Thank you for pointing out common mistakes before doing it the right way. I was really confused that I didn't even know where to begin my questions, but now it's all clear. I think you're a really great tutor who's not only skilled, but also empathetic & understanding of their students.
This is one of those rare videos. No unnecessary tangents, just straight to the point. I love how you also showed what will happen if we did the wrong thing. Thank you very much and I hope you're doing well!
I am only 10 minutes into the video and it has been the MOST helpful explanation to a whole set of other videos to include the Adobe ones. Thank youuuuuu and now, I will continue watching. ...SO helpful!!!
you have an amazing way of explaining things. the wrong examples helps understand exactly where we are going wrong. one of the best tutorials i have ever seen ❤
I will definitely check out your other videos!! The instructions you give are perfect, not too much detail, but not too little so your not lost. I find most video are too fast and don't explain enough or go into so much detail I loose interest and move on. Thanks!
Im 15mins in. Actually I know all of the stuff you said till there but I have to say that your explanation style is very dope and beginner friendly. I am definitely going to watch more of your stuff. Especially because you also show common mistakes!! That's so helpful!
i like the way you explain plus occasionally previewing the finished product, with the animation, of course:) reminding me what the actual finished product is really like. Thanks..and i like your smile too!
Thank you for the nice tutorial! I had a small issue, my files imported as a one flat layer whatever I did. It was because I turned off pdf compatibility exporting AI file to save space, so it's crucial to turn on PDF compatibility to work in Adobe aftereffects
Really good explanation. My goal is to create a diagram in Illustrator and animate paths etc. in After Effects. This video has given me confidence to have a go now.
Thank you for posting this! Even though I’ve been using AE for awhile, I even bought Overlord to work back and forth between Ai and AE. I’m so glad I stumbled upon your channel, you help me understand how AE better.
Thanks so much for revealing this workflow! Very informative and simple. And its just crazy how AI and AE are not working back and forth correctly and intuitive. Adobe has something to do with it.
Hello! I’m really glad I found your videos!!! ❤️ I love it! Is it possible to do the same video but for preparing a character for animation on AI to AE..with the rounds on every single joints..Probably I am talking about the Rigging preparation. Thanks a lot in advance! 🙈🙈❤️
Hi Megan, Thank you for these informative videos. My issue is, after importing a file from illustrator, the duration becomes very very short. Please what could be the issue?
You're welcome 😀 To fix that issue, go to Composition in the top menu bar, then Composition Settings. Change the duration to however long you want the comp to be. Then select all your layers and drag the ends to fill the timeline.
Hi! Thank you for such a valuable effort here. I've been lately incorporating animation and motion graphics into my offer. I'm having kind of an issue: When designing my compositions with the native shape builder in AE (which allow me to animate more specific properties of each element right from the start) instead of dynamic linking files from AI, I sometimes get pixelated artwork when nesting precomps into bigger compositions and doing camera panning. I've triple checked my camera focal length is matching the layer I want to focus on, as well as having the "continously rasterize" toggle on (which is defaulted to always on btw when I make shapes on AE don't know why). Still don't seem to be able to solve this pixelating issue. SO, (and sorry for the lengthy comment) I thought therin came the relevance of making the artwork first on AI and the importing over to AE, but what would be the point of that if later we're turning those layers into native shapes? I would've thought having those linked to a vector layer back in AI was the only way AE could refer to any vecto information when doing that continous rasterizing. So is that info lost when creating shapes from vector layer in AE? I'm sure I'm probably not approaching this matter the best way, any advice would be truly appreciated. Thank you for this excellent channel, subscriber for life.
Good question and I know you're not the only one that's experienced that issue. Continuous rasterization means that AE will calculate the vectors on every frame so that they are always crisp (ie not blurry/pixelated). Shape layers will always be continuously rasterized since they are vectors. Vector shapes imported from AI can be continuously rasterized by turning on the switch. Shape layers created in AE, vector layers from AI converted to shape layers, and vector layers from AI with continuously rasterize turned on should all act the same way. When any of these 3 types of vector layers are put into a pre-comp, the continuously rasterize switch will need to be turned on for the pre-comp in order for the layers to remain crisp. However, this can complicate things (especially when using cameras) because the continuously rasterize toggle actually has two jobs. The other is "collapse transformations". I wish this weren't the case because it can cause many headaches, but there should be a way to fix the issue you're having. While this isn't my video, I think it explains what you need well: ua-cam.com/video/Ns41v75th_I/v-deo.htmlsi=DSKM0uDENkhJ9Wjt Hope that helps and glad to have you as a subscriber! 😀
@Key Designer sorry, I don't actually share this file anywhere because I think it would be better practice to create your own artwork in Illustrator, even if you just create something with basic shapes.
