@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.

I wanted to update this thread with some news. We have identified the cause of garbled characters displaying within Templater’s UI and in some cases in output names. A fix has been implemented for this issue. In addition, we identified the cause related to Time Sculpting that may affect users working with projects rigged with versions of Templater earlier than 3.4.0. We are working towards releasing a 3.4.1 build. Thank you for your patience!

@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.

@UncleMonty To follow on Jeff’s replies, in case you are using an earlier version of Templater 3, it’s recommended to run the Templater uninstaller and download and install Templater from one of those links he provided. The zip names are going to be the same, but the contents will be different—which is why you’ll want to install from a fresh download.

@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

@eric_dean shoot us an email at support@dataclay, and we’ll send you a build that should work with the new flags. Also, let us know which platform (MacOS or Windows).

@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 If you continue to have issues with speed and performance over time, I’d recommend getting in touch with us directly at support@dataclay.com so we can get some more specific details on how the project is configured. Outside of enabling the “Remove unused footage after each job” and “Purge all memory caches after each job” in the Templater Preferences panel, as @ariestav mentioned, it might be necessary to take a look at the templater.log file to see if we can narrow down exactly where the issue is occurring. Let’s start by enabling those options, and if we still run into issues, go ahead and send us a message, and we’ll see if we can’t make some more specific suggestions based on the project’s operating environment. Thanks, Jeff

@1337err I’ve had a similar problem with my replication just stops and keeps crashing/loading until I eventually force quit AE. In my case it was a special character in the “output” filename (a “€” sign) that caused the crash. Replaced it with “eur” and things are running smoothly again. Haven’t read your thread thoroughly, so might not be the case for your project, just thought I’d give a shout.

@Jeff Thanks!

@Maris The legacy price isn’t just for subscriptions. It applies to Rig purchases and pre-paid licenses of all durations. From a business standpoint, it just makes much more sense to manually offer individuals and small businesses this discount since that combined revenue represents only a small percentage of our total revenue. But we still want to make that available - and since launching this policy at the start of 2023, it has been incredibly effective. So just email suppport@dataclay.com with any legacy purchase request and I’ll be happy to help you out.

@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