@jasontcox we’ve also used something called gifsicle, which is a command line tool for optimizing gifs (homepage). What you do in this case, you render a version from AE’s render queue, then you do a post-render action to transcode to gif with ffmpeg and then compress with gifsicle. These event scripts require Templater Bot. You’ll need to add gifsicle and ffmpeg to your SYSTEM PATH. Here’s an example of a script (Windows BAT file) that I’ve used. Feel free to use it as a baseline to remix for your own purposes. (No warranties implied) @ECHO ON SET RENDER="%~1" SET RPATH=%~dp1 SET ID=%~n1 SET FRAMERATE="15" SET SCALE="0" SET COLORS="256" SET PALETTE="%RPATH%palette.png" SET FILTERS=fps=%FRAMERATE%,scale=%SCALE%:-1:flags=lanczos SET GIFOUT="%RPATH%gifs\%ID%.gif" SET GIFCOMP="%RPATH%gifs-lossy\%ID%.gif" SET FULLRES="%RPATH%full-res" SET GIFFINAL="N:\email-campaigns\newsletter" ffmpeg -v warning -i %RENDER% -vf %FILTERS%,palettegen=stats_mode=diff:max_colors=%COLORS% -y %PALETTE% ffmpeg -i %RENDER% -i %PALETTE% -loop 0 -lavfi "%FILTERS% [x]; [x][1:v] paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=3" -vcodec gif -y %GIFOUT% gifsicle %GIFOUT% -O3 --lossy=200 --output %GIFCOMP% move /Y %RENDER% %FULLRES% copy /Y %GIFCOMP% %GIFFINAL%

@jeff THank you so much - I took the open/closed quotations route and it works fine. Appreciate it! -Joe

@veteos Thanks for letting us know what you found. This diagnosis aligns with our assumption that that error is caused by a logic problem with a Time Sculpting layer. Hopefully, this will help in troubleshooting this sort of problem if it comes up again in the future. Thanks again!

@jcreifenberg 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!

@hiredgoon In addition to any responses you might get here, please feel free to contact us directly at support@dataclay.com. We keep an internal list of Freelancers with Templater experience that we’d be more than happy to share with you. Thanks!

@rgutierrez Unfortunately, Templater requires layers that are being versioned with data to be set to “visible” in After Effects. This has to do with how AE reports layer visibility to plugins like ours. That being said, we’ve encountered issues like this in the past, and I believe that there might be a workaround that could work for you. Generally speaking, the way around this is to create a second text layer and then use the pick whip to map the “Source Text” property to the original layer that has Templater applied. This should allow you to manipulate the second text layer’s visibility settings while still maintaining the data from the primary layer. Hopefully, that solution should work for what you’re trying to do, but if you run into any problems, just let us know, and we’ll see what we can do. Thanks!

@jeff Thank you for clearing things up! I was thinking the same, that the only way would be to go with Templater Bot Event Scripts.

@jeff Thanks! Very clear

@ariestav Thank you! It’s a great feature when building from scratch - much appreciated.

@jeff Thanks a lot! And thanks for the link to the reserved column names. I couldn’t find that in the website but rushing with a project and learning in the way I’m sure I missed that… Thanks again!

@jeff Thanks for the feedback!

@jeff That is fantastic. I will test this out today.

@jeff Checking those worked. Simple fix. Thanks Jeff!

@jeff thanks for your detailed answer. So currently, the only way is to work in a team project, is to convert to local before Templaer, and then import the resulting project to a new team project. Brobably is not worth the mess, as a project becomes big enough to require a team project, this could be messy. We will try to find other ways of colaborating in big projects. thanks!

@jeff That was it! Thank you. I am trying out Templater 3 and so far so good.

@UncleMonty That’s quite odd. The OS of the machine running Templater typically shouldn’t make a difference when it comes to getting data from a Google Sheet. Can you give us some more information on the errors that you’re seeing? If you’d like, you can also email our support channel at support@dataclay.com. Let us know what you can, and we’ll take it from there. Thanks!

@amesdigital Thanks for getting in touch with us. The scenario that you’ve described should be possible using Templater. In fact, with the correct setup, you shouldn’t need to edit the AE file directly. Using a few of Templater’s basic features, you should be able to control the text content and the composition selection entirely from your data source. Swapping out the contents of a text field is one of the most basic and useful features of Templater. Once Templater is installed and connected to your data source of choice (Google Sheet, QUE Campaign, or local file), simply rename the layer to match the column/data point in question and apply the Templater Effect. Once that’s done, Templater should swap the text in the corresponding layer during the Preview or Render process. As far as swapping out a composition, Templater has a reserved column named target that can be used to designate which .aep file Templater should load for each set of data. This should allow you to swap out the project file on the fly to whichever the end-user desires. Finally, if you wanted to automate the process, you could always use Templater Bot to monitor your data source for new entries continuously. There’s another reserved column named render-status that Templater Bot searches for continuously. When a line of data is added with a render-status of “ready” Templater Bot will bring in the data and process the video. Those are the basics, but if you have any other questions, please feel free to let us know. Thanks!

@jeff Thanks!