Wow, what a really fantasticly clear tutorial of how to do this. Top class, LIKED AND SUBBED. Thank you so much, keep up the great work. Oh, Curiosity, what software tools are you using for you video creation - can you share. Thank you again.
@@AidanJoyce Thank you! :) I use Screenflow to record my computer screen for the tutorial and do some basic editing within Screenflow. Then, I edit everything together in Premiere Pro (talking head footage, title cards/graphics from After Effects, music, etc.)
I love you and your tutorials! But I have an important question. I have the latest AE update (Version 24.6) and I can't see the "Overlord" panel! Where can I find it?
Thanks! Overlord is a paid add-on tool, so if you downloaded and installed it, it would be under Window > Extensions. I'm sorry if that was confusing in the video. Overlord is definitely not necessary to import Illustrator files into After Effects, but I (and a lot of other professional motion designers) use it, so I thought it was worth mentioning in the video.
I have this assignment where I can choose to do frame by frame or vector animation. I love the clean style of vector, but seems like it takes triple the amount of time to animate compared to frame by frame.
I think it depends on what you're trying to animate (how complex it is, the frame rate, etc.) and your experience (including how good you are at drawing). For me, it would take much long to animate most things frame by frame!
Hi Megan, your video is really helpful, I'd like to try the overlord plugin but the coupon link doesn't seem to apply any discount, even when I input the "explanimated" coupon code at checkout. Is it still valid by any chance ? many thanks
All good importing the ai file to after effects, but when i create shapes from vector layer, the bounding box is big and to fix that i have to delete a "group 1" in the content of the layer... why does that happen??
I don't know of one but maybe someone else does. There is a there's a plugin for AE called Motion 4 (by Mt. Mograph) that will allow you to name multiple layers at once. So if you have a bunch of layers that are all the same thing, and you want to name and number them, for example "line 1", "line 2", "line 3", etc. you can do that easily with Motion 4.
When I import the .ai file, it align>centers each shape in the file to the center of the screen. It also l ayers them alphabetically which is so annoying. What is going on?
Make sure you have the exact settings that I do at 12:50. So 'Import As: Composition - Retain Layer Sizes' and make sure that 'Force Alphabetical Order' is not checked. Then once the file is imported, from the Project panel, you want to open the composition that it creates for you. It will also create a folder of all the vector layers, but if you drag all of the vector layers from the folder into a composition, they'll all be in the center of the comp. Hope that helps!
Thank you for pointing out common mistakes before doing it the right way. I was really confused that I didn't even know where to begin my questions, but now it's all clear. I think you're a really great tutor who's not only skilled, but also empathetic & understanding of their students.
Thank you! I appreciate that ☺
This is one of those rare videos. No unnecessary tangents, just straight to the point. I love how you also showed what will happen if we did the wrong thing. Thank you very much and I hope you're doing well!
Thank you! 😊
I am only 10 minutes into the video and it has been the MOST helpful explanation to a whole set of other videos to include the Adobe ones. Thank youuuuuu and now, I will continue watching. ...SO helpful!!!
Thank you! That’s great to hear 😊
WOW this has saved me!!!!!! Thank you so much for making an in-depth video on this, what a game changer!!!!!
So glad this was helpful!
working as pro since 2 yrs and this is all i actually do. very accurate video. also shows how much adobe products suck
you have an amazing way of explaining things. the wrong examples helps understand exactly where we are going wrong. one of the best tutorials i have ever seen ❤
Thank you! 😀
I will definitely check out your other videos!! The instructions you give are perfect, not too much detail, but not too little so your not lost. I find most video are too fast and don't explain enough or go into so much detail I loose interest and move on. Thanks!
Thanks! I'm happy to hear that!
Im 15mins in. Actually I know all of the stuff you said till there but I have to say that your explanation style is very dope and beginner friendly. I am definitely going to watch more of your stuff.
Especially because you also show common mistakes!! That's so helpful!
