After Effects and Illustrator

[Unknown_User12]

So I made a few masks in AE and needed to merge them, so I copied them into a blank AI document. I held the endpoints and joined them. They merged into one path which is what I wanted. I went to copy it back over to AE and it split back into multiple masks again. Anyone know a good solution?

 

[PressRecord]

It's been a while since I've worked with illustrator but when you merge photoshop files in it gives you an option to merge everything together or do individual layers. Is illustrator the same way?

 

[Unknown_User12]

It's been a while since I've worked with illustrator but when you merge photoshop files in it gives you an option to merge everything together or do individual layers. Is illustrator the same way?

It is, but I'm merging paths as opposed to layers. So there isn't anything to merge layer wise

 

[PressRecord]

It is, but I'm merging paths as opposed to layers. So there isn't anything to merge layer wise

Gotcha, well I don't have a solution for you using illustrator, but why can't you create your masks and precomp them so that it is one? It's technically not one but they are nested together.
Would this work for what you are trying to do?

 

[Unknown_User12]

Gotcha, well I don't have a solution for you using illustrator, but why can't you create your masks and precomp them so that it is one? It's technically not one but they are nested together.
Would this work for what you are trying to do?

I'm taking a still image and masking it out to only have the character in the middle, so the masks are associated with that file, not as their own layer

 

[PressRecord]

I'm taking a still image and masking it out to only have the character in the middle, so the masks are associated with that file, not as their own layer

I'd have to see what you're doing to make sense of it. Sorry I can't help more.