D lite

If you are not doing any of those things there is no need to convert a vector layer to a shape. 

[Mylenium]

Your dingbats look like symbols or compound groups. Those simply won't be convertable. Everything else has been explained by Rick - unless there is a specific reason to convert your artwork, then don't. That's a fundamental misunderstanding people have ever since the function was introduced. It's an option, not a mandatory thing. The old "Just use my AI file as a regular layer" still works. Otherwise you have to accept the limitations, which are explained in the online help and can be deducted from how AI works, which is another of those eteranl misunderstandings. People simply forget that a ton of features in AI also only produce pixel data, not fully editable vectors.

Mylenium