Transparency Lost in After Effects When Importing v30 AI Files
Transparency Information Lost When Importing Illustrator v30 AI Files into After Effects 2026
Environment:
- Hardware: MacBook Pro 16-inch (November 2023), Apple M3 Pro, 36GB RAM
- OS: macOS Sequoia 15.7.4
- Illustrator version with issue: v30.2.1 (2026)
- Illustrator version without issue: v28.7.10 (2024)
- After Effects version: 2026
When an .ai file saved in Illustrator 2026 (v30) is imported as footage into After Effects 2026, transparency information — including blend modes, opacity settings, and effects such as drop shadows — is lost or ignored. Affected layers render as fully opaque.
Re-saving the identical artwork in Illustrator 2024 (v28.7.10) and importing that file into the same After Effects project resolves the issue completely.
This suggests that a change in the .ai file format or internal data structure introduced in v30 is no longer being parsed correctly by After Effects' AI importer.
Saving from v28.7.10 is a confirmed workaround, but this should not be necessary.
Is there a known fix? Is this a confirmed bug?
Thank you for the continued development of Adobe Illustrator. I am a professional graphic designer working in prepress and print production, and I greatly appreciate the dedication your team puts into this product. I would like to report what appears to be a compatibility regression introduced in Illustrator v30.
— Reported by I'm John
Creating ZAG.
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