Thank you! 😃
Hi, I'm a Brazilian editor and this video helped me a lot, thank you 🧠🙏
Glad it helped!
i like the way you explain plus occasionally previewing the finished product, with the animation, of course:) reminding me what the actual finished product is really like. Thanks..and i like your smile too!
Thanks!
So systematic ✅5 minutes into the video and I wanna say thank you❤. Sincerely, a video editor from Kenya
Glad you found it helpful!
Thank you for the nice tutorial! I had a small issue, my files imported as a one flat layer whatever I did. It was because I turned off pdf compatibility exporting AI file to save space, so it's crucial to turn on PDF compatibility to work in Adobe aftereffects
Really good explanation. My goal is to create a diagram in Illustrator and animate paths etc. in After Effects. This video has given me confidence to have a go now.
Thanks, that's great to hear! Good luck with your project!
Thank you for posting this! Even though I’ve been using AE for awhile, I even bought Overlord to work back and forth between Ai and AE.
I’m so glad I stumbled upon your channel, you help me understand how AE better.
That’s great to hear! I’m glad you found this helpful 😀
this video is what i was looking for, complete step by step approach. Great work :)
Thank you 😀
such a cool tutorial, the voice is smoothing like a butter with extra cheese
Thanks so much for revealing this workflow! Very informative and simple. And its just crazy how AI and AE are not working back and forth correctly and intuitive. Adobe has something to do with it.
You have explained each thing very properly.. Thanks
the way of explanation is awsm🔥
Thank you!
Fabulously done! This has saved me hours of work. Thank you so much!!
Glad to hear it! 😀
Wonderfully explained. Surprised that these videos don't have enough views/likes.
Thanks!
EVERYTHING I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR IN ONE VIDEO THANK YOU SO MUCH
Yay! I’m glad you found it helpful!
a lot of thanks for making and sharin your video!!
You’re welcome!
Love it Thanks
Very helpful tips. Thanks a ton
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you. I wish my trainer had taught this. I wouldn't have wasted time on my project. I eventually found out, my mistake, but wasted too much time.
Glad this helped!
This is incredibly helpful. Thanks for posting! Blows my mind that Illustrator and AE work so poorly with each other.
Glad it was helpful! Yeah, you’d think something like Overlord would be built into Illustrator and After Effects by now!
Your tutorials are amazing!
Thank you!
Thank you Megan ,This was Awesome ,The best After effects course on YT🙏🙏🙏
Hello! I’m really glad I found your videos!!! ❤️ I love it! Is it possible to do the same video but for preparing a character for animation on AI to AE..with the rounds on every single joints..Probably I am talking about the Rigging preparation. Thanks a lot in advance! 🙈🙈❤️
Yes, great suggestion! That's definitely on my list of tutorials to make.
Great tutorial! Really nice explaining. Thanks a lot! :)
That’s so good to hear! Thanks!
great video.. learned a lot
Great video, you explain things beautifully. thanks for creating this content for all us noobs out there :)
Hi Megan,
Thank you for these informative videos.
My issue is, after importing a file from illustrator, the duration becomes very very short.
Please what could be the issue?
You're welcome 😀 To fix that issue, go to Composition in the top menu bar, then Composition Settings. Change the duration to however long you want the comp to be. Then select all your layers and drag the ends to fill the timeline.
@@animation-explained Thanks a lot Megan. I just finished designing my first project using Ai and Ae
Hi! Thank you for such a valuable effort here.
I've been lately incorporating animation and motion graphics into my offer.
I'm having kind of an issue:
When designing my compositions with the native shape builder in AE (which allow me to animate more specific properties of each element right from the start) instead of dynamic linking files from AI, I sometimes get pixelated artwork when nesting precomps into bigger compositions and doing camera panning.
I've triple checked my camera focal length is matching the layer I want to focus on, as well as having the "continously rasterize" toggle on (which is defaulted to always on btw when I make shapes on AE don't know why). Still don't seem to be able to solve this pixelating issue.
SO, (and sorry for the lengthy comment) I thought therin came the relevance of making the artwork first on AI and the importing over to AE, but what would be the point of that if later we're turning those layers into native shapes? I would've thought having those linked to a vector layer back in AI was the only way AE could refer to any vecto information when doing that continous rasterizing. So is that info lost when creating shapes from vector layer in AE?
I'm sure I'm probably not approaching this matter the best way, any advice would be truly appreciated.
Thank you for this excellent channel, subscriber for life.
Good question and I know you're not the only one that's experienced that issue.
