Hello,... need help with individual layer sizes....

[Falcon7]

Ok, in After Effects, I am importing an Illustrator file with a lot of layers as a composition. My problem is many of the layers have small artwork within them and I need to be able to animate them appropriate to their size (meaning -the bounding boxes to exactly fit around the layers's artwork) however, even the layers that contain only small artwork take on the dimensions of the over entire
illustrator file! That drives me nuts! Please don't tell me that I have to import all the individual layers in the illustrator file as individual footage items. There has to be a way, when bringing it in as a comp, to tell After Effects to use each individual layers dimensions while maintaining their relative positions, right?
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Ray

 

[johnnytheboy]

I have had a simliar problem. one solution might be to place a large square with 0% alpha on each layer in Illustrator. This layer should be invisible and if you make it exactly the same size and position on each layer, and of course larger than any artwork, then when you import it into AE it should be centred around this box.

Give it a go, I used this solution for something similar but it might work for you!

John

 

[EdwardMartinIII]

So, you can still animate them, it's just a case of having a big bounding box, right?

I'm not sure about Illustrator, but in Photoshop, the way to prepare files such that the bounding box is tight to the art for that layer is to make the rest of that layer transparent. So, uncheck the eyes for all the other layers and see if you get the white-and-gray checkbox background.

You should.

Cheers,


Edward

"Cut a hole in the door. Hang a flap. Criminy, why didn't I think of this earlier?!" -- inventor of the cat door