Global Moderators

@Tasnadi-Otto

Thanks for getting in touch with us. To change the composition length, you’ll probably need to use an advanced feature of Templater called Event Scripts. Event Scripts allow you to create custom actions at various points throughout the Templater process and can be very useful for this sort of situation. In this case, a script like this:

var myTime = $D.job.get("time");
var myTarget = $D.job.get("compname");
var myComp;
for (var i = 1; i <= app.project.numItems; i ++) {
    if ((app.project.item(i) instanceof CompItem) && (app.project.item(i).name === myTarget)) {
        myComp = app.project.item(i);
        break;
    }
}
myComp.duration = (myTime);

Will alter the duration of the comp based on variables in the data source. You’ll want to swap out “time” for the name of the layer with the duration (in seconds) and “compname” for the name of the comp you want to alter.

I’d recommended running this script on the “Before layers update” event so that the custom timing is applied before Templater processes the data into the layers. One final note, it should be possible to swap out myComp.duration for myComp.frameDuration if you’d like to specify the length in frames rather than seconds. Hopefully, that’s enough to get started, but if you have any other questions, please feel free to let us know. Thanks!

@veteos

Can you give us some details on what happens when you try and use that link in Templater? I performed a few tests using that link, and it seemed to display without any problems in my test project file. Do you have any additional plugins or Expressions running on the layer? Let us know what you can, and we’ll see what we can do. Thanks!

@cristian

Thanks for the update. Are the new comps being created when you preview the next row in your data set? Or is this happening when you hit the “replicate” button in Templater? Templater won’t typically create new precomps when swapping between assets, so we need to narrow down how exactly this project is laid out.

Could you outline the steps one by one that led to the behavior that you’re seeing? Hopefully, that’ll give us a better picture of what exactly is happening. You can also get in touch with us directly at support@dataclay.com if you’d like to share these details in a more direct message.

Let us know what you can, and we’ll take it from there. Thanks!

@cristian

Thank you for clarifying that. I think the easiest way to explain this might be with a hypothetical. So let’s say you have a project with a precomp named “comp1” (with no quotes) and another named “comp2” (also with no quotes).

To swap between the two, you’d first want to drag one of the comps into your timeline. From there, you’ll want to rename the precomp. For now, let’s say that we dragged comp1 into the timeline and renamed it to “compswap” (with no quotes). Once the layer is renamed, you’ll want to add the Templater Effect to the compswap layer.

At this point, you’ll want to add an entry to your data set to control which precomp is used. If you’re using Google Sheets, you’d add a new column named “compswap” (with no quotes). Once that column is added, you’ll want to populate it with either {{comp1}} or {{comp2}} to swap out the precomp. You shouldn’t need to add the double curly braces to the precomp names in the project itself, only in the data set.

Hopefully, that clears things up, but if you have any other issues or if this problem remains unresolved, please just let us know. Thanks!

@cristian

Can you give us a few more details on the steps you’re going through and what you’re getting in terms of output? I’m not sure if we entirely understand what the problem is. Are you trying to replace a precomp with raw AE footage? Let us know what you’re trying to do and what you’re seeing in as much detail as possible, and we’ll be more than happy to try and get things sorted.

If you’d like, you can see an example of how to use comp swapping in this video from our Youtube page. You can also email us directly at support@dataclay.com if you require more personal assistance. Let us know how we can help!

Thanks!

@oms

Templater can read from a variety of different data sources, so the specifics will depend on how exactly you want your system to be set up.

Locally, Templater can read from JSON and TSV files, so the most straightforward method to read MySQL data would be to export the desired data sets to a properly formatted JSON or TSV and then direct Templater to the appropriate source file.

Reading from an online data source will be a bit more complex. Templater can’t read from MySQL directly, so you’ll need to get the data into a format Templater can understand. For online data sources, Templater can read from Dataclay QUE, Google Sheets, or a JSON URL feed.

For the first two sources, you’d need to find a way to transfer data from the MySQL source to QUE or Google Sheets. Both QUE and Google Sheets have custom API hooks that could be used for this purpose, but you might also consider a third-party solution like Zapier.

If a more direct connection is desired, you could also use a JSON URL feed. It appears that there are multiple solutions for handling this in MySQL, but as long as the data is being returned with a REST API with endpoints, it should be readable by Templater. You can find more information about setting up a URL feed on this support page.

Hopefully, that’s enough information to get things started, but please feel free to let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks!

@TobiasvK

Unfortunately, Templater only has the ability to create one render for each entry in the data source. In this case, you’d want to create a new line for each target that you were looking to render. Hopefully, that helps, but please just let us know if we can answer any other questions.

Thanks!

@Michael-Dubois

It would probably be better if you could open up a ticket with us at support@dataclay.com as sometimes the templater.log file can contain sensitive information. That being said, our first step would probably be to check that log out to see if we can figure out what’s causing the hang-up.

Here are a few other things that might cause the layout function to get locked up that you can check. First, I’d suggest looking at/disabling any Expressions that you might be running on layers. A logic problem in an Expression can certainly cause a hang like the one you’ve described.

Another thing to check would be to make sure that you don’t have any audio layers that have visual adjustments like Attachment or Scaling. Since audio layers don’t have a visual component, that can also cause this type of error.

Obviously, those are just general suggestions, so if you still run into issues, send your templater.log file over to support@dataclay.com, and we’ll take a look. Thanks!

@Ben-Forman

While Templater is able to use links to MP3 and MP4 files, the URL syntax requirements are very specific. Many web pages will use html to redirect requests to specific files, which can interfere with the ability to use remote assets in AE. Can you provide an example of the sort of URL you’re using? Appropriately formatted URL’s will generally end in with the filename of the file you’re looking to get, ie:

• https://download.samplelib.com/mp4/sample-10s.mp4

Let us take a look at the sort of URL you’re using, and we should be able to point you in the right direction. Thanks!