aescripts + aeplugins

Michael Zoppo

This does not work with CC Sphere, and if it does could you please explain how? 

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Michael,

the problem is that CC Sphere is not camera aware. So you could try out some of these methods mentioned at provideocoalition.com to use the 3D cartesian coordinates or you use severeal instances of CC Sphere on precomposed layers. Like in the attached example (CS6).

derek myers

Can't get this script to read csv files properly. It always only takes the first header which I have to chose manually. Longitude and name only have blank drop down menus. This goes for own csv files as for the one you provided. I'm on a PC, CS6 (latest update).


Update: Switched my AE to another language (German) and it worked just fine.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,

thanks for the bug report.

That behavior is strange. I tested it on German and English AE Mac OSX 10.8.2. Could you go to your preferences and activate the debugging (like in the screenshot) and run the script again in english. I'd like to know if the script throws an error.  

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Another thing we should test is to exclude the image for the settings button. Could you please test the attached script version? That would be great.
Cheers
Fabian

derek myers

Hi Fabian,
thanks for your fast response. I tried both script in english with debug mode on and it highlighted the same piece of code. Only difference was the line depending on which script I used. See the screenshots for details. Also I don't have the gear symbol for settings but just an regular asteriks symbol for the settings. I have to add that I'm using a german after effects but use the "ae_force_english.txt" trick to have it run in english. Could this be the cause?

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,

first the "ae_force_english.txt" should not be the problem. I also work on a german AE version und use that trick to change it to english.  

Does this happen with every .csv file? Or just some specific ones?

If it only happens with a specific .csv could you upload it for me so I can test it?

It seems like the the content of <code>locdata.rawdata.keys[j]</code> is not a String. 

I will sit down a while and meditate about that problem.

I'll get back to you tomorrow.

Cheers Fab

P.S. You can delete the "Locations_nobinary_jsx" the image is not the problem

derek myers

Hi Fabian,
I tried this with a small csv generated with http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocoder/ (deleted all the useless stuff) as well as with your somecities.csv with the same outcome. Only difference is seems to be the formatting of the csv files as my text editor shows me a [LF] as a break in your csv while mine has [CR][LF]. Could be a MAC/PC thing but since both don't work I assume it has nothing to do with it.


Update: Tried a few things with the csv. No matter how I setup my csv I always get a error at line 290 and the only option I have to chose data from the header is in the LAT dropdown. There I'm only able to choose the first header entry no matter if it's name starts with lat, name or something completely different.

Update 2: One other thing I noticed (when working with the german version) is that if you create nulls and text layers in one take, you get an error message because the radius slider can't be found. If I create text first and the the nulls I get no error but the radius slider only has an effect on the text layers. In order to create seperate nulls to controll both, text and nulls I have to load the csv data again before creating another set. Would be really great if this could be an option in the script or if every new instance could have it's individual controller by default.

PS. awesome script nonetheless!!!

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,

thanks for debugging this with me.  

About the csv data:  

It is vital for the script to work fine that you have  all commas right for example:  

This will work:  

lat,lon,name

10,100,"The name, that I gave me"

This also :  

lat,lon,name

10,100,The name that I gave me

This wont:  

lat,lon,name

10,100,"The name", that I gave me"  

I realy would love to see your data.

As you noticed my file has Unix Line Feeds (LF) yours created on Windows has the Windows (CRLF) Carridge Return Line Feeds. This should not be the problem. The function that reads the .csv should recognize both.

The encoding of the file could be a problem. Using Sublime Text 2 you can set the encoding (safest way for english is UTF-8). Edit a line in your file and than use the "save with encoding" option of Sublime Text.

I had badly encoded Characters in some files and I also could not read them. What wonders me most is that the somecities.csv does not work.  

I attached a debugging version to this post. Maybe you can run it and paste the content of the Debug alert that pops up into a post.  

RE Update 1:  

Please test the debug version.

RE Update 2:  

is that if you create nulls and text layers in one take, you get an error message because the radius slider can't be found. 

That is strange if I load data I can create nulls, text, lights all in one turn.  

If I create text first and the the nulls I get no error but the radius slider only has an effect on the text layers.  

• If you have a layer selected when building locations the script should add a slider to that layer and build and use this layer as center.
• If you have a layer selected that has a radius slider he will use this layer as center and use its radius slider.
• If you have no layer selected the script should create a new center layer with a radius slider. All layers that where created with that turn should be bound to that new slider.

In order to create seperate nulls to controll both, text and nulls I have to load the csv data again before creating another set.

As mentioned before. This is strange and should not be the case. You can see that I hit the Build Locations button in the tutorial several times to create diffrent types of markers.

Would be really great if this could be an option in the script or if every new instance could have it's individual controller by default.

This should be the case.  

