Importing Illustrator and Photoshop Files into After Effects

Now, so the cue to this is how it imports Illustrator and Photoshop files. Illustrator and Photoshop files are imported in the same fashion, okay? So basically, first choice, you could bring them in as a flat graphic,  as if they were like a jpeg or something,  which you probably shouldn't do, but sometimes you will want to do that. Second choice, you can extract any individual layer from them.

So you have an Illustrator file, a Photoshop file with like five layers,  you want one of them in your thing,  you can import like that, just extract that one layer, okay? Not what we're doing, but it's cool. Third choice, the one we're going to use actually,  it takes the Illustrator or Photoshop file,  reads all the layers, reads all the positioning,  reads their appearance, and converts it into an After Effects composition. So it'll lay it out in the same place,  it'll have all the layer names, it'll have all the settings, okay? If it's a Photoshop file, it will give you one extra choice,  which is the ability to deal with layer styles from Photoshop.

Like drop, shadow, bevel, and emboss. It'll ask you, what do you want to do with these? Do you want to convert them to like the ones we did yesterday,  or do you just want to make them a parlor graphic, okay? Now, in theory, and I say in theory, because these things don't change,  changing the original source file will update things in After Effects,  but it's just the content will do it, okay? So it's fine. If you look on page 64, it says,  creating a dummy comp and importing an Illustrator file, okay? This, creating a dummy comp,  is going to be now at the beginning of every new lesson,  every time we have to import a Photoshop or Illustrator file, okay? Here's why.

The dimensions of the FS comp will be based on the file you're importing. But those are files do not have duration. They do not have a start time code.

They do not have a frame rate. Neither do Photoshop files, really, okay? So that information is inherited from whatever the last comp you made was. So the last comp you made, or even edited, was 10 frames long.

That is the length of the one you will create. And to be honest, it is really annoying to lengthen that later. So the dummy comp concept is basically setting the default for importing the Illustrator file,  to control what its comp's settings will be.

Anything aside from where the height is. The two things, yeah, I'll do two things and then you'll do it. Creating a dummy comp and importing an Illustrator file,  and then organizing the timeline.

Because those default colors, I think I mentioned yesterday,  they can be changed. Now, now we're actually going to do that. We're going to change it.

Because the more layers you have,  the more just kind of like eye bleeding it is to look at the timeline. And the program has very few organizational tools. For example, Photoshop users, we do not have layer focus.

We don't have sub layers. We have layer names, label colors,  and a couple of controls like solo and visibility. Organizing layers is usually a complaint we'll have, by the way.

So it's kind of, I'm going to search it. That's about it, okay? So here's how we do it. So in After Effects, hello After Effects.

Okay, I'm in my untitled project,  which I'm going to save as an actual project. Okay, so file, I will save as, save as. Okay, okay, larger screen I like.

Where is this? Where is this? What? Okay, desktop, that's very strange. Class files, day, After Effects class. This is the infographic animation.

And I'm just going to, I hate this column displayed, by the way. Sorry. I like, I like icon lists.

Okay, so the infographic animation, that's where I'm going to save this. You can call it whatever you want. The book on page 65 says name it, whatever, name it something.

Okay, so I name it my name and then infographic,  but call it whatever you want, it's fine. Now, the one thing I do recommend,  well, spelt, then it's probably, by the way,  one thing I do recommend is keep everything together in one project folder. Keep all the media you're going to use, all the exports,  because if you don't do that,  it will become really annoying later when trying to find things.

So technically, you're not required to do it like this. You could have like your media files on one hard drive and your project files on another and your exports on another. But seriously, if you do that, you will never find stuff later.

So try to get everything together if you can. So I got my thing saved. I'm going to import.

Okay, allow. This is the first… Wait, I did that. That's weird.

Sorry. So infographic, animation, the media folder,  I'll go to the images folder. Do not double click.

Okay, so basically, it's that I need to set, import as. I'm going to turn that off and that needs to go to compositor and retain layer sizes. But remember what I told you,  what is the length of this comp it's going to create going to be? I have no clue.

