the message is popping up mid-course through the rendering process. I can see activity within the Render Queue, then there is a quick Auto Save, after the Auto Save - within the Render Queue I can see in the lower left corner a read out "Message: Rendering 0 of 100" and at that point I get the error message. After clicking OK on the error message, in the Project Window, there is a new folder "compsFromSpreadsheet" Inside this folder I can see all the newly generated comps. Within those comps I can see the Text layers I'm looking to fill with text from the Tab Delimited Text file, however those text layers in the new comps do not display any text other than the actual layer name. The layer names are showing the text from the Tab Delimited File, but not showing in the main stage.
.zip of this project (.aep + .txt) can be found here:
Stephen Parrott said:
the message is popping up mid-course through the rendering process. I can see activity within the Render Queue, then there is a quick Auto Save, after the Auto Save - within the Render Queue I can see in the lower left corner a read out "Message: Rendering 0 of 100" and at that point I get the error message. After clicking OK on the error message, in the Project Window, there is a new folder "compsFromSpreadsheet" Inside this folder I can see all the newly generated comps. Within those comps I can see the Text layers I'm looking to fill with text from the Tab Delimited Text file, however those text layers in the new comps do not display any text other than the actual layer name. The layer names are showing the text from the Tab Delimited File, but not showing in the main stage.
Hi Stephen,
I ran the script using the project and tab delimited text file you provided, and it worked properly (I attatched the completed aep file). Can you try again and if it doesn't work properly, save the after effects project (with the erroneous comps in the compsFromSpreadsheet folder), maybe I can get a better understanding of what's going on.
Hi Michael! Is there a way not to create new compositions, but only change the data in a template when importing data from a table?
Hi Oleg,
Unfortunately the script currently always works on copies of the template comps used. I may add the ability to work on the original template comp as you are not the first to request this functionality.
Unchecking all the boxes within Settings / Processing Tab did the trick.
"Restore Defaults" rechecks these boxes and that's what was throwing me off. Thanks for the quick reply and all the help. Your script is most appreciated. Thanks again.
I am working on an update to fix a few issues, I think this should solve your problem.
Here are the main issues addressed in this update:
if your spreadsheet has a lot of columns, eventually the field init window runs out of space. Now there is a scrollbar if the amount of columns fills up more than 2 rows in the window.
Double quotes apparently get mangled by excel when you convert to tab delimeted text. Now if you put <qq> in your spreadsheet, the script will convert it to "
If you want to update your template comps without duplicating them, there is a checkbox in settings->processing "Dont Duplicate Template and Pre Comps
You can now import an image sequence by making a layer with a * instead of > in the name. previously if you tried to import an image sequence, only the first frame would come in
fixed issues with saving render to an image sequence and other issues with render settings.
Thanks Michael for this great script! I've had my eye on it for awhile and finally have need of it! It's working well, however, I get the same problem as Stephen and Michael. The the v5 beta you posted below did not work in my case. Thanks!
It does not give the "undo mismatch" error, rather, it does not add anything to the render que at all. And when I look into the compsFromSpreadsheet bin, I see it has generated the same sequence multiple times rather than one for each line on the spreadsheet.
I used v5 non-beta and manually started my render. Not that big of a deal considering your script just did a half days work for me, lol!
I have created not hundreds but thousands of time-tagged promos for a local tv station using this script now. It saves me around 8 hours each time I use it for a batch. It's addictive seeing how much time is saved! Thank you again for this wonderful script!
Running in trial mode on Mac, w/ AE Creative Cloud 2014.
I set up a new comp. Created 2 layers: ^SQ and ^Sc. I have a tab delimited text file standing by. I press 'runcompsfromspreadsheet' and get an error that says:
"No text layers set to receive data. To set a text layer... etc. Program terminating."
I have a project set up that has some templates set up named intro, name, text, text_2, text_4.
in those templates they all have some variation of the text layers ^body and ^subtext
in my tsv, I have columns as COMP, timestamp, body, subtext
I am using COMP as the template comp name, timestamp new comp name, body for ^body, and subtext for ^subtext.
when I run the plugin, it gives me the correct info in the dropdowns. (I leave timestamp blank in the dropdowns at the top) I choose timestamp for new comp name. I hit OK, and it creates the folder where the new comps are supposed to be subfolders are "import" and "preComps" these are blank. (I have a folder with precomps named "Pre-comps" in my project already). But thats all it ever does. No error.
Ok, I have made a little headway. it seems that if I create a text layer on my own, and name it something like ^body. It fails. If I use the plugin to create the layer, it works. Is there anything special that the plugin is doing that is different than creating a text layer, and naming it ^body?
Ok, I have made a little headway. it seems that if I create a text layer on my own, and name it something like ^body. It fails. If I use the plugin to create the layer, it works. Is there anything special that the plugin is doing that is different than creating a text layer, and naming it ^body?
It shouldn't make a difference. Sorry it took so long for me to respond, I was on vacation last week and couldn't check it out. I will take a look today to see if I can figure out whats going on.
