@pbretz

Hmmm. That’s quite odd. The only thing I can think of that might be interfering with the asset swap in the way that you’ve described is if an Event Script is present that’s overriding Templater’s standard reversioning logic before it can be performed.

If that’s not the case, it might be beneficial to try manually replacing the asset in the AE Project panel by right-clicking on it and using the Replace Footage> File option. If that still doesn’t swap the file, there might be an issue with After Effects or this specific Project file that we’ll need to address.

Another option that might get things moving in the right direction would be to look at the templater.log and, more importantly, the templater.err files to see if there are any messages there that might give us a better idea of what’s happening when Templater attempts to reversion the layer in question.

If there is a failure reported in either of those files, we could be looking at a situation where another logic problem is causing Templater to stop the reversioning process before it can process the mp3 layer in question.

If you’d like to share those files here, we can certainly take a look. However, if the logs contain sensitive information, you can also get in touch with us at support@dataclay.com, and we’ll be more than happy to continue troubleshooting the issue through that channel.

Let us know how it goes and we’ll see where we need to go from there.

Thanks,

Jeff

@JakeLumbis

That should absolutely be possible! I’d recommend reviewing this post for some additional information, but basically, this is how we’d go about it.

First, we’d want to create two new text layers named “LRW rStart” and “LRW rEnd” (with no quotes). Once we’ve got these layers in our project and we’re sure that they’re bringing in the values we want, we should be able to move on to the next step.

From there, we’ll want to add an Animator to the text layer we want to change; I’d recommend “Stroke Color”. However, we’ll also need to click the “Add” button and add the “Stroke Width” and “Stroke Color>Opacity” properties. We’ll also want to adjust the “Stroke Width” and “Stroke Color” layers to create the Faux Bold effect. After that, we’ll want to expand the “Range Selector 1” property and drill down to the “Advanced” section.

In that area, we’ll want to set “Units” to “Index” and “Based On” to “Words”. Finally, we’ll want to go back to the “Start” and “End” values of the “Range Selector 1”. Alt/Option-click on the Stopwatch to the left of the word “Start”. This should open the Expression editor. For the “Start” Expression, we’ll want to reference the “LRW rStart” layer’s value. So, for that, we would use:

text.animator("Animator 1").selector("Range Selector 1").start,parseInt(thisComp.layer("LRW rStart").text.sourceText)-1

for the “End” value, we’ll want a similar expression that references our “End” number:

text.animator("Animator 1").selector("Range Selector 1").end,parseInt(thisComp.layer("LRW rEnd").text.sourceText)

That should, in theory, work for what you’re trying to achieve. However, depending on the format of the text, it might take some tweaking. For example, in the screenshot provided, it looks like the text is formatted in a single block, which might require us to make our calculations by the number of characters rather than the number of words.

Either way that should be enough to get you started. If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch.

Thanks,

Jeff

@JakeLumbis Glad you got it resolved! Yes, any errors in the project like missing footage or fonts will cause that kind of issue. In my experience, that is the most common reason to see Failed at N/A.

@chris-czech

While Templater can import and swap PSD files in the same fashion as other image formats, unfortunately, there’s not currently a mechanism in place to import specific layers during that process.

I’ll go ahead and put in a feature request with our developers to take a look and see if there’s a way that we can offer that functionality in the future, but even if it’s possible, it would likely take some time to implement into Templater.

If we get any updates on that request, I’ll go ahead and update this thread in the future, but for right now, we’ll need to separate the layers into different source files if we want to bring in specific assets individually.

Hopefully, that helps, but if you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thanks,

Jeff

@Jeff Thank you. That helps immensely. I was on a trial version

@jbenton42

Hello, hope you’re doing well. We’ve seen the sort of behavior you’re describing here before, and it generally comes from a logic problem with the setup of the Time Sculpting layers. It’s a bit difficult to explain, but usually, the issue comes from a layer that’s dependent on the logic of another layer that, in turn, doesn’t adjust properly.

To resolve this, the first thing that I would recommend would be to ensure that the system in question is running the latest version of Templater. We’ve made some recent adjustments to the Time Sculpting logic in the latest version of the plugin to specifically address the type of issues that are being described here.

