Sizing PSDS for After Effects / PreparingIllustrator files for After Effects : Adobe After Effects

3 questions

For the longest time I have been told when importing PSDs to
After effects, in order to keep circles circles (proper ratios) I had
to make a 720 540 PSD file and then crunch it down to 720 486. Then import the file to a D1 NTSC 720 486 after effects comp and everything works fine.And it does and always has

I have now been told otherwise. People claim they view in DV NTSC view
in Photoshop at 720 486 and then just import to a 720 486 DV1 After
Effects comp and everything is fine.

That view mode in Photoshop is for viewing purposes only though so this
confuses me. Sure you can sit there and stretch your picture to look
right in that mode but that doesn't make sense. Going 540 to 486 is
quicker.

But one weird thing I noticed is if you save your PSD with the NTSC
view mode turned on it will automatically import to After Effects with
DV NTSC comp settings. Otherwise it will import into a Square Pixels
comp.

So to simplify my questions are the following.

1. Is there a way to avoid creating a 720 540 PSD and then crunching
down to 486? And somehow keep circles circles and photographs not
stretched.

2. Why does the DV viewing mode in Photoshop effect the importing into
After Effects if it's just for preview purposes?

That said I like that viewing mode in Photoshop because when I do my
720 540 to 720 486 crunch I can see that everything will look fine.

If anyone can help it would be much appreciated. I've been fine doing what I'm doing but for the last couple years I have been told there's a quicker way and haven't found anyone who knows.

And my final question #3 is

How do you import an illustrattor file into After Effectcs with
layers? I know how to bring sa photoshop file in with layers but everytime I import an illustrator file in , it comes in flat as one layer.

Thanks very much to those who can help.

J.

Is there a way to avoid creating a 720 540 PSD and then crunching down
to 486? And somehow keep circles circles and photographs not stretched.




Not really and then "crunching down" is very much a matter of point of view. The real question is: Can you accept the variations e.g. in antialiasing introduced by creating your work with non-square pixels in Photoshop. Apparently doing so will affect horizontal sampling more than vertical and as there is a difference in how AE and PS deal with these matters, the result would be different. It also extends to the matter of how practical it would be to work with such files if you need to move them to applications that don't provide PAR correction...

Why does the DV viewing mode in Photoshop effect the importing into After
Effects if it's just for preview purposes?




It doesn't. The people told you only half the facts. Photoshop's PAR correction is just for viewing purposes, that's true, but it does not mean that PS itself would be unable to deal with non-square pixels. Whenever you create a files based on such presets, PS will correctly embed that information for saving, hence programs like AE that are able to extract that information, will use it to correctly interpret items.

How do you import an illustrattor file into After Effectcs with layers?




You can't. In the strict sense Illustrator has no layers, only objects and groups and since they can be infinitely combined in the funniest ways, it's a hell of a thing to read them right. Maybe in CS5 after all these years... (or even later).

Mylenium

Regarding question #3:

You can import an Illustrator (.ai) file with separate layers. Just make sure that you have Composition (or Composition - Cropped Layers) selected in the Import As menu in the Import File dialog box. If you instead have the default Footage selected, then all of the layers get merged together.

See "Import a single still image or a still-image sequence" <http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f78a.html>.

If choosing Composition from the Import As menu doesn't work for you, let us know.

Yepp, my mistake. I always confuse this kind of stuff. Doing too little with Illu, apparently. ;-)

Mylenium