Comments on: Batch Search-n-Replace Paths

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:24:29 +0000

If there are the same name then you can just move frames 301-500 to a different folder. After Effects by default uses the entire sequence unless you used something like Immigration to bring in only a region of the sequence. You can’t do this by hand so most like you did not do this.

By: Greg

Greg — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:20:39 +0000

Hi
Great script but i’im trying to replace footage of psd files (sequence frames 0000-0500) with footage of psd files (sequence frames 0000-0300)
How to do it?

Greg

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:30:57 +0000

This is a great little script. We’ve been using it to transfer files between PC and Mac and found it very helpful. We have however come across a couple of issues that we’ve struggled with.

1. When dealing with PSD Layers the script seems to change the interpretation method so whereas before the using the script we had individual layers from the PSD after processing the file each individual layer now holds the entire PSD. This is particularly frustrating but I don’t know if we’re doing something wrong when we’re processing the files.

2. the script doesn’t change the render Output path, this would be an incredibly useful option for us. At the moment we have to change this manually after converting the file.

Still a very useful script though!

Nick

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:06:37 +0000

To do a wildcard search you’ll need to use Regex. If you tell me exactly what your wildcard search is I can write you a regex expression you can use.

By: Wilhelm

Wilhelm — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 10:33:59 +0000

i am trying to replace footage that has another sequence count (i.e. sewuence frame 20-100, replacing with sequence frame 50-200).
how can i do that?
i was trying to do with an asterix in the search and replace string but i wont work. any ideas?

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:45:31 +0000

Great, thanks for sharing that and glad you got it working.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:37:29 +0000

I believe I have gotten it to work. Although stripping the name wasn’t necessary. Using the item(m).file variable gave the wrong path, but using item(m).file.name gave the correct path. So this fix seems to work:

Replace:
var myProjItemPath = unescape(myProj.item(m).file);

With:
var myProjItemPath = unescape(myProj.item(m).file.name);

At least on my computer with Mac OSX with CS3…

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:26:12 +0000

That is definitely a bug. The CS3 scripting api had many bugs that were fixed in CS4. So are you able to get it working with your workaround?

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:18:17 +0000

I was looking into the replace javascript command along with your script and I think there is something a little more subtle going on.

I ran this code and the replace worked fine even with the source folder missing:
var items = app.project.selection;
var layer = items[0];
replacePath = “/Users/user/Desktop/AFX_Projects/Art2/FullskiesBlueClouded0004_1_M.jpg”;
replaceFile = new File(replacePath);
layer.replace(replaceFile);

However, looking at your code, the search/replace gets run on the item(m).file text. However, this property seems to give something like this:
/Applications/Adobe%20After%20Effects%20CS3/Adobe%20After%20Effects%20CS3.app/Contents/MacOS/GFX-Work-i05:Users:user:Desktop:AFX_Projects:Art2:FullskiesBlueClouded0004_1_M.jpg

I don’t know why the location of After Effects is found in the file variable, however it explains why the search and replace fails, because when anything is replaced, the location is still included, and that is no longer a proper path.

Maybe stripping the executable location from the item(m).file variable before running the search/replace will help?

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:10:52 +0000

I am afraid you might be out of luck. CS3 was very limited in it’s flexibility. To replace paths the script has to do it through the “replace footage” command in AE which fails if the path is not valid. I would suggest upgrading. CS4 and above are much more capable especially for this high level kind of stuff. Also, much faster.

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:06:50 +0000

Yeah, that’s what I’m trying. Unfortunately, I’m on CS3 so XML is not an option. The folder that has changed is the server, so we no longer have the old folder name available. Any other thoughts?

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:59:46 +0000

If the folder no longer exists you will only be able to do it using the XML option. Is that what you are trying?

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:47:46 +0000

I am having trouble replacing footage when the source folder no longer exists. I run the script, but the log shows an error stating “After Effects error: Unable to call

By: keks

keks — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 15:24:29 +0000

Ok, thanks!

By: Lloyd Alvarez

Lloyd Alvarez — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:18:58 +0000

I don’t understand what you are explaining. If you cannot import it into AE this script will not help. What this script does is it updates paths. For example if you need to move media from one server to another and you need your after effects project to link to the new location.