If installing the latest version doesn’t make a difference, there are some additional troubleshooting techniques that we could recommend, but they tend to be a bit tedious, so if we can solve the issue with the updated Time Sculpting logic, that would be ideal.

Let’s start there and if the issue persists, we can consider what other troubleshooting steps we might take to get this issue resolved.

Thanks,

Jeff

Hi @nswedlund — you can accomplish this with spot checking. Essentially, you setup named markers on your target composition timeline, and then use “Spot Check” to output still images. By default, Templater renders with the Photoshop output module that ships with AE. If you need PNG images, you will need to load the PNG sequence module in Templater’s Spot Checking preferences tab.

There is more technical, step-by-step information at Templater’s documentation, but you can see a short demo of it in this video (at 5:09 into playback):

Templater by Arie Stavchansky | Plugin Demo | Adobe Creative Cloud

You don’t have to use Spot Checking, though. You can set Templater’s output module to PNG Sequence, make your target composition a single frame duration, and then have render a single frame. In this case, your data would need to have an output property value padded with hashtag symbols. So, your output names would need to looks something line myVideoA_#####, myVideoB_####, … , myVideoZ_####

Please let us know if this helps.

Thanks!

@Jeff
Thanks for getting back to me. I will investigate Event script. If only overlap in Templater time shift feathre could be adjusted with an expression in AE that would probably solve it…
Will figure something out

thanks once again

best

v.

@1337err

Hmmm, this one is a bit tricky. If I understand correctly, the proposed scenario is one where the audio layer is stretched if it’s shorter than the video layer, but if it’s longer, it’s not.

Assuming that’s the case, I think, theoretically, it could be done, but we’d need to go one step beyond Expressions and use Templater Bot’s Event Scripts function to use some ExtendScript to evaluate the length of the two layers and update Templater as needed.

To start, I’d set up two different master comps. One that has Time Sculpting set up for a longer audio file and one for a shorter duration. Once that’s done, we’d need to develop a script that evaluates the length of the two layers to determine the duration of the assets in question. I believe that app.project.item().duration object should work for this.

Finally, once we know the length of the two layers, we should be able to use a $D.job.set() command to update the target value in the data to the comp with the matching layout logic.

Since this is a bit more complex than the previous questions, there’s likely going to be some trial and error involved in writing the script and testing to make sure that it executes correctly. However, from a conceptual level, I do believe it should be possible.

If you have any questions, let us know, and we’ll do our best to help out.

Thanks,

Jeff

@jcsjcs just checking back—have you had a chance to read my previous reply?

@snowfall0988 We have identified the cause that might break Time Sculpted projects rigged with earlier versions of Templater 3.4.0. We are working to release a 3.4.1 release soon.

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

@Jeff

Thanks for the response
I can’t seem to find any obvious errors by looking at the log. I sent the files to the email that you provided.
Thanks

@Ridvan

Thanks for getting in touch with us. We’re currently working on integrating native srt support into the next version of Templater. Once set up, this process would be very similar to the way that Templater already reversions other assets, like footage or text.

We currently have a method to support .srt file-swapping in Templater, but it does require some customization to get up and running. You can check that out at this link on our GitHub Page.

Hopefully, that helps, but if there’s anything else we can do to help, please feel free to reach out.

Thanks,

Jeff

@Jeff Thanks so much! That all makes perfect sense. I was quite pleased to have reasoned out the solution I did, so your confirmation that it matches your recommendation is all I needed!

@ermalr

Hmmmm. This could be a bit tricky as this use case would be relatively uncommon in After Effects. However, I can think of a couple of methods we might use to achieve the desired result.

The first wouldn’t be a “true” randomization and would require some generation of placeholder assets, but the upside is that it would be relatively simple. For this method, we’d want to generate several “dummy” clips of various lengths that contained no audio or video. These files could then be used in conjunction with Templater’s Time Sculpting feature to determine the placement of our random audio clip.

