How to import InDesign documents to After Effects

[@ToniOstrowski]

what an awesome way to bring your print or static designs to life! Thank you for posting.

[@SternFX]

You bet!

[@NeilFennell]

From a video professional who is always needing to incorporate designs, this was an absolutely perfect workflow. Thank you!

[@SternFX]

Thank you so much, Glad you enjoyed it!

[@saltmediadev]

There is an easier way. Just select the layers in InDesign, copy, then paste in an Illustrator artboard. I haven't checked on Mac, but on Windows it copies the layers as is with editable text, though drop shadows and effects transfer as clip groups. (Hopefully one day there will be a proper link between the apps!)

[@igobyandrew]

Has this changed at all since this comment?

[@saltmediadev]

@@igobyandrew Works for me still on Windows, just tested with some basic shapes and text.

[@halichummel2918]

Wow!! Absolutely great! I so much appreciate your work! I always wondered if there might be a possibility to do what you've just done. Please keep up your fantastic videos!

[@SternFX]

Thank you so much!

[@dumisanib7]

Smart, l was struggling on how to animate my portfolio. Thank you so much

[@thedifferencePostProduction]

Thank you!! 😍⚡👏

[@SternFX]

Welcome!

[@thedifferencePostProduction]

​@@SternFX❤💪⚡

[@wierzbicki.marek_blog_travel]

That's great idea to use indd files. I very curious how to use indd files on a different way. It is a good idea to make project in indd page and later animate it on AE

[@alicemarinasfx9421]

when i open my stuff in indesign everything changed / Size of the letters etc. also some of the texed is now a path. what did i do wrong?

[@SternFX]

I'm not sure what went wrong, the idea here is to start with InDesign and end with After Effects not the other way around.

[@protonprotonfix5749]

You completely missed that InDesign is able to export LAYERS in PDF in the export PDF options, so you can preserve them and skip the Illustrator part.

[@SternFX]

Thanks for your comment. I tested it again and it seems that After Effects can't read the layers from the PDF. Unless I'm doing something totally wrong. Please show me how you do it, this can save me and others so much time.

[@protonprotonfix5749]

@@SternFX Unfortunately you have to use Illustrator as a man in the middle. Organize your InDesign document in layers. Export as interactive PDF with layers. Import this PDF in Illustrator. Otherwise shown in your video the elements aren´t clustered in several layers that have to be collected. Export this PDF from Illustrator as a new PDF and open it as a composition in AfterEffects. The layers are still intact. I can´t understand why Illustrator exports layered PDFs better for After Effects then InDesign. Adobe should fix this.

[@SternFX]

@@protonprotonfix5749 Thanks for the advice about the Interactive PDF, it does save time in Illustrator.

[@RemyMNdow]

Shame on adobe that you can't do this out of the box