Guides · 2026-10-03

How to Get After Effects Shape Layers Back into Illustrator

Illustrator to After Effects is a well-worn road: import the .ai file, Create Shapes from Vector Layer, done. The way back isn't. You built a logo animation, a set of icons or a background out of shape layers in After Effects, and now someone needs them as vectors in Illustrator, for print, for a style frame, for the client's brand folder.

After Effects has no Export to Illustrator. On Adobe Community the question "Copying/Exporting from After Effects to Illustrator" has been read almost 27,000 times since 2020, and the answers are workarounds. Here are the ones that work, what each one loses, and when to use which.

Fix 1: Copy the Path property and paste it into Illustrator

This one is free, built in, and keeps the real curves. It just keeps nothing else.

In the Timeline, twirl open the shape layer: Contents > [your shape] > Path 1.
If the shape is a parametric Rectangle, Ellipse or Polystar, there's no Path property to copy yet. Right-click Rectangle Path 1 (or Ellipse Path 1, Polystar Path 1) and choose Convert To Bezier Path.
Click the word Path to select the property and press Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac). If the path is animated, select the one keyframe whose shape you want.
In Illustrator, press Ctrl+V.
Give the path a fill and a stroke, and move it where it belongs.

What comes across is the geometry: vertices and Bézier handles, exactly. What doesn't, as a Community Expert put it in that thread: "No fill, no stroke, no position, scale, or other values will be brought from After Effects to Illustrator."

So it's perfect for one or two shapes, a logo mark, a custom curve. For a whole composition it means copying every path, one at a time, then recolouring and re-positioning each of them by eye.

Fix 2: Save the frame and trace it

When you need the look of the frame more than editable geometry, go through pixels.

Move the time indicator to the frame you want.
Choose Composition > Save Frame As > File, render it as a PNG with an alpha channel, at two to four times the comp size (set the size in the Output Module's Resize section). A larger frame traces cleaner.
In Illustrator, File > Place the PNG, then Window > Image Trace.
Choose a preset close to your art (3 Colors, 6 Colors or Black and White Logo for flat graphics), click Trace, then Expand.

You get the whole frame at once, colours included. But it's a trace, not your shapes. Corners round off, thin strokes become filled outlines, and the number of anchor points can be several times what you drew. Fine for a style frame or a thumbnail. Not what you want to hand over as a master logo.

Composition > Save Frame As > Photoshop Layers gives you a layered PSD instead, if you'd rather trace layer by layer. It's still pixels.

Fix 3: A bridge extension

The only way to get geometry and colour and position in one go is a script or extension that reads the shape layers and rebuilds them in Illustrator. Battle Axe's Overlord is the best known; it pulls shapes in both directions. VectorBridge is ours, below.

Which fix for which job

| You need | Use | |---|---| | One shape, exact curves | Fix 1, copy the Path | | The look of a whole frame, not editable | Fix 2, trace a render | | Many shapes, editable, colours and positions kept | Fix 3, an extension |

Or with VectorBridge

VectorBridge is the After Effects and Illustrator extension we made for this round trip. The same panel runs in both apps.

In After Effects, select the shape layers and press Export to Illustrator in the VectorBridge panel.
In Illustrator, open the document and click the artboard you want, then press Import from After Effects.

Every shape group becomes a path in Illustrator, or a compound path when the group holds more than one path (holes included). Fill and stroke colours come along, with the stroke width. Positions are measured from the top-left corner of the artboard, so a comp and an artboard of the same size line up one to one (1 px in After Effects is 1 pt in Illustrator). Rectangles, ellipses and stars are converted to paths for you, so there's no Convert To Bezier step.

It's honest about its limits, so here they are before you buy:

Solid colours only. A shape filled with a gradient arrives without its fill.
Position, not rotation or scale. The layer's position and anchor point are applied; rotation and scale of layers and groups are not, and parented layers aren't followed. Apply them in Illustrator, or bake them into the path in After Effects first.
No path operations. Merge Paths, Trim Paths, Repeater and Round Corners are ignored: you get the paths underneath.
One frame. You export the shapes as they are at the current time, not the animation.
Shape layers only. Text, footage and solids stay in After Effects.

VectorBridge is $14.99, and it also goes the usual way, Illustrator paths into After Effects as editable shape layers. It's tested with Illustrator 2026 and After Effects 2026 on Windows, and installs with any ZXP installer.

Quick answers

Can I export After Effects shapes as SVG? Not natively. A Lottie exporter writes JSON, which a browser draws as SVG; pulling a clean SVG out of it is possible, but it's a detour, and Illustrator doesn't open Lottie files.

Why is my pasted path in the wrong place? Fix 1 copies only the shape of the path, not the position or transform of its layer and group, so you have to move it by hand. VectorBridge applies the position for you.

Will Adobe add an export? There's no sign of one. Illustrator to After Effects has had Create Shapes from Vector Layer since CS6 in 2012; the other direction still has nothing built in.

The plug-in in this guide: VectorBridge.