🚀 go-pugleaf

Hello, Chris.
The thing is, there are two aspects two an Illustrator object - the structural vector path, and the visual appearances (stroke, fill). These are not really defined by the vector path, but are applied as textures to it.
When you paste an AI path into AE you're only pasting the structural path. Not the set of visual appearances. In fact, when you paste such paths into AE, you can do so for many different purposes. Any property in AE that uses a vector path can receive this data.

In the case you mention, selecting a layer and pasting the path, it's applied as a mask. And as you know, masks don't have visual apperances.

If you want to paste it as a path that does have visual appearances (stroke, for instances), you have to paste it into the Shape path property, in a shape group inside a Shape Layer.

For more information, see Copy a path from Illustrator, Photoshop, or Fireworks
 <http://help.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEffects/9.0/WSE4F03C08-9074-45eb-842E-2BF05D297249a.html> in AE Community Help.

Best,
Adolfo Rozenfeld - Adobe