Characteristic
  • great, but useless for languages with special characters like ł, ó, ź, ć, ś
  • It will work with special characters if the typeface provides them.
  • TRY downloads not work

    "File does not exist. Make sure you specified correct file name."

  • TRY download is fixed now. Thanks for letting us know and sorry for the inconvenience.
  • Getting this error when trying to generate text:
    could not get metrics data. metrics comp not found in typeface spirograph_cs6.aep
  • It sounds like you imported the spirograph_cs6.aep and set the resulting folder as the typeface source. You need to select one of its child folders instead. The image below shows the correct folder to select.

    Let me know if that solves the problem for you.
    Screen Shot 2013-07-01 at 1.58.41 PM.png
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  • That fixed it. Thanks,
  • I keep getting this error as well "Could not get metrics data. Metrics comp not found in typeface Comps." How do I resolve this?
  • Hi Shawn,

    The script can't find the metrics composition which contains data about the typeface as a whole. It needs to be under the selected typeface folder and contain "metrics" in its name. 

    Which font are you using? If it's not advertised to work with Characteristic the metrics need to be added manually by clicking "Create" under the advanced panel. Further instructions are detailed in the info panel of the script and also lower on the product page.
  • would this work with png animated fonts 

    ?
  • Hi James,

    Yes, it will. You'll just need to add the metrics manually as explained in the "Instructions for animated typeface authors" section on the product page as well as the help dialog thats found in the script.
  • Hi, I'm getting "Could not get metrics data. Metrics comp not found in typeface comps" when I try to load Mondo typeface. I've tried using the different folders but still no joy. Is Mondo compatible with Characteristic?
  • Hi Bill,

    You can make Mondo compatible by following the instructions explained in the "Advanced Instructions" section of the help dialog. We have not yet coordinated with the author to add compatibility on their end, which I will try to do right now. Sorry that I didn't point that out in the video.
  • Hi I have just purchased this plugin to work with a sparkler font which is made up of png sequences, and doesn't really seem to work? you mentioned you have to create your own metrics but this function isn't working for me properly ,I imported each character image sequence into its own Folder name so A B C...
    Then i try using your script to add metrics by having advanced selected , metrics use, then select the containing folder hit set then create, This then just pulls all the image sequences into one folder, and creates just one comp? the image sequences do all have the same name could this be the issue? Alternatively if i click set for each character folder like A then it seems to create a better structure but always labels the character as S? and not sure if all the COMPS should be in one folder or nested. seems very confusing and laboured or am i missing something simple?
  • Hey James,

    I'm not sure I undestand correctly how you've set this up. But each PNG sequence should be in its own comp. Then you can click Create and it will add and the metrics comp and layers inside of the typeface. I've attached an image that shows how the heirarchy should look. I'll be making another video tutorial shortly that shows how to do this.


    Screen Shot 2013-08-14 at 11.43.28 AM.png
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  • Here's the advanced tutorial: https://vimeo.com/72438545. Hopefully this will help clear up the process.
  • Hello Michael,

    i've have an animated typeface with uppercase, lowercase,numbers and symbols. I've done what the advanced tutorial said but it seems that the script doesn't recognise the Uppercase somehow. When i test it it brings me twice the lowercase sequence. Numbers and symbols are okay. I understand that it can work if i make 2 different customizations, one for upper and one for lower. Is it possible that it can work in one customization? 

    Thank you in advance.

    edit: sorry.. no need to answer. I found the solution :)
  • Hey Vasilis,

    For my reference and for anybody that has the same problem in the future, could you please provide your solution?

    Thanks.
  • I placed manually expressions that did not work in the Animography Bold Pack because the Italian version of after effects cove "Slider" is "Cursor" and "Color" is "Color". Currently the project in the Animography Bold Pack is no longer expressions do not work but can not be handled by the plugin "Character" because this can not read the controls of the expressions in Italian.
    I am quite disappointed. :(
    I think before putting a product on the market should test it or at least write it will not work in versions of After Effects that are in languages ​​other than English.
    Please, I beg you, do something decisive :)))
    thanks
    filippo

    PS:. here is the error message generated by Characteristic:
    "Could not get metrics data. Property Slider not found on effect Base Tracking"
    In fact, in the Italian version of After Effects "Slider" is "Cursor".



  • I placed manually expressions that did not work in the Animography Bold Pack because the Italian version of after effects cove "Slider" is "Cursor" and "Color" is "Color". 

