Time sculpting Problems..

1337err

I created a new project in AE, i ordered all audio files to be last to first (At the top of the timeline), and connected them to eachother.

After that, i connected every other item in the project (videos, text, images) to shift in and trim out when the audio ends (see screenshot): https://ibb.co/fQpKmqV

At first, it was working well, but because we can’t use audio files for time sculpting (causes buffer errors), i had to pre-compose them, and thats when the issues started.

Texts, images or videos that i have under these layers become shorter than they should be and they cut off before the audio finishes. Sometimes they are okay but most of the time it causes issues like this.

On my audio layers i have the mp3 files inside the precomps set to “Comp Ends At Out Point” and “Preserve End” selected. On my precomps i only have the the connections made to the other audio precomps (Shift in at Out point and Trim at out point): https://ibb.co/fSkPpmw

When i refresh the same row twice, everything seems to drop into its place as it should.

1337err

@1337err Been working on this all night, and i converted 20,000 audio files to .mp4, and i started getting the ‘buffer errors’ again now, so that didn’t work too. Edit: Also tried .mov

Jeff

@1337err

After considering our options, I believe the best first step here would be to upgrade to the latest version of Templater, 3.4.1 (download link here). We rolled out a fix in Templater 3.4.0 that should address the buffer issue on audio-only layers. This version also made some general adjustments to the Time Sculpting algorithm to attempt to address logic errors like the one you described, where folks would have to refresh a project twice to get the Time Sculpting to complete.

While it’s possible that we might have some logic issues in the project that might need addressing, I’d highly recommend that our first step be to install Templater 3.4.1 to see if that fixes anything.

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

Thanks,

Jeff

1337err

@Jeff No wonder it was working fine on my mac, then when i transfered into a windows pc for rendering it started causing these issues (i was using trial on mac that i just downloaded) and on my windows pc i have v 3.3.1. I will test it now and let you know

Thanks!

1337err

@1337err It’s fixed, but now when i try to connect clips to my audios using (Shift To In Point & Strectch To Out Point), it;s not working well.

I have some clips which are shorter than the audio so i have to stretch them out. Any other alternatives, or why is this happening? (They are mp4 files if that makes any difference)

Thanks in advance

Jeff

@1337err

Glad to hear that we’re making progress. As far as the other issue is concerned, it’s difficult to make any specific recommendations without knowing more about what’s happening, but one general suggestion I can make would be to ensure that the “Preserve Start” and “Preserve End” options are checked under the “Trim” section. These options should force Templater to preserve the start and end points of the clip before it does any stretching, which might be helpful.

The only other suggestion I could make would be to ensure that we’ve set a target composition in the project file. The changes to Time Sculpting in Templater 3.4.0 allowed us to streamline parts of the Time Sculpting process, but that did add the requirement that a target must be set.

If those general suggestions don’t change anything, we’ll need to find out a bit more about what exactly is happening when the project is refreshed. If you don’t feel comfortable posting those details here, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line a support@dataclay.com.

Thanks,

Jeff

1337err

@Jeff That worked perfectly. Thank you so much for your help,

One last thing,
When the clip is longer than needed, it speeds it up to fit, is there any way to prevent that? I want it only to slow down when its shorter.

Is this possible with expressions or something?

Thanks so much!!

Jeff

@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