Thank you for helping me.

Cheers

Fabian

derek myers

Hi Fabian,

thanks for your patience and effort I tried your debug version and UTF8 encoding but still can't get it to run in english.
Here's what I have as a csv:

Lat,Lon,Name
48.136415,11.577531,Munich
51.506325,-0.127144,London
40.71455,-74.007124,New York
48.85693,2.3412,Paris

When using your debug script I don't get a java debug error and no debug info and all the drop down menus are filled with the appropriate header names. As soon as I press the "Build Locations" button I get an "Your latitude vale seems to be NAN (not a number)" four times (same for longitude) and the script creates 4 loc "Name" text layers and 4 loc undefined text layers.

Running the regular script still "stops" at latitude and leaves every other drop down blank (after exiting the debugger).

Running both of your scripts in german AE does work as expected.

Please tell me if I can help you by providing project files or anything else.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,

you could give me your computer. hehe

Thanks for your data. That is pretty basic and should not make any problems.

This is so wired that it works in German AE for you and not in english.

Maybe you try something else:  

Open the script file with Sublime Text and try changing the encoding of the script. It should be UTF-8. Change it to Western Windows 1252 or on of the Western ISOs or to Mac Roman. 

You need to make a tiny change to the file to be able to save it. Just add a whitespace at the beginning.  

The biggest problem is that you are the only one who reports this bug. I had some downloads since the release. This could mean:  

- If it is a Win / Mac thing. Only Mac people loaded the script  

- Something is different with your computer/AE (Which System are you on AE CS6 11.0.2.11 and which windows? Win 7?)  

- something totally different.

 I will once again meditate on that. 

Cheers & Thanks

Fabian

derek myers

Did some more testing. Different encoding didn't get me any further but I found out  that my AE CS5 and CS5.5 both work fine. It's only CS6 that gives me those problems when running in force english mode. My CS6 is 11.0.2.11 and I'm on Win7 SP1. Guess it's the version that's causing the problems then?

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,
its cool that your digging thru this problem. Thanks for your feedback.

I developed the script in CS6 (german & english) and did some testing in CS5 and CS5.5*. So it is pretty wired that your CS6 does not like it.

The problem seems to be:

It does not recognize the content of 

     locdata.rawdata.keys 

 as string.

That bugs me a lot. So i fiddled a bit with the Debug version. It would be cool if you could test the attached version of the script with the attached .csv file against your AE(s) in german and english and paste the result of the debug into a post or text file.

Cheers

Fabian

*@allCS4Users Thats right. I didn't test it in CS4. Since my update to 10.8 on both of my computers the whole CS4 Suite won't work. But I'm pretty shure that i don't use any options that demand CS5+ or if so I enclose them with some try catch .

Fabian Morón Zirfas

BTW has your AE CS6 in english permission to read write to disk?

derek myers

It get's stranger. Right now I'm on a AE CS6 with 11.0.0.378 and it's just working fine. I think I uninstal my AE and see if that helps.

BTW. Yes, scripts have write/read permission on. I'm going to try your debug script when I'm back home.

derek myers

Back home and I tried your debug script:

Fabian Morón Zirfas

This sounds like there is something different with your AE version. The output of the Debug Script is fine. This is what he should show. Did you get the the same error as you mentioned before? Or did he fill the pulldowns with the headings of your .csv?

  

derek myers

Hi Fabian,

after clicking away 8 NAN Errors I get i.e. 8 text layers. 4 of them are propperly named and placed and 4 are named "undefined" and seem to me quite random. This happens with my csv as well as with the one you put in the zip file. The AE 11.0.0.378 that worked was at my client and it should be identical to mine. German version with force englisch file. I can't remember if I downloaded my update from the german or the us server. Maybe there's something mixed up along the way but it seems the problem is rather on my side. I'm going to install AE from scratch and see if that will do. Thanks for your help

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,

any changes with Locations.jsx and your AE?  

Cheers

Fabian

derek myers

Hi Fabian,

I'm in the middle of a project so my new installation will have to wait a few days. I keep you posted how everything went.
Cheers,

Derek

Bryan Porter

Is there an update to this? I have also been having the same problems importing, and tehy seem to be in line with what Derek is experiencing. Please help, I have a deadline that's days away. 

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Bryan,
that is awful. I can't get a grip on what seems to be the problem. As you can read above the problem occurs with AE CS6 is 11.0.2.11 DE on Win7 SP1 with forced english UI. I can't reproduce the error on Mac OSX 10.8.2 with AE CS6 is 11.0.2.11 neither in EN nor in DE.  

Have you tried the last debug version (0.1.1) of the script that I added to this discussion?  

I will update the download a.s.a.p. but can't promise that that fixes this problem.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Bryan I updated the release version of Locations.jsx to v0.1.1 in the store. Try it out if that solves the problem.

