@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

@ermalr yes, you use the Time Sculpting rules to accomplish this. Watch the videos in this playlist. You can also register ExtendScripts to Templater events to manipulate and alter things in your project for each re-version. You can learn more about that by reading the docs on event scripts and Templater’s ExtendScript API. If you’re going to go that route you would probably register your script to the “After Update” event. I think Time Sculpting is what you’re looking for though. Let us know if this help! Thanks!

@vreddhi-bhat Glad to hear that you were able to resolve the problem. If you run into any other issues or have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out, and we’ll be more than happy to help. Happy rendering! 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

@RyanB Glad to hear that you were able to track down the issue. I did some research and spoke with some of our devs, and I can confirm that all write operations for both replication and render actions should be completed before any “post_cmd_job” actions are run. If you have any other questions, please feel free to let us know. Thanks, Jeff

@Matt-Keyes Unfortunately, ExtendScript doesn’t contain any hooks that can be used to control Templater. Templater can execute ExtendScripts via the Event Scripts feature at various points throughout the reversioning process, but ExtendScript can’t kick off a render or replication operation. The closest thing I could recommend for that sort of behavior would be to run Templater in CLI mode. That would allow you to start Templater up in a way that could be executed via a script or some other form of automation. Thanks, Jeff

@Jeff Thanks for your detailed response! My curiosity has been satiated on this matter.

@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

Hi @Antoonyx! Thank you for your question — we are happy to help answer your questions. In full transparency, you are going to get a biased answer as to which software you should use as you’re on the Dataclay forums :smiling_face_with_halo: ! First, I would recommend Adobe After Effects to build our your master, dynamic, template. You can achieve that with Templater Rig. When you outfit an AE project to accept dynamic data using Templater, the resultant project is what is known as an “Autograf”. This project file can be linked to a variety of data sources, but a spreadsheet, such as a Google Sheet, is an easy one to use for starters. Each row in the sheets represents a new output video to be rendered, while each column in the sheet refers to the dynamic items (i.e. layers) within the After Effects compositions. As you design and build your Autograf, you link Templater to a footage repository containing the footage you want to use for each output. Then, in the data, you write a relative path from that footage repository to where the footage actually exists. The best part is that the footage does not necessarily even have to be on the same machine that AE is running on. In the linked datasource, you can use URLs and when Templater reads that URL it will attempt to download the footage locally to that drive. In your case, you can keep sub folders within the main footage repository so that each video’s contents are separated. Then, in the data source, you can enter the subfolder path to the assets. Dataclay customers are achieving the bulk production and automation you are currently seeking. Templater for After Effects can re-version master After Effects projects into still images and videos. To get a comprehensive overview of the software and workflow, please take a look at this video which just scratches the surface of what’s possible with Templater Rig, Pro, and Bot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TAnZB2aZWTg

@Jeff After not having any success with the expression I posted, I actually did what you suggested, using an expression to change the source text for each layer, adding in the dynamic text. I just didn’t think of using an Animator for the faux italics, so I had just resigned myself to keeping the font the same. I appreciate your ideas, and I’ll give them a try soon. Thanks!

@Jon Sorry for the late reply. Yes, I got everything working with Jeff’s advice and your tips. Big thanks for the help.

In my case the issue was caused by keyframes on the Source Text of a text layer. Removing the keyframes resolved the issue. Thanks to the support team!

@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

@Jeff Thanks for the info. I’m familiar with the Filter action in Zapier and will try that out. I was expecting that we’d need to use a Que action. Thanks. Pete

@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

@Jeff Just to close the loop on this. Support informed me that the comment field in each marker needs to be filled in for the Spot Check feature to work. Problem solved.

@Jeff That is awesome! Thank you! Worked like a charm

@Jeff Thanks for the info. I’m familiar with expressions, but far from an expert. We’ll see how this goes. I’ll circle back either way. -josh