aescripts + aeplugins

fdz bdz · March 2013

I'm working on a puppet character which features several nested comps
with expressions all linking to a controller layer in the master comp. I
want to make a duplicate of this layer and its controller without
having to go in and update all the expressions one by one. I've tried
the True Comp Duplicator script but it keeps breaking all the expressions to the controller.

Any suggestions?

Brennan Chapman · March 2013

Could you send a me a sample of your after effects project? I don't need any of the assets, just the project file to test with.

fdz bdz · March 2013

Hey Brennan. I'm sending you a graph with the same issue because the puppet without assets falls apart completely.

http://we.tl/L5yjRsPI8P

The
main comp "3a2ed al mabi3at" contains the "bar 01" comp which has a
bunch of controller sliders attached to it that control different
characteristics of the bar graph. Whenever I duplicate the main comp,
all the expressions break.

Really appreciate you looking into this. Thanks.

fdz bdz · March 2013

Hey Brennan. Any luck with the project?

Brennan Chapman · March 2013

Hey fz,

Haven't nailed it down yet, but I'll get you a fix by the end of today.

-Brennan

Brennan Chapman · March 2013

Hey fz,

I've updated the script to account for the expression errors you are experiencing. There was a bug in the pattern matching I was doing in expressions. I've updated it, and was able to successfully duplicate all comps in the project file you sent. Please download the new version and let me know if you have any more problems.

Thanks,

Brennan

fdz bdz · March 2013

Wow, thanks for the effort Brennan. I'll put it to the test later tonight with the complex puppet. Really appreciate the update.

fdz bdz · March 2013

I broke it again...

http://we.tl/Z0u9G8fV2Q

fdz bdz · March 2013

nope, my bad. Seems that the comp duplicating broke because I used it in a project that had similarly named compositions. So far so good!

Brennan Chapman · March 2013

cool!

Federico Ponce · May 2013

I love this script and use it all the time. Is it possible to get an update that assigns label colors ? Thanks !

Declan Zimmermann · May 2013

Hello,

First of all thank you for an excellent script. I use it all the time.

I'm having one small issue and hope you can help.

One of my regular uses for True Comp Duplicator is when making a batch of graphics for a show.

In my template I will use an expression to link a text layer source to the name of the comp. That way I can paste in the new text using True Comp Duplicator and when it re-names the comps the change flows automatically to the text layer. Sweet.

Just ran into a small issue: on this particular project the text contains a colon (e.g. "Step 1: Blah blah blah") ... when I use True Comp Duplicator it skips everything past the colon (I suspect because the colon means something else to the script.)

Is there an escape character, or can you suggest a work-around, or can the script be revised to accomodate punctuation?

Thanks for the help!

Declan

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

Hey Frederico and Declan,

Just uploaded a new version of the script that allows you to set the label color on duplicates (True Comp Duplicator v3.6). This should also fix the colon issue as well.

Let me know if you need anything else.

How to Upgrade "Name Your Own Price" items

Thanks,

Brennan

Max Enrik · June 2013

Hi,

var col = app.preferences.getPrefAsString("Label Preference Text Section 5", "Label Text ID 2 # " + i);

CS4 - error code. TCD v3.7

please help me.

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

Hi Max Dr,
I see the issue your having, I need to add some version compatibility to the new feature of setting the label color. I'll work on it tonight, and post an update to fix it.

Thanks,
Brennan

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

Hey Max Dr,

I've posted an update to the script that should fix your issue.

How to Upgrade "Name Your Own Price" items

The newest version is 3.8.

Let me know if you have any more problems.

-Brennan

Max Enrik · June 2013

Hello Brennan.

Thank you very much.

I like your work.

but another problem :135 / var col = app.preferences.getPrefAsString(prefKey , "Label Text ID 2 # " + i);

Regards,

Max

Declan Zimmermann · June 2013

Just a quick follow up here to say Brennan was super helpful with troubleshooting and resolving my issue, and to re-iterate what a fantastic and useful script this is.

Marco Grandinetti · June 2013

Hi,

it's not compatible with After Effects CC..

