Import from Illustrator to After Effects with Overlord - Tutorial

Import from Illustrator to After Effects with Overlord - Tutorial
Hey everyone. In this tutorial I'll explain how to use the plugin Overlord. It's a great plugin you can use to import your artwork from Adobe Illustrator to Adobe After Effects. No saving of Illustrator files needed!
I'm not being paid by the creator of Overlord to say this or to make this video, it's just a plugin I found a while back and it really improved my workflow a whole lot!
You can buy the plugin here if you are interested: www.battleaxe....
My most used plugins:
Flow:
aescripts.com/...
Rift:
aescripts.com/...
Motion:
www.mtmograph....
Textevo:
aescripts.com/...
Buttcapper:
www.battleaxe....
Don't hesitate to ask any questions you have in the comments! I will do my best to answer as many questions as possible.
If you liked the video, please consider hitting that like button! Subscribe to the channel to get even more tutorials (uploaded on a regular basis) and get your After Effects skills to the next level!
Thanks and enjoy :)
Bas

[@captaincustard2115]

Adobe need to get on this ...perfect example of two programs working together, how you would imagine.

[@animatonia3094]

I have been using After Effects for 4-5 years now and I have NEVER, I repeat NEVER seen a plugin this POWERFUL!! Creators of this plugin need more recognition...

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

I agree, this plugin is a MUST for everyone using AI and AE. Thanks for watching! :)

[@AutismFamilyChannel]

It amazes me how Adobe brags about its programs working seamlessly together. Then something like Overlord comes along and ACTUALLY does what Adobe claims to do.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Haha yeah exactly! I'm so grateful for this plugin, can't live without it anymore.

[@MHM4V3R1CK]

Was thinking the same thing

[@safetyhomeloans950]

your simplistic and casual way of teaching is AWESOME!!!! is as if your friend is right there showing you how to use this tool... best tutorial ever...and Yes I'm using your link to purchase the plugin!!!!!!!

[@bakarimkambo4376]

I literally started using this plugin today, This video helped me to get a hang of other little tools inside. Thank you.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Awesome man! :) Glad I could be of service.

[@tobiasmalmberg5929]

Besides the ability to import layers into ae really fast, the fact that you can edit shapes in ai and then push it to ae is worth the money for this plugin alone!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah I agree. This plugin is basically essential for my workflow right now. Thanks for watching my man! :)

[@iridescentsea3730]

Thank you for this video demonstration. I was having trouble with Overlord because I did not realize I needed to have Path selected in order to update the shape from Illustrator.

[@bjornvanvelzen413]

I was watching this to see if Overlord is worth the $45 and I was already sold after 50 seconds! Great plugin!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Haha awesome! :)

[@BenExcell]

I'm late to the party here but I read this comment and thought "no way they actually mean 50 seconds" Sure enough, 50 seconds in and my jaw drops

[@JeremyMuradesign]

Welcome back brother doing so well!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Thanks man! :)

[@TommoCarroll]

Excellent tutorial. Simple. Clean. Nice!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Thanks! :)

[@Toebiscuit]

This is solid gold!! Thanks so much for taking the time to put this together. Beer Blessings!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching :)

[@mistertamura6190]

Yet another example of Adobe not being in touch with their own products, their users or just basic workflow. I’d love to see BattleAxe make the same kind of insta-bridge between illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign.

[@Remy.]

Love it as well! Also when you import an illustrator file with gradients, they turn up as grey boxes. AE doesn't support it, but with overlord you can import elements with gradients :) However, the shapes need to be named differently otherwise multiple shapes have the same gradients.. It's not perfect but still convenient ^^

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah I noticed that too! This tool doesn't stop amazing me haha.Thanks for watching! :)

[@brunoiligo5051]

This is great. Happy that you back =)

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Awesome, thanks for watching man :)

[@jeremyzhu8885]

the pull of the path really blow my mind!!!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

I know right! Cheers Jeremy! :)

[@petrholusa5855]

Bought this plugin recently and I don't understand how I could live without this and make my life complicated with idiotic saving and importing.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Haha yeah I agree. This plugin changed the game for me.

[@goo4450]

I just got this plugin today. I am super excited about it!