Cheers

Fabian

Bryan Porter

Fabian,

I have to tell you, when I watched the demo video last night I was literally jumping around my apartment with glee, because the work that I am about to execute over the next two days is EXACTLY what you have already built here, and please let me compliment you on doing a beautiful job. I hope I can help you get this useful tool more stable for the rest of us. I watched the entire tutorial three times and replicated the final csv file using excel, spreadsheets in google drive, and hand-typing straight into sublime. Each time I brought in the information and resaved using sublime (to add utf-8 encoding), then attempted to import using Locations in 3D mode. No luck. I have also tried the plugin on two separate machines, both windows with cs6. I also tried on my macbook, and toyed with the csv encoding for that too. The csv is properly formatted with no additional commas whatsoever. If you can get this to work I'll pay double for the plugin, lol. 

Ps, I used 1.0 last night on my i7, and came in to work today to install and attempt 1.1 on a pair of xeons, if that helps.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Bryan,

I really want this to work to.

The big problem I am having is that I can replicate the error and don't have a Windows computer where I could test it. I need to change that. If you want me to create a comp for you with your data so you can get your job done, send me a direct message with a link to your .csv via vimeo, twitter or github. This buys us some time and takes the pressure of .

It would be nice if we could do some testing after your job.

For debugging github would be the easiest way for me to provide you with debug versions test .csv data and stuff like that.

Let me know.

  

 

Fabian Morón Zirfas

I fiddled a bit with the script and added a debug function that will try to write some info into a .txt file onto the Desktop. If you like to help solving these problems please provide me these infos.

The debug version is attached to this post.
Fabian

derek myers

Hi Fabian,

good news. With your 0.11 version I can import the csv files in force_english mode I also found out that some of the NAN error messages were due to another script panel that was loaded (https://aescripts.com/elementary/). Closing this script did not resolve the issue but I had to close AE and start it without any scripts loaded. Then everything went fine. This script (https://aescripts.com/projection/) had simmilar issues with other script loaded (see comments) so you might ask the author if/how he resolved this. Anyway, it's working now and I want to thank you for a awesome script and good support!

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Derek,

great that it works now and thanks for the feedback and that info about the "other scripts interference" problem. 

There will be a v0.1.2 soon with some more bug fixes, cleaner code, more verbose RegExp and less loops. Great feature set. isn't it

Cheers

:fabian

Kevin Schires

Hi guys, sorry about Elementary interfering, this already happened with the TrueCompDuplicator because it was using many global variables and one was modified for some reason. I'm really not sure what's happening to be honest.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

No problem. already wrote you an email. We should do some testing on reproducing this error. Maybe it would be nice to set up some guidelines on how to write script panels so they don't interfere.

Cheers

Fabian

Nik Ska

Hi, Fabian.

I want to use AEmap+Locations with Element 3D on a 3D sphere, but it seems to lack support for continuous raterization. Could you advice me something to use your maps on a 3D sphere with a really close-up shot?

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Nik,

yes to get close to a sphere in E3D is a problem.

I think there are 2 ways to do that.

The first way would be:  

- Creating a huge map with AEMap.jsx.  

The AEHelp says:

> After Effects supports a maximum image size of 30,000x30,000 pixels for importing and rendering files. The size of image that you can import or export is influenced by the amount of physical RAM available to After Effects. The maximum composition dimensions are also 30,000x30,000 pixels.  

If you can't get close enough with a World Map with a scale of (360*180)*80 you have to take a look into the second solution.

- Creating several resolution parts of the World Map.  

I'm not shure if using E3D for the whole thing would be necessary then.  

Have a look at the "Earth Zoom" tutorial by Andrew Kramer. I exchanges at certain levels the footage. So you could use E3D in the beginning to get the whole world cosmic view and than go over to just have some parts of the map. 

Does that help?  

Cheers

Fabian

- [Videocopilot Earth Zoom](http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials/earth_zoom/)  

- [AEHelp max comp size](http://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103906c6dea-7f7ca.html)  

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Oh and I forgot to say. With the latest version of Kevin Schires's Elementary (1.5) you can now depth sort 3D plugins. So you can create Markers with Locations.jsx around your E3D globe in real AE Space.  

Have a look at the scribble here -->  

And here is the link to Elementary --> https://aescripts.com/elementary/

Chad Kali

Hi Fabian!

First off, thank you for making these great scripts! I purchased both AE Maps & Locations as they really fit the work I'm doing. I have (2) two issues at hand with Locations:

1. I cannot seem to control the text or markers position in z space on top of the map (AE Maps) the nulls seemed grouped and overridden by the script's control. I need to place my markers and text on a 2D map in different positions in z space as the camera does a fly by.

