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maximiliank68923579
maximiliank68923579
Participant
June 11, 2019
Question

Importing Illustrator Layers into Premiere Pro

  • June 11, 2019
  • 3 replies
  • 28212 views

I have a multi-layer Illustrator file that I want to put into my Premiere Pro project, but if I just import the file itself it flattens it into one image. I would like to be able to select the different layers of the .ai file in the Premiere project. Any way to do this? My current method is to save each layer as its own png file, but then when I import them I have to manually reposition each png and its not very accurate. Thanks

    3 replies

    Warren Heaton
    Community Expert
    Warren HeatonCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    December 18, 2023

    To have access to the Illustrator document Layers and animate them, the current workflow would be to import the layered Illustrator file into an After Effects project as a Composition and then import the resulting Composition into Premiere Pro.

    If the Illustrator file is already placed in a Premiere Pro Sequence, right-click and choose Replace with After Effects Composition.  Once in After Effects, right-click on the Illustrator file and choose Create > Convert to Layered Comp or Create > Create Shapes from Vector Layer.  Then animated as needed.  Save in After Effects whenever you are returning to Premiere Pro to make sure what's happening in the linked After Effects Comp is current.

    This means having an After Effects project file to keep track of.  I like to save it next to the Premiere Pro project file for smaller projects and sometimes in a folder named something like "Linked After Effects Comps" that's next to the Premiere Pro project file.

    As with any Illustrator file imported into After Effects, an object that needs to animate separately must be on its Layer at the root level of the document (that is, not on a Sub-Layer).


      E
      excited_Genie16B8
      Legend
      June 11, 2019

      You can import Photoshop layers in PP.  Is it possible to covert the AI to PS?

      R
      rodneyb56060189
      Legend
      June 11, 2019

      hehe... was just gonna say same things as Jim... 

      but I don't know how to use illustrator. I opened it on my edit computer ( the pig) which has the cs6 version. I don't have any ai files so I opened a template. when I click on template elements ( or select the whole thing ) they get highlighted. I then used 'copy' and opened photoshop and clicked 'new' ( so it creates file dimension same as what's on clipboard ).. and pasted it. It had 2 layers .. a white background and the other stuff. I deleted the background layer and it became transparent.

      sooooo, if I knew what I was doing... maybe I could do that sort of thing with individual elements selected in illustrator, make new layer (transparent) in psd, copy paste ...keep doing that till you have all your stuff ( it should maintain the positions ) and save as a psd (with layers and a transparent background..)  and then you can maybe import the psd file and choose which layers you want ???

      Something like that.

      duh... I don't know how to use ai…

      Ann Bens
      Community Expert
      Ann BensCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      June 11, 2019

      You cannot select a layer in Premiere as it as you already discovered.

      If you want to change a layer you can open the file from Pr (edit original).

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