Communigate Pro AE-List@media-motion.tv Message 53132

I still don't understand why you move from your photoshop application to illustrator.

your main compositing application should be the one you got the files in.

if thats photoshop then do all your work in photoshop

if its illustrator than you should do all your work there.

you can scale your SVO indefinitely while in photoshop (if they are vectors to begin with of course)

you don't need to go back to illustrator to do so.

if you created them in photoshop than they could of course could only scale at the maximum scale you created them in.

and they will open as a seperate psb file.

basically the approach when working with multiple psd elements is you work with two files:

one is your design file -> the one you got from the designer

this file is the one you show to your client and make design changes too

since this work is done for you now, you can now duplicate that file and make an AE copy

where only the necessary files are there, merge what you can to avoid the clutter.

in this file you:

1.name good understandable names for all the layers

2. apply all pixel masks because you dont need them anymore. you want the file at their true cropped size for ae.

3. you can leave smart objects intact or rasterize them (it doesn't matter) but you scale them first as you wish to the largest size needed for ae.

they will be imported to ae at cropped size (if you choose that when you import) as pixel layers

4. delete duplicated elements that you intend to animate in AE so you wont make the same animation twice (D.R.Y workflow)

5.consider that clipping masks will import as precomps with their clipped contant so merge what you can to avoid moving between precomps

6. merge what you can. if there is no need for those elements to move separately -> you can merge them.

see if that helps and if there are more questions ask away.

On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 9:52 PM, scott.aelist <scott.aelist@gmail.com> wrote:

If it's helpful i've posted a little diagram of my process here: http://i.imgur.com/resFDjm.jpg

Teddy yes I save all my SVOs into one AI file... still, it is very time-consuming to have to handle each of these layers individually. I have move them to a new layer, group them (if the object isn't grouped), scale them up, name the layer... etc etc. I thought I might be able to open the PS in AE but it treats all the SVOs as placed raster objects, not as vector objects.

Roei thanks for your comment. If you have any tips i'd love to hear.

I feel like there is no quick solution to this and i simply need to file a feature request asking to be able to convert Smart vector objects to shape layers.

On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 11:34 AM, Roei Tzoref <yooofi@gmail.com> wrote:

hey scott.

I would like to help you solve your workflow problem.

I work on a news channel where we have to deliver very fast and rely on fast psd/ai->ae workflow

making the shift from psd vectors to ae is kind of my expertise.
I also teach students where troubleshooting psd/ai->ae is my main teaching focus.
but enough about me, please contact if you still need some help and me I am pretty sure I can help you sort some of this mess out.

On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 1:31 AM, scott.aelist <scott.aelist@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm frustrated with the amount of redundant file prep i'm having to do on a current job and I'm wondering if there's a faster way. I'm tasked with animating some little vignettes for a travel show.

A friend is illustrating the shot in photoshop and then i have to animate from the PSD. Ideally I would just import the PSD into AE and go, but I can't. A lot of the assets are vector objects so I end up opening EVERY SINGLE smart vector object in AI and then I have to save all these layers out as AI files. I thought maybe I could import the PSD into AE and convert it to shape layers or an AI file there, but no dice. I should also mention that I have to scale up all these vector assets 200% because sometimes I need layers larger than they appear in the PSD, and if I use continually rasterize it often screws up any effects or puppeting I have on my layer. This takes an enormous amount of time and my client doesn't understand why I can't turn these things out in a day or two, and I have to make these dubious-sounding excuses of how I have to 'prepare' all these assets for animation. Is there a faster way? And am I the only one who scales up all their AI assets before bringing into AE?