Thank you. Where can I find the templater preferences?

Found it, thanks!

@jeff YESS, that worked!! 🙂 Thank you so much.

@Jeff Thank you. I understand that there needs to be a limitation for the free version, but I almost shot myself in the foot by batch importing 40+ jobs. I’m working on my 2nd Campaign, and I will use that for some more testing. Right now I’m just trying to learn how it works and testing to make sure I can get the data imported from my source. I’ll reach out if I need to delete anything, but I think I understand enough to be able to avoid that for now.

Thanks

@dave

Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, it’s not possible to change a text layer to a footage layer dynamically in After Effects. From what I can see, this appears to be due to the fact that AE sets each layer’s type when it’s first created, and text layers seem to be using an entirely different logic engine than footage layers.

If I understand the scenario that you’re describing and you’re using Google Sheets, our best bet might be to use some Sheets formulas to turn “First Last - usa.png” into two cells that contain “First Last” and “usa.png”. That would be data that would be more useable for Templater since the “usa.png” value could be set to refer to footage, and the “First Last” input could be added to a corresponding text layer.

Hopefully, that helps, but if you have any other questions, please let us know, and we’ll see what we can do.

Thanks,

Jeff

@Falrinth

Thanks for the update. If we can figure out a way to replicate the error reliably, that would be quite useful. When we get the time, it would probably be beneficial if you could open up a direct ticket with us so that we can get some more data about the structure of the project, the workflow for the replications, and, hopefully, some details from a non-sensitive log file.

Let us know how else we can help out, and we’ll see where we need to go from there.

Thanks,

Jeff

@wcs

Thanks for the clarification. This should absolutely be doable with Templater. You’ll probably need to use a combination of Expressions driven by Templater data like the one suggested above and maybe some of Templater’s flag options to turn layers on and off as needed.

Hopefully, that’s enough to get you started, but if you have any additional questions, feel free to post them here or get in touch with us directly at support@dataclay.com

Thanks,

Jeff

@SteveUlrich

Glad to hear that we were able to get the previous issue resolved. As far as the erroneous Spot Check goes, we did have a bug a few versions back that would cause this to happen when Projects were using some specific frame rate options.

What version of Templater are we running? If it’s anything older than 3.2, I’d recommend updating to the latest version (3.3.2, download link here) to see if that changes what we’re seeing. If that doesn’t make any difference, we’ll likely need to get some more information on how exactly Spot Check is set up and what frame rate options we’re using for this project.

If we end up needing to go down that road, please feel free to open a troubleshooting ticket with us at support@dataclay.com if you don’t feel comfortable sharing project details here. Either way, let us know how it goes, and we’ll see where we need to go from there.

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

@pbretz The way to architect this would be to have web hooks that broadcast events on QUE, but in Sheets there is no easy way to do that. However, for sheets you might be able to use zapier to ping the sheet every so often to check for specific values in the render-status column. You could do the same with QUE and Zapier. We do have webhooks on the roadmap for QUE this year, but no set date.

@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.

@1337err

We can take a look at the templater.log and templater.err files to see if there’s any additional information there, but from my experience, I doubt that there will be anything more specific than what we’ve already got. Unfortunately, AE tends to be a bit vague with its error syntax.

However, if we can reliably re-create the error, we should be able to use the technique that I outlined in my previous post to narrow things down relatively quickly. In the past, I’ve done this by making a copy of the file with the problem, opening it, and bulk deleting 50% of the assets in the Project panel. Depending on whether the error persists, we should be able to logically assess which half of the project data contains the error.

Once we figure that out, we can repeat the process by either restoring the deleted assets and deleting the other 50% or by deleting 50% of what’s left and checking whether the error reoccurs. By chopping out increasingly smaller chunks of the project, we should be able to get a bead on what layers are causing the issue without a massive amount of undue work. Hopefully that helps to get things moving in the right direction.

Thanks,

Jeff

Unfortunately, not at the moment. We will be adding more video showcasing these techniques in the future. Thanks for bearing with us. I will respond to your post about this to help. Thanks.

@ariestav Thanks! We will try grabbing the PID.

To Avoid the 1-Frame Issue we did the following:

Create a 2-Frame Comp with a really high framerate (whatever the current version of AE supports) and export it as a tiny Quicktime. That file will be effectively handled as a 1-Frame footage without being a infinite-time-layer.

So basicly the same as above, just adjust the framerate!

Alfie,

You’re awesome for posting to this forum and then following up to help others! Much appreciated, and thank you for using our products.

—Arie

@bluesummitrealty Were you able to resolve your issue?

@jon said in Text not Updating:

in the notes here

Thanks Jon! Greatly appreciate the quick feedback and the link, cheers!

@ariestav thanks!

Just needed some time to work out. It is working now thanks for the reply. Appreciate!

Hi there,

Just following up to the support ticket you submitted regarding the error. This usually means there is a “stretch” parameter that is set within the Templater Settings effect that cannot work for the dynamic layer. Are any of your layers making use of any Templater Settings effect’s Time group of controls?

Thanks,
Arie

@Jon Thanks that was very helpful. Appreciate!