[@jithinvalavath3014]

can you please share the set up file? :)

[@yellowbeck6209]

so helpful, thank you very much!

[@Toebiscuit]

Holy Carpe! This is a game changer for me! Thx so much, Camp Director Keyframe!!!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Great! Thanks for watching :)

[@TheKlausunderwin]

Wow, great tool, I purchased it just after I watched this video. Thanks for the tip.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah this tool is so great, can't live without it anymore. Thanks for watching :)

[@RT38916]

amazing plugin! thanks for the tutorial! It would be great if Adobe just had this built in years ago!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah this plugin is the best, can't live without it. So crazy that Adobe has never built this as a standard feature. Thanks for watching the tutorial :)

[@daviddooleymedia]

Great overview video, thanks for making it

[@ok2x]

Just found overlord and love it. !!!

[@MylonasFilms]

well that looks bloody briiliant.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Haha yeah it is!

[@MylonasFilms]

@@CampKeyframetutorials Hey I pasted some inDesign pictures to Illustrator , then used overload to Aftereffects, but all pics come in as a blank shape layer. Text etc work fine

[@hinaos1518]

This is my dream I always use ae and ai but now it's waaaaay easier thank u very much.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Awesome! This tool also made my workflow 1000x better. Cheers! :)

[@Iamkabera]

Camp Keyframe is back, awesome.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Arthur Kabera Yeah! Thanks for watching 🙏🏻😀

[@historyfaith1236]

thanks kindly for taking the time to share this video. high five.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

And thank you for watching! :)

[@heytekro]

Adobe should make this a feature on their products.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Totally agree!

[@GuyInc0gnit0]

Man fuck! Now I regret not buying this years ago! Better late than never I guess! Thanks for the video!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Haha yeah this tool is great. Thanks for watching! :)

[@jaykaslo]

Great walk-through. Just sub'd. :) Gonna go purchase Overlord now...

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Awesome, thanks! :) Have fun with Overlord, your animation life will never be the same.

[@jaykaslo]

@@CampKeyframetutorials Indeed! Just kicked off a new illustration/animation series called Color Pals. Perfect workflow with Overlord + Edit Monkey :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/jmbJmXhmiJiCd7M

[@تبصرة]

Wow ! Thanks

[@norabatsi9219]

Hi, thank you for this video, it's very clear and simple and I understand how this tool works. I just have a question: when you upload the red circle into illustrator there is some black marks arround it? what are those? Is there some kind of bug?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Thanks for the kind words! :) Yeah it's some kind of bug, doesn't show up when importing back in to AE though, don't know what it is. Cheers!

[@btmathews415]

This Rocks!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Thanks! :)

[@muhammedpurathayil7041]

Great video

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Thank you! :)

[@teabagNBG]

i have one big problem, im not really sure how i can edit paths of the stuff.. .sometimes it works i can select anchor points and other timies it just moves the whole object... am i missing something`?

[@KitarPratiK]

Thank you, good sir.

[@macjonald]

Thanks!

[@tief1975]

very nice

[@milkibearmilkibear]

Very good. Thx!

[@rishikeshrathore]

Keep the videos coming 👍

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah I will! Thanks for watching :)

[@funside7662]

this is good but how can we update color? when i update colors in Ai and pull into after effects, it doesnt update old layers, it creates new layers.

[@antstock13]

Dope Plugin, well worth the money.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Awesome! :)

[@nikyabodigital]

Well fuck! How come adobe don't make these built in.. this is a good way to really feel the adobe ecosystem. this plugin is a must for animator that's for sure.

[@JayBaggio]

The push/pull tools don't seem to recognize scattered strokes? (like with a spray brush). I have a scene with trees for instance and to add a shadow with grain on the green shape representing the leaves, I have clipped a spray-like brush on one side of the tree, within the shape of the tree. When I push to AI, only the shape is transferred but not the grain. Is that normal?

[@berroinc]

tks Camp Keyframe!

[@mdmahoud]

in your old video that u talked about animating imessenger iphone text..How I can write a paragraph? I mean I want to write a long message so how I can opne boarder to fit the paragraph?

[@UttamPrajapati-k5z]

where to download?