2. I noticed that Locations has been updated since I purchased it from 2.0 to 2.2 however I cannot find a link to update it.

Thanks.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Chad,

I'm glad you like the script.

About 1)

You have 2 options do fix your problem.

 - You can bake the expressions by checking the "bake" checkbox. Then you can acces the position of the markers again.

Or if you fine with changing the code of the script you could edit the expression that gets added to the position:

- Open the script in an editor like Sublimetext http://www.sublimetext.com/

- go to line 881

- change the code

expr.push("[x,y]");

to

expr.push("if(value.length==3){ [x,y,value[2]]; }else{ [x,y];}");

This will enable you to change the z position of all makrers you create.

I will release an update with that code a.s.a.p.

About 2)

To get a new version of a "Name Your Own Price" item you will need to add the new version to the cart and checkout again.

The reason for this is that the "Name Your Own Price" policy asks that you name the price of the upgrade as well.  You can of course edit the upgrade price to whatever you feel the upgrade is worth to you including zero if you feel the upgrade should be free. 

The VERSION HISTORY tab on the product will let you know what the changes in each version are so you can see how much has changed from version to version.

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Sorry there is an error in the code you should replace. It has to be like this:

expr.push("if(value.length==3){ [x,y,value[2]]; }else{ [x,y];}");

Loris Uzan

Hey it's a great script but AEMaps doesn't seem to be compatible with Adobe CC is there any way to make it work with it ? thanks 

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Loris,

is it about Locations.jsx or AEMap.jsx?  

Can you please tell me what seems to be the problem?  

I will test and make them CC ready asap. Would be great if you tell me where you're running into errors.

Cheers

:fabian

Loris Uzan

Well Locations works on CC but it requires AEmap which is not CC compatible so it just doesn't show up in the script list I have while Locations does and I can even start it.  

Great job on those scripts btw. 

Thanks

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Thats wired. Which version of AEMap.jsx are you on and what OS?

It works for me.

Also AE does not evaluate the scripts before execution. If AE finds a file in the folder "/Applications/Adobe After Effects [VERSION]/Scripts/ScriptUI Panels/" that has the extension .jsx or .jsxbin it should display it. There is no error check.

I'll try to have a look into it this weekend

Loris Uzan

AEMaps 0.4 and Windows 8 x64. And well all my other scripts work including locations. Thanks Fabian

Todd Stanwood

Hi Fabian,

I just received a Script Alert:

Please report that bug at:
http://aiscripts.com/forums/discussion/comment/737

The Read Locations was working and now stopped.
When I try to use it nothing appears in: Lat:, Lon:, Name.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks,

Todd

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Todd,

did you try to restart the script?

Which OS-,AE and Locations version are you using?

Can you activate the javascript debugger in the settings to give me the exact spot where the error occurs?

As for Loris. I will try to have a look into it at the weekend but I need more infos on the errors.

Cheers

:fabian

Loris Uzan

Hey Fabian there's no errors with your script it just doesn't show up in the list under the windows tab. 

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hey Fabian there's no errors with your script it just doesn't show up in the list under the windows tab. 

Hi Loris. I'm on Mac OSX 10.8.5 with AE 12.0.0.404 and AEMap.jsx is located somewhere on my drive and linked via a symlink into the Scripts Panel folder and it works (see the image http://d.pr/i/KXph ). Can you please make sure it is in your Scripts Panel folder.

Also could we take this discussion to the AEMap thread of this forum?

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Fabian,

I just received a Script Alert:

Please report that bug at:
http://aiscripts.com/forums/discussion/comment/737

The Read Locations was working and now stopped.
When I try to use it nothing appears in: Lat:, Lon:, Name.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Thanks,

Todd

Hi Todd. I Updated Locations.jsx to version 0.3.1 check it out and tell me if your problem is fixed. If not It would be great to have some more info?

Cheers

:fabian

Michael Cerny

Installed under AE CS6 but doesn't show on Scripts UI, should it?

Thanks,

Mike

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Yes it should.  

Did you install it like in this tutorial?

https://aescripts.com/knowledgebase/index/view/faq/how-to-install-and-run-scripts/  

Cheers

Fabian

Bram Vreugdenhil

Hi Fabian, great script!

Is there a way to position the 3D locations in 3D? I mean, using the center null object. (The position parameter is fixed by an expression).

I need the centerpoint to be at an exact position of an existing null object..

Fabian Morón Zirfas

Hi Bram,

just bake (Menu>Animation>Keyframe-Assistant>Convert Expressions to Keyframes) all the orientation expressions on the locations layers,

then deactivate or bake the expression on the center null and parent all the location layers to the center null.

Then you should be able to move the center null with all the locations at the right spot.

Cheers

:fabian