setting output frames through google sheet
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Hello,
For a project I need to be able to set the start and ending frame of 1969 different comps. I’m hoping that Templater is able to read a column that specifies the frame start and a separate column for the end frame. This will then solve my problem of having to render to 1969 different folders from my 3d package. But not sure if this is even possible.
I took a look in the documentation but it doesn’t say anything about specifying the exact frames per comp.
A bit of help here would be nice
-Joep
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Templater can absolutely support the functionality that you’re describing, although it will require a little bit of extra work. There’s a feature in Templater Bot called Event Scripts which allows us to run custom After Effects Extendscript at various points throughout the Templater process. These scripts can read information from your data source and should allow you to set the Work Area for the project using those values.
If you take a look at this link from our Github Page, we’ve already created a script that you can easily plug into the “After Update” event in Templater that should work for what you’re trying to do. Take a look, and if you run into any problems, please feel free to let us know.
Thanks!
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@jeff Hi Jeff thanks for responding, I will try this and see if this works. I’m not coder so I won’t be able to change much to the script but let’s see where I’m getting with it.
Another question, where can I find a list of all the reserved commands to put in the excel colums? Maybe I can also find another way to fix this if the script won’t work.
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The script on our Github Page is pretty basic, but if you run into any trouble, feel free to let us know here or drop us a line at support@dataclay.com. As for the Reserved Column Names, you can find a complete list of them on this page. Hope that helps and happy rendering!
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@jeff Hi Jeff, I’ve tried the script but I can’t get it to work with AE. I’m not sure where to put in the script in the first place, atm I put it under Data Retrieval in ExtendScripts, is this correct?
The only thing I need to do is tell after effects to change the Work Area bar so I think I only need a google spreadsheet with a target comp row and 2 rows stating the start and end of the Work Area bar, do you also think this is all I need? Maybe an output path as well but they can all be in the same folder.
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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!