[@The_Charden]

Do you know how to uninstall it from mac? i am having a lot of issues and i think it's because i upgraded to Adobe 2023, but now i can't uninstall overlord, i don't know how

[@MBMZIR]

I am having some issues with it; 1. It brings shapes into AE as paths except for Rectangle & Ellipse, it gives size and roundness options with rectangle and ellipse but not with other shapes. 2. sometimes it changes the colors of my shapes. 3. sometimes it doesn't bring complete shapes.

[@richochet]

I am pretty sure this is resolved by now, but do you have the latest version and have you reached out to Overlord support?

[@agusfirdaus7802]

Hi, got a problem on the Mac Studio. Nothing happened when i click the Push to AE button. Really need help on it. Tried using rosetta, and tried to do as per the website suggested. still nothing happens

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hi Agus! I had the same problem but that's because of an After Effects update. Overlord released an update so if you update Overlord it works again :)

[@nicoljcraig]

I've noticed when you import elements with brushes then when it comes into Ae it reverts back to the basic stroke. Do you know anyway to push it to Ae with all design attributes?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah you'll need to convert it to shapes. So it will convert everything to anchor points. Go to object - Expand. That should do it :)

[@xoff]

Own and love this plugin! I do have a bug which I can't find any fixes on. Every time I import from AI to AE my AE maximised window downsizes. I then have to max it out again. Really annoying when I have to do this repeatedly all day. Anyone else who goes through this or have a fix?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey! Did you check the setting menu for Overlord, there is a function that says: 'DISABLE AE APP SWITCHING...' Some Windows systems have a problem with resizing the whole After Effects window when switching between apps. Users report fullscreening Ae with Ctrl+\ instead of dragging the window to the top of screen fixes the problem. If that doesn't fix the problem for you, this option is available. Let me know if that works! :)

[@xoff]

@@CampKeyframetutorials Hi there :) I just tried going into settings and I don't see that function you mention. I'm running the v1.22 but maybe there is a later version that has that function? Also tried full screening shortcut. Still no change.

[@chriskilbane7378]

I love this plugin, thanks for the overview, does anyone know if I can pull selections through then access the layer view so I can paint the imported layer and animate that, known as the paint reveal effect, can it work with overlord?

[@hossamsalem8878]

What are those other extensions in the panel (O-O) ?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey! I've added my most used plugins in the description of the video :)

[@frankvasquez4827]

Hey, thank you for the tutorial @Camp Keyframe, but, is it just me or when I'm trying to pull a compound object from Ai to Ae it doesn't work?

[@eggroll121]

Where are the resource files?

[@andredemony]

It would be nice if they released an update that works in CC 2020...

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey! I'm using CC 2020 and it works perfectly! :)

[@andredemony]

@@CampKeyframetutorials Ok! I will try asap. Just assumed it wouldn´t work since they claim support up to CC 2019 only.

[@avinashsurve2898]

is this plugin use in crack version?

[@pheasantpluck]

Thank you for this!! I was hoping someone else will have run into it, but looking down below I am the only one. I am trying to push a background for AI and it is a photo. It is not being pushed. Does Overlord only push things created in AI? Thank you so much for this.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey! Thanks for watching :) No unfortunately you can not export photo's into AE from AI. You'll need to import the photo directly into After Effects. If you have an embedded photo in Illustrator and don't have the original file anymore on your hard drive, you can click the photo in Illustrator and click on 'Unembed' in the top bar. Then you can save the photo somewhere and you can import it directly into After Effects. Hope this helps a bit! :)

[@pheasantpluck]

@@CampKeyframetutorials Yess!! I had tried it out but nice to hear confirmation that that's the best workaround. Thank you very much for the response, super duper cool

[@superlelique]

I love overlord, but there is a problem - it never let me push more than 248 shapes into composition. Do you know something about that? Thanx.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Maybe it's a limit that Overlord has. You could try to do it in steps? Divide your artwork into multiple layers and then import with Overlord in a couple passes, maybe that works?

[@superlelique]

@@CampKeyframetutorials yes, that's what i did, but still curious )

[@esaperkasa2711]

it doesnt work with gradients, or am i doin it wrong? have u tried it?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey Esa. Yeah gradients also work perfectly. Don't know why it's not working with you but it works when I do it.