    PS:. here is the error message generated by Characteristic:
    "Could not get metrics data. Property Slider not found on effect Base Tracking"
    In fact, in the Italian version of After Effects "Slider" is "Cursor".
    We are aware that some of the Animography fonts don't work when AE is not running in english and are working on a fix.  Once we fix it you will be able to upgrade for free. Sorry for the inconvenience, we felt the same as you when we found out!  Fix should come soon.  In the next week or two.
  • Hi, same problems and disappointment than Filippo, but in french version.
    the promise is great, but the fonctions just doesn't work... :(

    expression 'Slider" does not exist in french, and it seems that other expressions have the same problem.

    A universal solution would be welcomed... 
    Please give us some news. thank you.
  • Please download the latest version (1.2.0) posted last month that fixes the localization issues.  If you are running the latest version and are still having issues please let us know.
    You can download the latest version from the 'My Downloads & Licenses' section of your user account.  
  • we bought few days ago the last versions of animography pack webster
    with the caracteristics script included, and it doesn't recognize the
    font, have you an answer ? (we use after effect CC)
    webster-error.png
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  • we bought few days ago the last versions of animography pack webster
    with the caracteristics script included, and it doesn't recognize the
    font, have you an answer ? (we use after effect CC)
    Please open a support ticket for help on this issue
  • This is an absolutely fantastic plugin. I've been slaving with manually placing fonts one character at a time for close to a year now, this is going to make life a lot easier.

    One weird anomally. I setup an animated chalk font with upper and lower case folders. When I create the metrics I get duplicates of the Settings and Grid lines. Then when I create the title, Characteristics creates two titles - one on top of the other. 

    I can easily delete one of the titles and continue working but I wanted to see if there was something that is a common problem or something I was doing wrong.
  • Hey,

    Installed plugin, enabled writing/network setting for JS in prefs, re-started AE twice, but the 'set' button does nothing when clicked. Button also missing the text.

    Any ideas to get it working would be great.

    After Effects CC vers. 12.2.0.52 - OSX 10.8.5

    Cheers

    Mike
    AE_CC_error.jpg
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  • Hey,

    Installed plugin, enabled writing/network setting for JS in prefs, re-started AE twice, but the 'set' button does nothing when clicked. Button also missing the text.

    Any ideas to get it working would be great.

    After Effects CC vers. 12.2.0.52 - OSX 10.8.5

    Cheers

    Mike
    Hi Michael,

    I just checked on CC 12.2.0.52 OSX 10.8.4 and couldn't reproduce.

    Can you confirm that you are using the latest version 1.3.2? You can check by clicking on the "?" button.

    And can you also confirm that you have a folder selected prior to clicking the set folder button? And the "Set" text was replaced with a folder icon a few versions ago.

    Thanks.
  • Thanks for the quick reply.

    Turns out user error :(((

    16 hour days not conducive to learning new software. Sorry for wasting your time.

    Cheers

    Mike
  • Great script BTW !
  • Hi! I am trying to use the typeface Amelie with characteristic. I've made sure I've selected the right typeface folder in Characteristic, yet every time I try to create my text, I get the following error:

    Comp 1 cannot be a direct child of typeface folder AMELIE_01.
    Compositions inside a typeface folder are evaluated as glyphs of the typeface unless they are in folders named Controller, Footage, Assets, Solids and Storage. You may want to move Comp 1 to one of those folders or outside of the AMELIE_01 folder.

    Obviously I have made sure my composition, in this case Comp 1, is definitely not inside of the AMELIE_01 folder. What the heck is goin on?? UPDATE: looks like it is able to create the first letter of my phrase, but then stops with that error.
  • Hi! I am trying to use the typeface Amelie with characteristic. I've made sure I've selected the right typeface folder in Characteristic, yet every time I try to create my text, I get the following error:
    Comp 1 cannot be a direct child of typeface folder AMELIE_01.Compositions inside a typeface folder are evaluated as glyphs of the typeface unless they are in folders named Controller, Footage, Assets, Solids and Storage. You may want to move Comp 1 to one of those folders or outside of the AMELIE_01 folder.
    Obviously I have made sure my composition, in this case Comp 1, is definitely not inside of the AMELIE_01 folder. What the heck is goin on?? UPDATE: looks like it is able to create the first letter of my phrase, but then stops with that error.
    Are you reselecting Comp 1 before clicking create? If you're in a position to post the aep, that would help me see what's going on as I can't recreate the error.
  • Hi! I am trying to use the typeface Amelie with characteristic. I've made sure I've selected the right typeface folder in Characteristic, yet every time I try to create my text, I get the following error:
    Comp 1 cannot be a direct child of typeface folder AMELIE_01.Compositions inside a typeface folder are evaluated as glyphs of the typeface unless they are in folders named Controller, Footage, Assets, Solids and Storage. You may want to move Comp 1 to one of those folders or outside of the AMELIE_01 folder.
    Obviously I have made sure my composition, in this case Comp 1, is definitely not inside of the AMELIE_01 folder. What the heck is goin on?? UPDATE: looks like it is able to create the first letter of my phrase, but then stops with that error.
    Are you reselecting Comp 1 before clicking create? If you're in a position to post the aep, that would help me see what's going on as I can't recreate the error.
    Yes, definitely selected the comp. Here's a link to download the test composition it is happening in - seems to happen no matter what project I have open. https://copy.com/nQDqTvYYLqRXzBEY UPDATE: OK - seems to be working fine on my iMac! Must be a script or something I have running in After Effects... going to be a pain to narrow that down!
  • Cool, I wasn't able to reproduce with the aep you sent either. If you do ever narrow it down, please let me know.

