Release — Templater 2.9.6

[ariestav]

The Dataclay team has released Templater 2.9.6 which adds some features, improvements, bug fixes, and establishes the groundwork for integrating Dataclay’s new API named QUE. Thank you for your patience. Enjoy!

What’s New in 2.9.6

• Compatibility with Adobe After Effects 2021
  Templater is compatible with and installs to the correct directories for AE 2021.

• Image sequence support for dynamic footage layers
  Users can reference image sequences as source media for dynamic footage layers. Enter the path to first file in the sequence and prefix it with a hash symbol #. For example, if you have a sequence at /ads/anim_0000.png relative to Templater’s footage root, entering #/ads/anim_0000.png into your data source lets Templater know it should import and replace it as an image sequence. When Templater imports a sequence, it sets the sequence’s frame rate to match the rate of the currently mapped layer source.

• Improved network communication on Windows
  On Windows, a new, flexible, and robust network communication library is utilized when Templater makes requests. For most users, this will not affect behavior, but for users with tight security protocols, special privileges might need to be granted to this library to communicate over the network.

• Included Output Module and Render Setting Templates
  Templater installs two new files that assist in render setup. The file dataclay-output-modules.aom contains AE Output Module Templates and file dataclay-render-settings.ars contains AE Render Settings Templates that are optimized for Templater batch performance. Load these files using AE’s Edit > Templates >… dialogs. On macOS, find these files in directory /Applications/Dataclay, and on Windows find them in directory <user home>\Documents\Dataclay.

• Defaults for Output Module and Render Setting selection
  Templater will use a default Output Module and Render Setting Template upon clean installation to avoid errors initiating batch processing workflows.

• Specify a path for writing Templater’s log
  In Templater’s Preferences dialog, within the Advanced group of controls, users can now specify a path for where Templater writes its log.

• Improved messaging for license expiration and renewal date
  Clicking the License Info button in the Templater Preferences dialog now displays the date when the activated license will either expire or renew.

• Improved log messages for Templater requests to Google
  To assist users with troubleshooting, the Templater log reports more specificity regarding requests made to Google’s API.

• Various bug fixes have been addressed

  • Fixed hard crash bug when using AE’s “Add to Adobe Media Encoder Queue” menu command while Templater panel is open.
  • The correct Windows and macOS version numbers are now reported in the log.
  • Fixed recurring license expiration issue when launching Templater via its command line interface.
  • Fixed Templater’s scaling logic for portrait, square, and landscape footage sources in accordance to its containing composition.
  • Dynamic audio layers now ignore spatial layout properties.
  • Fixed an issue where a unique footage file would not be downloaded when “Allow unique downloads for cloud-based assets” preference is enabled.
  • Fixed a naming issue when output column in a Google sheet was empty.