I use this technique all the time , and you need to approach it a little differently . The biggest thing is that you need to consider each layer in your illustrator file as a flattened image when it gets imported into AE . Therefore , clipping masks won ' t keep the information it had in illustrator outside the mask . So in order to achieve the effect you desire . You ' re going to need to separate everything you plan on animating independently into its own layer . If I were animating this , I ' d have a layer with the stars and a blue circle for earth . Then I ' d have a layer with all of the clouds and continents . Next , a layer with just the shadow , and finally a black circle the size of earth duplicate the shape for masking . Now into AE , you have to import as a composition and arrange all of your layers as in AI . Then place your black circle mask above your cloudcontinent layer and set it as a track matte . Now all you have to do is keyframe the position of your cloudcontinent layer to pan across your maskearth . I should have mentioned above that you ' ll need to make a long horizontally cloudcontinent layer so that you ' ll have enough room to pan the layer without having it clipped .