CompsFromSpreadsheet 4
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CompsFromSpreadsheet 4
https://aescripts.com/compsfromspreadsheet/Get data from your spreadsheet into your After Effects comps automatically. Now with pre-comp support!
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Hopefully this is what you are asking:
Importing Files Via Spreadsheet
You can have layers in your comps be replaced by files that are not in your project. Any layer that begins with > will be replaced by a file imported from the path specified in your spreadsheet. To get the proper path format of a file click on the "Get File Path" button located in the main compsFromSpreadsheet window. When you click this button a window will pop up asking you to navigate to your file; when you click ok the proper path to this file will appear in a window that you can copy and then paste into your spreadsheet. When the script runs it will import the file from the location specified in the spreadsheet and replace the layer. If you have the same file more than once in the spreadsheet it will only be imported once, and that copy will be used each time that particular file is referenced.
If the file specified in the spreadsheet does not exsist, a popup window will ask you to find it.
Also, if you havent done so already, this video shows how to use a lot of the features
I think it could work. Sorry if I ramble but I'll try to explain how I think you might use it.
have a comp named "master"
in that comp make 3 solids positioned where you want the employee pics. Name the layers ">pic1", ">pic2", and ">pic3"
the > will tell the script that this is an import replace layer, so the layer ">pic1" will be replaced by the photo imported from the path named in the pic1 column of your spreadsheet (and so on for pic2 and pic3),
in the "master" comp make a text layer "^name" and position and size it the way you want the persons name to appear.
you need to have a spreadsheet with the first line containing the column names so the first row of the spreadsheet is:
name pic1 pic2 pic3
followed by the actual data on subsequent lines. this then needs to be saved as a tab delimited text file.
when you run the script it will make a new comp for each person with their name filled in and their 3 pictures inserted.
each comp will be named after the line number of the spreadsheet that the data came from. You could change this to have the comps named after the persons name from the field init window.
One last thing, the above scenario assumes you only have one comp in your project, if you have more than one comp you just need to put a column in your spreadsheet named "COMP" which will hold the name of the comp to be used for that line of the spreadsheet
Hi Marko,
I think that AE will choke trying to build thousands of comps (but I have not tried). You could find out where the sweet spot is for your system, try a run with 500, if it works try 750 if not try 250, until you find out how many comps choke your system.
if 500 comps works fine, split your text file into 2 files of 500 entries, and run it twice.
Like I said, I've never tried thousands of comps so it may work (but I think it wont).
Run compsFromSpreradsheet to automaticaly build and place all your comps in the render que, then use bg-renderer basic to send your que to aerender.exe.
I have never tried this but I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work.
what OS are you using? Do you have any other licensed
scripts? Did the problem start immediately when you started using
compsFromSpreadsheet4, CS6, or did the problems just creep up on you?
Thanks for the kind words, saving time and tedium was the reason I created the script.
Mike
I'm quite interested in this script, but I'd like to know if it can what I have in mind before purchasing.
I have to create some End Packs for a TV station and they want a template where the name[s] of the show appear on screen, in front of a colored box resized to the text size. I've done this script and it's working really well, but now I need to feed the show names to this script and we'd like to get those from an excel spreadsheet.
So is there a way to link this script to the script I've created. Because if it works then I'll buy it straight away as it will save me some precious scripting time.
thanks
Nicolas
Not exactly sure what you are trying to do, but it sounds like it should work. You can use the fully functional script for 7 days without paying. So my suggestion would be to download it and see is you can get it to do what you want.
Let me know how you make out and if you have any further questions.
Mike
when the field init window opens (right after you select your tab-delimited text file) there is a checkbox labeled "rendering to image sequence", check this and it should solve your problem
He had a comp "!CAR TEXT" that had a bunch of text layers updated from the spreadsheet. Then, in various precomps he would reference these layers in expressions like this:
comp("!CAR TEXT").layer("^feature2").text.sourceText
the problem is both items being referenced in the expression would have their names changed when the script is run. To solve this, any comp that had an expression would have a copy of "!CAR TEXT" as layer 1 in the comp. The expression then needs to be changed to reference the comp by layer id instead of name so the above expression would be changed to:
var c = comp(thisComp.layer(1).source.name)
c.layer(9).text.sourceText
now everything is hard coded to layer index so when the script changes the name of the text layer and comp referenced, the expression still works.
The reason it creates a new comp is because each column is tied to elements in your base comp. if it didn't create a new comp for each line of the spreadsheet, it would update the layer each line and in the end you would end up with a comp that had values from the very last line of the spreadsheet.
Hope this makes sense.
The trial version is a fully functional version of the script, there are no limitations.The field init window is where you connect layers in your comps to columns in your spreadsheet. So if you had a comp with a text layer named ^firstName and a solid layer named #nameAudio; the field init window would show you that the columns are connected to your comp layers (if you have more than one comp in your project you need a 3rd column to hold the name of the comp to use for each line).
once these are conneccted and the script runs, for each line of the spreadsheet it should make a copy of the comp, fill in lastName with the value of that line in the spreadsheetr. It should then replace the solid named #audioName with the project file named in the audioName column of your spreadsheet.
Let me know if that makes sense.
what happens when you try to change seperators. I just tried it and it is working on my setup.
What version of ae are you using?
I downloaded the trial of this last night to a) make sure it would do what I was looking for and b) make sure it was compatible with AE CC (even though it doesn't say it is) - It is working like a dream except that it only processes the first line of the spreadsheet. I thought I was doing something wrong but I just tried your example and it only copied and processed line 2 giving one comp. Are you planning on a CC update and if so, is it far off. Mandy
thx for the info.
I am currently working with Mandy on her issues with after effects cc. On my end the script appears to work properly with after effects cc. The best thing to do is download the free (fully functional) trial, and play around with it in cc to make sure it fits your needs.
Let me know how you make out.
I am having the same problem as Mandy McKay.
In CC - it only does row 2. (does that well though :-) )
Any updates?
Glad to hear it's doing the first row ok. I'm working with Mandy to try and figure out what is going on as her project runs on my cc setup. If you want to help out, email me your text file you are using. Something wacky is going on with text encoding methinks between cs6 and cc.
what os are you using
Try downloading the latest version. I have worked with Mandy and the issue has been addressed in the latest release
thank you very much for your work, it a bit long to connect evrything i my project but then it's such a big time saver !!!
Works perfectly on CC (I don't use all the features)
Buy it without doubt if you need to update the same video with new text often !!!
Attached photo - text layer to be pulled from the spreadsheet is 5 deep, if I name the comp in the spreadsheet as !Led_Arrow_05 it will pull it with out issue, if I use the one above that (!Main_Led_Sceen_03) it breaks.
Give the trial a go, it was all I needed to be convinced of its power.
Can you send me your after effects project (no actual assetts, just the after effects file) and the tab delimited text doc.
Also, if you could please let me know which line(s) of the doc don't build properly.
Thanks,
Mike
You can download the free trial by clicking on the green TRY button on the product page.