    Thanks!
  • Cool, I wasn't able to reproduce with the aep you sent either. If you do ever narrow it down, please let me know.

    Thanks!
    Will do... so far no luck. Removed and re-added all my scriptUI plugins and then it started working... Now seems to work most of the time! Not sure what was/is happening here. If I narrow it down further I'll let you know.
  • I love Characteristic, but have a feature request:

    It would be really useful to be able to specify a start and end time for the animation within each glyph (perhaps with a pair of comp markers), so that they can be animated sequencially without all needing to be the same duration.  (In my case, I'm creating a 'write-on' animation, so simple glyphs like an L animate on much quicker than more complicated glyphs like "W".
  • Hey Phil,

    Would the only use of this feature be for Characteristic to place the glyphs at appropriate times inside the comp, instead of the simple stagger that it does now? Or is there something else you wish to accomplish?

    Thanks! 
  • Hi Michael, yes exactly - it would just be a stagger that varies depending on the glyph, so each glyph doesn't start animating until the previous has finished, even if they take different amounts of time to animate on.

    Hope that makes sense :)
  • I'm encountering the same issue that John Hess brought up in December 2013:

    When I create the metrics I get duplicates of the Settings and Grid lines. Then when I create the title, Characteristics creates two titles - one on top of the other.


    EDIT: Nevermind on this issue. I just installed the newer version than the one I had and that has fixed the duplication problem.

    I'm still encountering issues with this plugin though. Sometimes it works fine and writes in everything, other times it says, "typefaceFolderName is undefined" even though it says the name of the folder in the UI panel. And when that error appears, it only inserts about half of the letters I type in. it seems to be entirely random which one it stops on. If it stops on an E, I'll type in a word starting with E and it'll work fine, but then stop on R or something else. Sometimes it stops after 6 letters, sometimes it stops after 15.

    image
  • Hey Jamez,

    Sorry for the delay on this. I haven't been able to replicate the problem yet, still working on it though.
  • I seem to be getting errors when using quotation marks.

    After Effects warning: Expected: )
    Expression disabled.

    Error occurred at line 1.
    Comp: 'CompName'
    Layer: 2 ('"')
    Property: 'Position'

    If I edit the expression manually and change those instances of double quotes(") to single(') I'm back in business, but maybe the script could check for this before writing the expression?

    edit: That fix works, but since the script fails before creating the rest of the expressions I still have add the rest of the expressions back in before I am off and running.
  • Hey Chase,

    Thanks for bringing this to my attention. It will be fixed in the next version.

    In the meantime I suggest adding an "i" character and then replacing that with the quote glyph. Or just turn off the animate checkbox. 
  • Thanks for the response Michael - thats exactly what I ended up doing and it worked fine for my purposes.  I'll keep an eye out for the next update, thanks!

  • How to time remap without pre comp objects ?

    Tkz.
  • How to time remap without pre comp objects ?
    Sorry, we don't understand what you are asking.
  • I'm getting the same error as Ryan Schroeder post.

    'Comp 1 cannot be a direct child of typeface folder Franchise Animated 01.'

    Tried different fonts from Animography but still get the same error.

    The comp is not in the font folders.

    Gary
  • Hi Gary,

    The only way I can get that error to show up is if the active comp is inside of the selected typeface folder.

    Can you elaborate on how you have your project setup?
  • It's a basic set up all I do is open the project file for the font from Animography, create a new comp select the font folder of the animated typeface, hit the typeface folder button on characteristic, select the comp and then hit the create button at he bottom of characteristic.

    I'm on AE CS6 mac 10.9.4 using the latest characteristic script.

    Is there a way to upload a screen shot?

    Gary


  • Is there a way to upload a screen shot?
    Yes please open a support ticket and send us as many screenshots and details as possible
  • I'm getting the same error as below posts.

    'Comp 1 cannot be a direct child of typeface folder league spartan 01.'

    Tried different fonts from Animography but still get the same error.

    The comp is not in the font folders.