Google Sheets pull font style into After Effects
-
Hi, I’m wondering if there is a way to pull a font style from google sheets using Templater 3. I’m looking to have a client fill in cells that will contain things like italics, bold, strikethrough, etc. that will translate into after effects when it populates. Is this possible?
-
You can absolutely use Templater to change a layer’s font! It’s a bit tricky, but it basically involves using Templater to bring in data that is referenced by an After Effects Expression. There are a few limitations, but let me see if I can explain the basics.
So, for this scenario, we’ll have two layers, “text” and “font”. “Text” will be the layer whose font we want to change “font” will be a text layer populated with whatever font we wish to apply. Once both layers are bringing in data correctly, we’ll want to add an Expression to the Source Text property of the “text” layer. Alt or Option-click on “Source Text” and add this expression:
text.sourceText.style.setFont(thisComp.layer("font").text.sourceText);This expression will take whatever is in the “font” layer and apply it to the font property of the “text” layer. So if the “font” layer contained “Arial-BoldMT” (with no quotes), that should change the “text” layer to the font Arial Bold.
There are a few limitations to this method of font changing. First, you’ll need to make sure you’re referencing the exact font name, or else AE won’t be able to read the data from the “font” layer. There are a few different ways to get this information, but one easy way is to hit the white and grey “play” button in the Expressions section, choose Text>Font, and then choose the appropriate font/style.
Another limitation to this method is that you’re constricted to the font styles that After Effects supports. I did some digging, and it doesn’t appear that AE has strikethrough support in their font engine. If you can find a strikethrough-based font, that should work, but AE doesn’t seem to support that particular style right now.
Finally, you might take a look at this entry on Adobe’s website for more information about using Expressions to control Text Properties. There are some other options explored on this page, like Faux Bold or Faux Italics, that might be useful to your project. Many of these options can be controlled using the same Expression logic described above.
Hopefully, that’s enough to get you started, but if you have any questions, please feel free to let us know.
Thanks!
