02-05-2008, 09:54 PM

Hi guys, I really hope someone can help me out with this or I've wasted a lot of time!

I have created some compositions in Photoshop 8 running on my XP laptop, and needed to start working with them in After Effects. Not having the program, I emailed myself copies then downloaded them onto a mac pro at university. However, their versions of After Effects is CS3

I can see the seperate layers when I open my composition in PS CS3 but when I transfer it to AE it comes in as just one layer...does anyone know if it's possible to get it back to the seperate layers so I can start animating?!

Any help is very much appreciated!

02-05-2008, 10:15 PM

Go to:

File > Import > File

Choose your .psd and be sure to change the drop-down menu from "Footage" to "Composition" (see attachment)

This should add a folder to your Project window that has all of the Photoshop layers in it

02-06-2008, 04:14 AM

Hm... I'm pretty sure I tried every variaton of the import options with no success, but I'll try again later. I'm also gonna try dragging all my layers into a new Photoshop CS3 file, then save and import that. Wish me luck

02-06-2008, 04:27 PM

Haha well I figured it out, it was quite easy really.

I just opened my PS8 file in PS CS3, then changed the colour mode from CMYK to RGB! This made it open fine in AE CS3, although it didn't bring across my layer styles

Cue lots of new layer creating and merging...and finally I had my whacked out layers up in AE ready to animate. Yay.

02-07-2008, 08:10 PM

Yes the RGB issue! Did you make sure you had the correct pixel ratio for your still image? Need to do this in Psp CS3 if not: With a document open, choose Image > Pixel Aspect Ratio and then choose a pixel aspect ratio that’s compatible with the video format that you’ll be using your Photoshop file with.