Paul Gale · June 2013

I just found out it doesn't work with AE CC either. I get an error in script debugger:

null is not an object line 193

value = prop.selection.text;

Thanks.

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

Thanks for letting me know about AE CC. I'll take a look and update the script.

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

After Effects CC Update:

Looks like After Effects CC has split up it's preference files which are used to get the label color names in the new TCD. Unfortunately, this breaks my ability to access the names and IDs of the label colors. I'm working on a new solution, but it will take a couple of days. In the meantime, TCD v3.5 still works as without problems.

I'll post another update as soon as I've fixed the issue.

-Brennan

Paul Gale · June 2013

Thanks Brennan, after working on a complex project over the last few days without TCD, it really brought home how useful TCD is. Without it I got into a real mess having to manually duplicate comps (and missing some, causing all kinds of problems).

I look forward to the update. Keep up the great work

Darrel Maloney · June 2013

How do you go about downgrading to 3.5?

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

Just fixed the issue with TCD in After Effects CC. You can now download the latest version (3.9) which fixes the issue.

Let me know if you have any more problems.

-Brennan

lukas looper · June 2013

hi brennan, can you help me with this, when i try to open Truecomp duplicator it show me this error:

"unable to execute script at line 152.After effects error: the section name and key(label preference text section 5, label text id 2 # 16) could not be found in the preferences."

I use AE CS4 and i install the script in UI panel folder, i don´t know what to do, can you help me to fix this, thanks

Brennan Chapman · June 2013

Hey lukas,

What version of TCD are you using? I believe this issue was fixed just recently, you might just need to redownload it. Let me know if your using the latest version. If your using the latest and still having a problem with TCD, I can definitely fix it for you.

-Brennan

lukas looper · June 2013

hi brennanm thanks for your response,i'm use the last version 3.9 of true comp

Brennan Chapman · July 2013

Hey lukas,

I was out of town this weekend so I didn't have time to troubleshoot TCD, but I'll look at it tonight.

-Brennan

Brennan Chapman · July 2013

Hey Lukas,

Fixed the issue, uploaded a new version with the fix, v3.9.1.

New versions of After Effects have 16 label colors, while CS4 and older only had 15. So had to add a fix to support this.

Let me know if it works for you.

-Brennan

lukas looper · July 2013

hi brennan, it works!! , awesome work, thank you

David Tunnell · July 2013

Hello, I love this script, saved me tons of time. I was wondering if it was possible to have the script copy and simplify a comp. I had a project where it was pretty deep and I had a number of elements the client uses over and over so I duplicated them then when I went to collect them for use later, the file structure was too deep. I know, my fault, but I was just wondering.

Lloyd Alvarez · July 2013

Hello, I love this script, saved me tons of time. I was wondering if it was possible to have the script copy and simplify a comp.

That is not what this script does and it would not be a trivial task to accomplish this. I would recommend your "Reduce Project" first then run TCD and all your comps will be reduced.

Megan Doty · September 2013

Hi Brennan,

I'm having an issue downloading your script. When I try to download I get an error message stating "unsupported filetype or extension". I have CS5.

Josh Northeast · September 2013

Hey! The script has always worked perfectly before the other day. But for some reason, it just stopped working, Would you have any idea why this would be?

Brennan Chapman · September 2013

Megan,

CS5 is definitely supported. Sounds like your trying to open the script with after effects.

It actually needs to be installed into the ScriptUI folder, and then it will show up the next time you run after effecs.

Check this link for more details:

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

Joshua,

Can you elaborate on not working?

Can you open the True Comp Duplicator Window?

Does it give you an error?

-Brennan

Megan Doty · September 2013

Lol I feel like a ditz! Thank you so much!!!!