So, for example, we could create clips that were 15, 48, and 50 seconds long. We could then set the audio clip to start and the endpoint of the “dummy” clip. This would allow us to move the audio clip in a relatively straightforward fashion using Templater’s Time Sculpting feature. The downside to this method is that, depending on how much granularity was needed, it would require quite a few “dummy” clips to be generated. It would also require some sort of mechanism to randomly designate a dummy clip for each Job that we wanted to create. We might be able to accomplish that with a Google App Script for Google Sheets or a Zapier process if we’re using QUE.

The other method would be a “true” randomization, but it would require Templater Bot and the use of the Event Scripts feature. Event Scripts allow users to create After Effects ExtendScripts that can be run at various points throughout the Templater process.

With that in mind, it should be possible to create a script that adjusts the inPoint of the audio layer to a value generated using Math.random(). This would give us a “true” randomization for the inPoint of the layer but might be a bit more challenging to set up, depending on your familiarization with AE’s ExtendScript language.

Hopefully that helps, but if you have any other questions, please feel free to let us know.

Thanks,

Jeff

@1337err

Hmmmm. Typically, when we’ve seen issues like this occur in the past, it’s generally related to either a logic issue with the Time Sculpting setup or some kind of problem with an After Effects Expression that makes adjustments to the layout before the Time Sculpting process can be completed. Either way, we’ll likely need to start by simplifying the project to see if we can narrow down which layer is causing the issue.

For this project, I’d recommend starting by creating a backup copy that we can use for troubleshooting. Once we’ve got our backup opened up, I’d recommend removing all of the layers in the project except for B Small Message2, [cameratemplate_15.wav Comp 1], and camera_2_photo_5 since those are the layers that seem to be having a problem.

We might need to adjust the properties on [cameratemplate_15.wav Comp 1] and camera_2_photo_5 if they’re being Time Sculpted to other layers. Once that’s done, we can try refreshing to see if B Small Message 2 lines up correctly. If that works, we’ll want to restore our backup and try removing layers a few at a time to see if we can isolate which one is causing the issue. Once we’ve identified our problem layer, we should be able to address whatever is causing the hangup in the Time Sculpting operation.

This process can be a bit tedious, but I’ve found it to be the most efficient way to track down logic issues that cause this sort of problem. Typically, issues of this nature occur when a layer is set to adjust to another layer that can’t finish its Time Sculpting calculations until yet another layer is changed. This results in a scenario where the Time Sculpting can’t complete on its first run and requires two refreshes to complete.

One last suggestion. While Templater should process the Time Sculpting rules in whatever order makes the most logical sense After Effects tends to load layers in the order that they’re presented in the stack from top to bottom. So, it’s never a bad idea to make sure that the layers are ordered logically based on how they should be Time Sculpted. So, for example, if layer A is being adjusted to the position of layer B, layer B should be placed higher in the stack than layer A. This should ensure that A doesn’t get processed before B.

If we still run into issues after performing these troubleshooting steps, we’ll likely need more information about how the project file is set up. If you’d like to get in touch with us directly, please feel free to email us at support@dataclay.com, and we’ll be more than happy to help.

Thanks,

Jeff

@1337err

Thanks for reaching out. The most common cause of this particular error occurs when Time Sculpting is applied directly to an audio layer in After Effects.

After Effects treats pure audio layers differently than footage layers since, by default, they don’t have any video data. This causes AE to read audio layers differently than video layers, which changes how their time codes interact with other footage in the project file. This frame difference is the most common cause for the “invalid image buffer size” error that you’re seeing.

The easiest way to test if this is what’s happening is to either temporarily remove any audio layers or disable Time Sculpting and see if the error message persists.

If it does turn out that audio layers are causing this issue, there are a few ways to get around this. First, we could try pre-composing the layer and then applying the Time Sculpting to the pre-comp instead of the audio layer. Pre-composing audio footage in After Effects will add video frame data to the layer, preventing this issue.

The other solution is to pre-render any audio files you might want to use into a format with frame data, like an .mp4 or .mov file. Even if the rendered file has blank “video” data, it should still cause After Effects to generate the frame information needed for Time Sculpting.

Hopefully, this is an easy fix, but if this isn’t the cause of the problem, or you encounter anything else we can help with, let us know, and we’ll see where we need to go from there.

Thanks,

Jeff