I think I see your problem. In your comp column you have "intro" but in your project the comp name is "Intro"
comp names are case sensitive. It should throw an error but people running cc2015 have been having silent failure like this. If you ran it in cc2014 it should throw an error (I will need to figure out why the error is not thrown in cc2015).
I think I see your problem. In your comp column you have "intro" but in your project the comp name is "Intro"
comp names are case sensitive. It should throw an error but people running cc2015 have been having silent failure like this. If you ran it in cc2014 it should throw an error (I will need to figure out why the error is not thrown in cc2015).
Let me know if this helps.
Yep, that fixed it! I figured it was something I did silly like that. Thanks!
I'm having trouble with my newly purchased version of CompsFormSpreadSheet,
My AE project has a number of objects that need to be updated, but when I run the script, it only creats one new comp and only updates one of the text layers.
I realize this is a bit tricky to answer without seeing the actual project. Can I send you an email with a download link?
(The material is somewhat sensitive, so I can't post it publicly)
Hey you guys have to do an update so that these UIs work with UHD monitors. Some of menu fields are cut short and make it impossible to find certain things even in legacy mode
is it support : Use a Google Sheets document as a data source??
It does not; however, if you make a spreadsheet in google docs, you can select download as->tab separated values, save it on your computer and use that.
I might roll this feature in the next update, but in the meantime you can just download your spreadsheet as a tab separated file
Hi. Just purchased a copy; Is there a feature that can be added (or workaround or method) to allow overwrite of existing comps, instead of creating a new set of comps? I am trying to use multiple rows of data to produce multiple comps, that then get used in another comp. I want to be able to refresh the data, but not always rebuild the final comp - at the moment, every time I run the script, it produces a new set of comps even though naming is the same. thanks.
But I have a question. I got this not so small project with only Text to edit. The same Textholder is used in several Subcomps (about 200 comps). Do i have to rename every Comp on the way to my Textholder with the "!"? That would be really tough.
But I have a question. I got this not so small project with only Text to edit. The same Textholder is used in several Subcomps (about 200 comps). Do i have to rename every Comp on the way to my Textholder with the "!"?
Thanks Dennis. Unfortunately you have to have a preceeding ! on any comp you want the script to dive into. I might be able to add a switch in the next update to parse every precomp layer regardless of !
Love the script and am close to downloading a licensed version. I am currently trying to set up a process by which our graphic designers can create new logos , change the text and then render without ever opening After Effects. Your script almost makes that possible. I have two questions:
1. Is it possible to create the settings in your script and then simply initiate an update/render by dropping the text file into a watch folder? There is a script available on this site that allows for that, but it is six times the price of yours and has many features I would never use.
2. Is it possible to set your renders to go straight to Media Encoder? The AE render queue just doesn't have the settings I need for my exports. There IS a workaround. I can set up a watch folder for Media Encoder that will recompress any video dropped into it, but of course that is one more step.
Maybe these features are already available and I just missed them. Perhaps they are coming in your next update. I just thought I would ask.
Aside from the strange error message is anything else not functioning properly?
I ran the script using the project and tab delimited text file you provided, and it worked properly (I attatched the completed aep file).
Can you try again and if it doesn't work properly, save the after effects project (with the erroneous comps in the compsFromSpreadsheet folder), maybe I can get a better understanding of what's going on.
Unfortunately the script currently always works on copies of the template comps used. I may add the ability to work on the original template comp as you are not the first to request this functionality.
I am working on an update to fix a few issues, I think this should solve your problem.
Here are the main issues addressed in this update:
When you say the beta didn't work, do you mean it didn't work at all, or that you are still getting the undo mismatch
Please use this version while I fix the issues with 5.1
In addition to some new features the dreaded undo group mismatch bug has been fixed.
comp names are case sensitive. It should throw an error but people running cc2015 have been having silent failure like this. If you ran it in cc2014 it should throw an error (I will need to figure out why the error is not thrown in cc2015).
Let me know if this helps.
Send the project and text file to [email protected] I'll see what's going on.
I might roll this feature in the next update, but in the meantime you can just download your spreadsheet as a tab separated file
I just ran the sample project in 2015.3 and it ran with no issues. You should be good to go.
Love the script and am close to downloading a licensed version. I am currently trying to set up a process by which our graphic designers can create new logos , change the text and then render without ever opening After Effects. Your script almost makes that possible. I have two questions:
1. Is it possible to create the settings in your script and then simply initiate an update/render by dropping the text file into a watch folder? There is a script available on this site that allows for that, but it is six times the price of yours and has many features I would never use.
2. Is it possible to set your renders to go straight to Media Encoder? The AE render queue just doesn't have the settings I need for my exports. There IS a workaround. I can set up a watch folder for Media Encoder that will recompress any video dropped into it, but of course that is one more step.
Maybe these features are already available and I just missed them. Perhaps they are coming in your next update. I just thought I would ask.
Thanks!