Comments on: Photoshop and Illustrator for After Effects

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 08 May 2010 11:20:49 +0000

Well, thanks for the tut! Will try this after finish readin

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 12:34:41 +0000

Thanks for this tut, just found your site. Def going to check back from now

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:18:11 +0000

Thanks for the update Erik! Best wishes, John.

By: Erik W

Erik W — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:13:39 +0000

I just wanted to update this because they just installed OS X 10.6 snow leopard on our machines at work and it doesn’t quite work the same way as 10.4 when you want to change the default application for opening a file type. “Always open with…” on snow leopard only applies the changes to that particular document and not to all documents of that file type. Here’s how to change the default application in snow leopard (from the mac help file):

To change the application that opens a document:

Select the document and choose File > Get Info.

Click the triangle next to “Open with” to expand the section.

Choose an application from the pop-up menu, or choose Other to locate a different application.

If you want to use that application to open all documents of the same type as the current document and created by the same application, click Change All.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 09:00:16 +0000

Thanks for helping Erik. Best wishes, John.

By: Erik W

Erik W — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:26:49 +0000

To change the application preference for PSD files (or any file type) on a Mac just right-click on any PSD file in any Finder window and then hold down alt so that “open with” changes to “always open with” then just select the application you want.

I have CS3 and I use the “edit original” feature (command + E) constantly to edit the original file from within After Effects and I found that it works flawlessly if you play by AE’s rules. Break the rules and it will not update automatically.

The rules are:
- Open the file from within AE with the command + E shortcut
- Make whatever changes you want to the file
- Save the file
- Return to AE and the file automatically updates

Any deviation from this sequence can cause the automatic update to not work.

For example: If you select a PSD file in AE and hit Command + E to open it in Photoshop and make a change but before you save your PSD file you click back on AE for a moment to look at something in your project or whatever and then go back to Photoshop and save the file, when you finally return to AE the PSD file will not update automatically.

By: kimson

kimson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:06:42 +0000

totally awesome

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:31:15 +0000

Good to hear Mike, thanks for letting me know.

By: Mike wharton

Mike wharton — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:00:47 +0000

Thanks John. I really enjoyed this session.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:30:10 +0000

Hi Andrei, welcome to Motionworks and thanks for dropping into the comments! Best wishes, John.

By: Andrei

Andrei — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:27:30 +0000

Hey John, great resource!
I discovered your site after you did Andrew Kramer’s interview. I’ve been following him for a few years now.
Cheers, mate.

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:58:16 +0000

Hey Chris, glad you’ve found it useful. All the best, John.

By: Chris Martin

Chris Martin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:46:21 +0000

This is great information John!

By: John Dickinson

John Dickinson — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:26:57 +0000

That’s right Steve, Composition-Cropped Layers maintains a unique centre point for all individual layers. Thanks for your input and best wishes, John.

By: Steve Cardwell

Steve Cardwell — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 15:09:11 +0000

Thanks john,

especially for the illustrator tips.

I think the cropped layers terminology makes sense if your elements fit within the comp. So on your illustrator example you would have the centre point at the middle of the cog, which would help if you wanted to rotate it.

Keep up the good work.