[@esaperkasa2711]

@@CampKeyframetutorials sometimes it shows wrond gradient direction or blank gradient :(

[@Runningl8te]

I keep getting the "Create comp first" error when pushing or pulling through Overlord. Anyone know what this means? Thanks!

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah I think you don't have a composition made in After Effects yet. You need a composition to import something into.

[@Runningl8te]

@@CampKeyframetutorials I definitely had comps hahaha. I've looked into it and played around a bit. I think Overlord has occasional bugs/problems with AE linked comps (to Premiere Pro projects) as well as compound paths in Illustrator.

[@nikyabodigital]

Bought mine and it doesn't work on adobe cc 2021.. What about youguys?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah it does work on cc 2021 with me! Don't know why it doesn't work with you :(

[@phillrichards1317]

Overlord rasterizes my elements once they're in AE. Cont Rasterize is turned on...any ideas?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Yeah Overlord converts your .ai files to shape layers (that way you don't need the .ai files anymore) and shape layers are automatically Cont. Rasterized. So that's a great thing! :)

[@shafiqfazrin905]

Why my ai dont have that overload Can anybody help me pliss?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey! It's not part of ai or ae, it's a plugin you need to buy. The link is in the description of the video :)

[@wolfreicherter748]

ma man

[@Toebiscuit]

This seems to work great, but only if you have ONE path per shape layer. =[

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

No you can have multiple path layers per shape, it doesn't matter. Maybe play around with the 'explode' button. That will divide all your shapes into different layers if you want :)

[@Toebiscuit]

@@CampKeyframetutorials - correct. There are multiple shapes, but you can't just push/pull one path individually. All layers will be pushed/pulled. Then when you push/pull them back they create a NEW layer in AE with the updated shapes. =[ edit: still playing around with this.... I've found that Overlord is amazing at sending individual layers (single component) from AI --> AE and converting them to shape layers. Period. But don't waste hours of your life (like me) trying to edit multiple paths in one shape layer AE. Overlord will gladly push that over to AE (don't do it). Push/pulling/editing anything in AI at this point is a dumpster fire. Still dig Overlord. Def worth $45 of saved production time.

[@rananawito3526]

If you are purchasing Overlord use discount code "nick", it saves you 10$.

[@TonyFalcon76]

thanks a lot :) it worked

[@MrChrislombard]

why isnt this native to after effects?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Because Adobe is dumb sometimes haha.

[@MrChrislombard]

@@CampKeyframetutorials its odd how a company that employs actual geniuses wont come up with things like this and DUIK. Makes me wonder what their priorities really are.

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

@@MrChrislombard I think I know what their priorities are: 💰💰💰

[@MrChrislombard]

@@CampKeyframetutorials yup.

[@flashgiz1]

Great plugin but didn't work with fonts. It's actually better to copy paste the text from AI to AE

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey it does work with fonts actually! I use it all the time. Perfectly creates a type layer in AE from the AI text!

[@cedricadougba324]

👍🏿

[@isaackabigting]

pixelord free alternative

[@isaackabigting]

on git hub

[@jpeg.jordaan]

start of video i was like meh its not too much issue saving an Ai file. Then you started clicking buttons...

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Haha yeah doing it the old fashion way still works of course but this just saves me so much time. Thanks for watching! :)

[@TNGraFix]

This thing puts adobe to shame. It should be a function by default.

[@LOGOTIPERO]

this overlord is the most shitty tool, nothing happens when I click it, I re-installed and nothing happens

[@MBMZIR]

I over expected from overload, my bad, disappointed.

[@nilevalleyrich_]

i purchased. did not work with current version of after effects * i want an app that can animate my avatar/logo you see to the right* can overlord be used to import export layers such as feathers and beaks ?

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

Hey! Which version of After Effects do you have? Because Overlord works perfectly with me and my colleagues, we all have the latest version of After Effects. You can import everything from Illustrator to After Effects so yeah, feathers and beaks as well :)

[@nilevalleyrich_]

@@CampKeyframetutorials zxp did work with version of after effects

[@CampKeyframetutorials]

@@nilevalleyrich_ Awesome! :)