I know this post was suggested 6 years ago but this is still a desperately needed feature. Please Adobe, can we get this update to illustrator. I know there was a script floating around a few years ago but that no longer works and most people couldn't get it to work on mac. It would mac life so much easier.

Most wanted!

Yes, please Adobe!!

Hi guys, this feature would be super handy

This is much needed

Over the course of the last 20 years, I suspect this would've saved me at least 1000 hours. Let's make it happen before I retire please : )

How is this not implemented yet? Such a common pain point and part of a necessary work flow.

This will totally help cut the file management time in half tbh

When prepping files to move from Illustrator to After Effects, I frequently have to release everything to layers and then rename all the layers.

It would streamline this process immensely I could rename, say, Groups, or Paths, or whatever element I'm using while everything is still in one layer and then have the Release To Layers command automatically inherit those names for the layers when they are created.

If they didn't have custom names, it would create a layer as normal.

It's September! Please implement this :(

YESSSSS

PLEASE!!!

Yes. PLEASE IMPLEMENT THIS.

Agreed. Would really speed up the workflow.

Completely agree, this is much needed

Currently, when one uses the "Release to Layers" command, all naming on the groups is removed and the resulting layers are renamed rather unhelpfully as Layer 2, Layer 3, etc. In addition, these new "Layers" are kept as sub-layers of the orignal layer which, when working with complex artwork, can be quite confusing. The current functionality completely invalidates good organizational practices and actually punishes any attempt at naming conventions when needing to prepare artwork for other applications (such as After Effects).

Ideally, when "Release Layers to Sequence" is performed, the naming already in place on the selected groups or objects would be RETAINED, rather than being inexplicably discarded. In addition, since the entire purpose of releasing to layers is to create NEW layers, these would automartically become top-level layers, rather than sub-layers of the original layer. Or perhaps an option could be included to retain current layer structure.

This would be extremely valuable for working between Illustrator and After Effects, as After Effects only recognizes top-level Illustrator layers as individual After Effects layers. The reality is that artwork received for animation is often not optimized for importing into After Effects, which means wasted time in prepping artwork for use between two applications which should have much greater interoperability (as is clearly possible as evidenced by the functionality introduced by the 3rd part script Overlord). Many Illustrator artists will use tons of subgroups that may very well function better as individual layers in After Effects, but the prep work invbolved currently is less than optimal given the current functionality of "Release to Layers."