Andre Navarre · October 2013

Hi Brennan,

Thanks for making this script. I'm having a problem with the script and I was really hoping you could help clear this up... I have a character rig with a lot of expressions and I want to make a duplicate that's entirely independent from the first. I placed everything in a folder named "Character 1" and ran the script using the suffix option and with update expressions enabled. All other options are turned off. When I select my folder to duplicate and run the script:

- it renames all the new comps and even the solids & footage to the same name "Character 2"

- it won't update any of the expressions

- It did however add my suffix

I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but it doesn't feel like it's working the way it should for me. I had this problem when I was running the 3.4 version of the script and just updated it to 3.9.1 with the same results. I've tried it in CS4, CS5.5 and CS6 and it's doing the same thing in all versions... I've tried deleting my prefs, and using the script in ScriptUI panels and Scripts folders, and got the same results. Also something I noticed, when I open the script from the Scripts folder, the header on the script in AE says "True Comp Duplicator v3.0" even though I installed 3.9.1... no idea if that's useful info for you but I have an odd feeling like there's something weird going on. Any ideas?

Thanks a million,

Andre

Brennan Chapman · October 2013

Hey Andre,

I was able to reproduce the error by selecting the folder and duplicating. The reason this causes a problem is the script is made to work directly on comps, and not on folders.

So all you have to do is select your master comp, and run the True Comp Duplicator on it. You can use the "Group Items Into New Folder" option to create the Character 2 folder if needed.

Thanks for point out that the help dialog still shows version 3.0, I'll fix that. The actual contents and execution of the script should still be fine.

Let me know if this works for you.

-Brennan

Andre Navarre · October 2013

Thanks for the quick reply Brennan, much appreciated. But I'm facing another problem now... This is an unusually large rig with a few hundred comps and a couple thousand expressions (I know, I know), so I'm not surprised with what I'm getting now... When I run the script selecting my master comp it boggles up and I get the spinning rainbow (on a mac). Any suggestions on how to split the task up while maintaining the hierarchy and expression links?

Thanks again

Andre

Andre Navarre · October 2013

Hey Brennan, just wanted to let you know that I successfully managed to duplicate the rig. Somehow, selecting the duplicate footage option made it run more smoothly in my case. Thanks for making this script, it's really a life saver!

All the best,

Andre

shane barrell · October 2013

Hi, just tried to use true comp duplicator ( probably first time since switching to cc but not sure),,
it wont work for me, as it tries to open the window UI i get
Unable to execute script at line 120. After Effects error: The section name and key(Label Preference Text Section 5,Label Text ID 2 #1) could not be found in the preferences.

im on windows, and this is the latest version online, ( i re DL it and put it in in case i had an old one but still the same error.

it then leaves a blank window UI on screen
cheers
shane

Lloyd Alvarez · October 2013

Hi, just tried to use true comp duplicator ( probably first time since switching to cc but not sure),it wont work for me...

Please upgrade to the latest version which adds CC compatibility. How to upgrade "Name Your Own Price" products

shane barrell · October 2013

thanks Lloyd, works fine , i didnt realize we had to go through buy again to get the latest version !

Lloyd Alvarez · October 2013

thanks Lloyd, works fine , i didnt realize we had to go through buy again to get the latest version !

No worries, hope you understand the reason behind that!

Erica Hornung · October 2013

Hi! I use this script all the time, it's genius.

Quick question: When I add a suffix, I generally include a leading zero (eg _eh01), but when I execute the script, the leading zero gets left out.

Am I doing something wrong?

I'm running tcd v 3.1 on CS6,Mac OS 10.6.8

Thanks!

Brennan Chapman · October 2013

Hey Erica,

Thanks for letting me know, it's bug in the script.

I'll fix it tonight and publish a new version of the script.

-Brennan

Brennan Chapman · October 2013

Uploaded a new version, 3.9.2. Fixes the leading zeros being left out when a new folder is created. I couldn't replicate the issue with anything other than just the names of the folders that were being created on duplication. Let me know if this fixes all your problems with it. If not, let me know, and I'll take another look.

How to upgrade "Name Your Own Price" products

-Brennan

Erica Hornung · November 2013

Very cool Brennan, thanks! I'll let you know how it goes.

e

J Alsop · November 2013

Still having problems using this script with CS6. 'TypeError null is not an object'. Using the most recent True Comp too.

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