Continuous rasterization means that AE will calculate the vectors on every frame so that they are always crisp (ie not blurry/pixelated). Shape layers will always be continuously rasterized since they are vectors. Vector shapes imported from AI can be continuously rasterized by turning on the switch. Shape layers created in AE, vector layers from AI converted to shape layers, and vector layers from AI with continuously rasterize turned on should all act the same way.
When any of these 3 types of vector layers are put into a pre-comp, the continuously rasterize switch will need to be turned on for the pre-comp in order for the layers to remain crisp. However, this can complicate things (especially when using cameras) because the continuously rasterize toggle actually has two jobs. The other is "collapse transformations". I wish this weren't the case because it can cause many headaches, but there should be a way to fix the issue you're having. While this isn't my video, I think it explains what you need well: ua-cam.com/video/Ns41v75th_I/v-deo.htmlsi=DSKM0uDENkhJ9Wjt
Hope that helps and glad to have you as a subscriber! 😀
Thanks!!
Thank you.
Thanx
Thank you !
You are the best!
this is very helpful. continue sharing your amazing and helpful videos. 💪
Thanks! 😀
@@animation-explained you're welcome. 👌
@Key Designer sorry, I don't actually share this file anywhere because I think it would be better practice to create your own artwork in Illustrator, even if you just create something with basic shapes.
Wow, what a really fantasticly clear tutorial of how to do this. Top class, LIKED AND SUBBED. Thank you so much, keep up the great work.
Oh, Curiosity, what software tools are you using for you video creation - can you share.
Thank you again.
I mean for this youtube video recording.
@@AidanJoyce Thank you! :)
I use Screenflow to record my computer screen for the tutorial and do some basic editing within Screenflow. Then, I edit everything together in Premiere Pro (talking head footage, title cards/graphics from After Effects, music, etc.)
I love you and your tutorials! But I have an important question. I have the latest AE update (Version 24.6) and I can't see the "Overlord" panel! Where can I find it?
Thanks! Overlord is a paid add-on tool, so if you downloaded and installed it, it would be under Window > Extensions. I'm sorry if that was confusing in the video. Overlord is definitely not necessary to import Illustrator files into After Effects, but I (and a lot of other professional motion designers) use it, so I thought it was worth mentioning in the video.
@@animation-explained Oh okay :) Thank you for your quick reply! I will surely use it once I get the hang of AE.
I have this assignment where I can choose to do frame by frame or vector animation. I love the clean style of vector, but seems like it takes triple the amount of time to animate compared to frame by frame.
I think it depends on what you're trying to animate (how complex it is, the frame rate, etc.) and your experience (including how good you are at drawing). For me, it would take much long to animate most things frame by frame!
@@animation-explained true, it takes me triple the amount because I rarely work with AI and AE, and I'm more familiar with TvPaint and Spine.
Hi Megan, your video is really helpful, I'd like to try the overlord plugin but the coupon link doesn't seem to apply any discount, even when I input the "explanimated" coupon code at checkout. Is it still valid by any chance ? many thanks
Unfortunately, my coupon code is no longer valid. Sorry about that!
All good importing the ai file to after effects, but when i create shapes from vector layer, the bounding box is big and to fix that i have to delete a "group 1" in the content of the layer... why does that happen??
That happens when you have a layer that's not 100% opacity or doesn't have the "Normal" blending mode. Annoying, I know!
LIFESAVER 😢😊
Is there any plugin to create separate layer in AI for AE (because this process take too much time)
I don't know of one but maybe someone else does. There is a there's a plugin for AE called Motion 4 (by Mt. Mograph) that will allow you to name multiple layers at once. So if you have a bunch of layers that are all the same thing, and you want to name and number them, for example "line 1", "line 2", "line 3", etc. you can do that easily with Motion 4.
When I import the .ai file, it align>centers each shape in the file to the center of the screen. It also l ayers them alphabetically which is so annoying. What is going on?
Make sure you have the exact settings that I do at 12:50. So 'Import As: Composition - Retain Layer Sizes' and make sure that 'Force Alphabetical Order' is not checked. Then once the file is imported, from the Project panel, you want to open the composition that it creates for you. It will also create a folder of all the vector layers, but if you drag all of the vector layers from the folder into a composition, they'll all be in the center of the comp. Hope that helps!
💗❤️💞💝💖💕💓❤💗💞❤️💝💖💕💓💛🧡