Because this is not my computer. This is the office computer I'm using. Whatever the last app that's instructed,  which by the way was last night,  whatever the last composition he created was,  that will be the length of this one.

And that could be anything from five frames,  only one frame, I guess actually,  to five hours a day. So I'm going to cancel this. If you just import as a composition,  again, it will take the width and height,  but all the other settings will be based on whatever the last comp made was.

And I don't know what that is, honestly. So this is where the dummy comp thing comes in. Before you try to import a Photoshop or Photoshop file as a composition,  make a new composition,  could not care less what the width and height is because that'll be inherited from whatever it is.

So it didn't help by the way. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The instructions say use that preset, but whatever.

It's really the frame rate that these things set, right? That's what I care about. So it says 15 seconds, 30 seconds. Okay, for that.

So for the record, this is inherited. Everything below that height is actually what you are setting for. So background color, duration, start time code, resolution, frame rate,  all of this, everything below the word height is what you are controlling for the imported comp.

Okay, just fine. So use whatever preset you want. I couldn't care less.

Well, I mean, don't use one that has like really high frame rates. Okay, I do care actually, I'm sorry. That one's fine.

That one's fine. Okay, really what you want to make sure is that says square. Pixels, which are the small little… Okay, so pixel is short for the word picture element.

It is the smallest individual unit of a digital image. Pixels can have different shapes. In most programs that you're used to working with and your phone, your computer screen, they are square.

But television used to have different shaped pixels. Some of them were like taller than they are or wider. So that's why that's a choice.

Every modern video size is based on that. So as long as you don't pick one that has wonky things like freaking that. Okay, see, that's square.

Okay, then you're fine. So that's fine. Social media size is fine.

They're all okay. So it doesn't say use that size, so use that size. That's the important thing.

Couldn't care less. There's going to be a layer covering the background. So I couldn't care what that is.

Okay, and I say, okay. I didn't even name it because its only job, by the way,  is to exist and then get deleted. The only job of that comp was to set what the default will be.

When I do go import my infographics,  why is this like that? Infographics screen two is what I'm importing. Import as composition, retain layer sizes. Both of those check boxes off.

The reason that turns on by default is because I named them this. Infographics screen one, two, and three. If I had not named them the same thing with a number at the end, it would not turn that on.

This makes it think it's a time lapse. It imports and turns into video. So it plays literally one frame after the other.

You don't want that. Okay, so that. Import as composition, retain layer sizes.

There's also a composition choice. What's the difference? Retain layer sizes makes the size of each layer the size of its content. So the bounding boxes around the content,  the way I showed you in Illustrator.

The other choice would make the bounding box the size of each layer, the size of the document. There are reasons to do either one. But in most situations,  this is the one that is easier to match.

Okay, so I say open. Or import if you're on Windows, I believe. And what I get is a composition.

And I double click on this comp that it makes for me. So I don't got to make my own comp. It literally made one where everything is laid out and named the way it was to match the Illustrator or Photoshop file, by the way, same thing.

So all those layers are in the same order they were in. All of the content is here. The headline, it's the background color right there.

See, there, there, all there. All laid out, no need to like move things around. Okay, now for the record,  what would have happened if you'd grabbed the folder instead? Everything would be in the middle of the screen.

This is what happens if you die in the folder, okay? They all end up in the middle of the screen. So don't do that, okay? The point is it literally makes a comp for you where everything is laid out and numbered. So the point of the folder is it's the individual pieces that it needs to like work with.

In general, that's what you want. Now for the record, if you were just using Illustrator file to hold assets that aren't laid out,  yeah, then delete that comp and just make a new comp and drag stuff in. But if you're dealing with something that's already laid out, already prearranged,  that's the point of that composition there, okay? It's kind of cool, by the way.

So don't touch what's in there. Double click that. It opens up.

Everything's laid out, okay? That's how you import an Illustrator or Photoshop file. There's like one Photoshop file lesson because most of the files here are Illustrator.