@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!

Hi @jeff many thanks for the information - this is exactly how I ended up doing it after learning about the curly braces feature after 3 years of using Templater, incredible. Cheers!

@jeff I got it now. Thank you!

@surabhiv At the moment, Templater Bot can only be set up to automate either video production or Spot Checking, so if you’d like to have both actions automated, you’ll need to look into running two separate versions of Templater. There is a Reserved Column that Templater recognizes named bot that will allow you to designate which Bot should process each line of data in your data source. Using this feature, you should be able to route preview actions to one Bot to perform Spot Checks and render actions to another that can do render/replication actions.

Just some additional info: we’re using Templater 3, build 13978. I’m using Google Sheets as a data source.

@jon Thanks. The audio length will vary with each video. I’ll take a look at the link you posted.

@jeff AMAZING! Thank you for such a quick response! Got it working now. I was just able to pump out a list of 150 dealerships to Youtube ready MP4’s in just over 20 mins… Templater fricking rules. You can expect a new customer within a week or so!

@jeff Thanks jeff, everything works fine!

@junior What can you tell us about your system? Which operating system, version of After Effects, and version of Templater do you have installed? Have you run any updates to any software lately? Is your OS user account a full admin?

@mantas Thanks for getting in touch with us. The behavior you describe is generally caused by a layer that isn’t renamed before Templater swaps in the data. If you take a look at the Layer Name, when you add the asset to your Layer Stack, you’ll see that it’s surrounded in brackets. This indicates that the layer name is temporary, so when the asset gets swapped in, it renames the layer. To fix this, simply rename the layer before applying the Templater Effect to remove the brackets. This should keep the layer from being renamed when the asset is swapped. Hopefully, that helps, but if you have any more questions, please feel free to let us know. Thanks!

@jeff okay thanks

@tok_tok Let’s try moving the script to the “After layers update” event under “Layer Processing”. It’s possible that having it run at Data Retrieval may be too early to process the Work Area correctly. Give that a shot, and if you still run into problems, it might be easier if you could drop us a line directly at support@dataclay.com. Thanks!

@fg27 apologies for the long delay in responding. I’ve never seen that error in connection with Templater. Which version of AE and Templater are you using? What about any other 3rd party effects applied to layers? Are you replicating internally to the project to make new folders/comps within the existing project file, or are you replicating to individual AEP files for Media Encoder to render? We’d need to see more of a sample of the data and the full templater.log file. You can submit a support ticket with any relevant attachments.

@jeff Yes! This is it! Thanks, everyone.

Hi…I utilize a comparable methodology while making client docs. I start by archiving the fundamental item, then, at that point, add the varieties. I utilize contingent labels to distinguish content for a particular yield. I likewise make preparing materials utilizing a comparative methodology. Assuming the variety is theme based, ie there is a distinction in subjects utilized in the material, I then, at that point, utilize diverse TOCs to construct the yield. Sometimes I utilize a mix of the two methods, for instance preparing material does exclude every one of the points so utilizes a seperate TOC, and has its own restrictive labels to control content inside the subjects. I additionally use conditions for on the web/print renditions. The print form incorporates screen captures, yet I don’t utilize numerous screen captures for online conveyance (except if I need the client to see what the screen should resemble). Very little point having screen captures on the off chance that the client has the program open.

@tasnadi-otto OK. I think this will work for what you’re trying to do: var compName = $D.job.get("compname"); var layerName = $D.job.get("layername"); var layerTime = $D.job.get("time"); var myComp; for (var i = 1; i <= app.project.numItems; i ++) { if ((app.project.item(i) instanceof CompItem) && (app.project.item(i).name === compName)) { myComp = app.project.item(i); break; } } myComp.layer(layerName).startTime = layerTime; I’ll explain the methodology briefly here so that you can adjust as needed. The comp name is set by the “compname” field in the data source (more on that in a second), the layer by “layername”, the time value by “time”. These values can obviously be altered to fit your project as needed. The code that begins with var myComp; is essentially a quick loop that searches your Project for the text outlined in the compName variable and returns the index value. That way, you can pick the comp using plain text rather than an index. The layer name within the comp can be designated by text, so that’s what the layerName variable is for. I tested this on the “Before layers update” event, and it seemed to work without an issue. It’s possible there might be some issues if you have a huge number of layers that all need updating, but this should be a good starting point. If you run into trouble, feel free to let us know, and we’ll see what we can do. Thanks!