Update on the future of AE Scripts...

I am going to continue my studies in Maya, After Effects, and if time allows Houdini.

Thus; for the time being I will stop developing and Scripts or Code for money; however I will not rule out the writing of MEL scripts or AE scripts as part of my creative work; as long as it's related to my artistic work.

Thanks to everyone who has been supporting this blog. I'll try to update it every now and then.

Improved version of my Keyframe Nudge Script

I read this comment today about my AE Nudge Script - and even better it's been further improved! Great work Mary, and thanks to Redforty for posting this comment:

"Hey sundstedt, thanks for your great work! This script is awesome.

I had a problem with it though. I needed to only adjust certain layers in a comp instead of the entire project. And apparently, it wouldn't work on layers that were 'turned off' or locked (it would return an error and stop).

So, I had my friend, Mary, change it a bit to where it works by adjusting only selected layers. I attached the revised version.

Thanks again!"

http://aenhancers.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=873

150+ Unique Visitors Today!

AE Scripts blog have been visited by over 154 unique visitors, since measuring began on February 10th 2008, in other words in 10 days! The average per day is 5.6 Visits per day counting all visits. I am very happy about the great feedback and visitor interest to my AE Scripts blog so far, and I am looking forward to continue working hard to keep posting interesting articles about AE Scripting and tips and tricks. Thanks to everyone visiting and welcome back soon!

Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional 8.0.2 update Released!

Today 22/1/2008 Adobe has released an update for Adobe After Effects CS3. Download is available here.

app.executeCommand() Numbers List

Since I posted my list on AEEnhancers, user monter provided a much longer list than the one I previously posted here. I figured people doing AE CS3 Scripting would appreciate such a list. You can use these by typing:

app.executeCommand(..nr..)

or app.executeCommand(app.findMenuCommandId("Close"));

..in case these numbers would change from AE 7.0 to CS3 and you happen to know what the menu command name is (thanks Chris for pointing this out)

Codes (pdf download)

Let me know if you like it!

Copy Image Plug-in for After Effects 6.5 and later

This great free After Effects utility copies the current composition image
to the System Clipboard, allowing easy pasting into other image applications
(such as Photoshop). It bypasses the task of saving the current frame to an
image file and then reopening.

How It Works

The plug-in adds a "Copy Image" command to the Edit menu. Simply select the
"Copy Image" menu item, and paste the frame into another application.

I have tested tested this Plug-in using After Effects CS3, with great
results.

System Requirements

PC: After Effects 5.5 or later.
PC: Windows 2000 or XP.
Mac: After Effects 6.5 or later.
Mac: OS X (10.2 or later)

This free plugin by ObviousFXX LLC can be downloaded here:
http://www.obviousfx.com/products/copyimage/copyimage.php

Spell Checker for After Effects (CS3)

Tonight I been playing around with this Spell Checker Script in After Effects CS3. This is a spell checker for After Effects (as the title says). It goes through the composition you are working on and checks the spelling of all text in the composition and any text nested in precomps. The script can be found here.

Script was written by by by Mike Cardeiro on After Effects 6.5 running on a PC but people have successfully run it on a Mac, and I have tried it using CS3 and it works without problems for me on a PC in Windows XP.

Random 3d Text field with depth fade

I found a new useful script from Byron Nash, which I think you should try out:

This script reads a user specified text file and
creates a text layer for each line of text in a
new comp called "Text Comp", or it uses the active comp.
- adds expression to control a random placement in 3d space
- adds expression to control a depth fade as the layer recedes from the camera
- creates a new camera and a null with sliders to control the effect

It's pretty simple script but I think it is really neat. Here is a link:
http://armoredsquirrel.com/scripts/Random3dText_w_depth.jsx

Nudge Keyframes to Nearest Exact Frame

On request I have written a new useful script in After Effects CS3 for everyone in the AE Scripts community (I think it will work in older versions of AE too). This script moves/nudges all Transform keyframes in all layers in all comps to the nearest exact frame for any framerate. This is handy when you change from for example NTSC to PAL or to any other framerate and the keyframes do not line up to the new frames. The script goes through all comps within your project and nudges every Transform keyframe on every layer. The script is written by myself from scratch, so this is my first script on request to help my fellow AE Scripters. Note: The Script works on all Transform keyframes, i.e. Anchorpoint, Position, Scale, Rotation and Opacity. It does not process any effects keyframes. Neither does it retain interpolation methods!
My Script that solves this problem is called 'asu_NudgeKeyFrames.jsx' and can be found here:
asu_NudgeKeyFrames.jsx

The Script works well in most situations, but there are some situations where a project has a lot of motion tracking data, that can cause problems: (many thanks to David Aughenbaugh who reported these limitations).

Review: Advanced training - After Effects CS3 Professional Beyond the Basics

After Effects CS3 Professional Beyond the Basics shows how to take After Effects to the next level. Instructor Chad Perkins shares his best tips and tricks for mastering After Effects CS3 Professional, and takes viewers through each of the program's advanced features.

I completed the study of this 9.5 hours of video training on Lynda.com today. I found it very useful, and it did indeed teach me a lot of tricks that I will be able to use in future productions and daily use of After Effects CS3. Some of the sections I found most useful where the sections on HDR, Blend Modes, Animation Presets, Fractal Noise and Shatter. Other great sections where the Particle Systems ones, Mastering Masks and Motion Tracking. The training where of high quality, entertaining, useful and where all relevant skills to have as an Advanced After Effects CS3 user.

There where never a point where any of the training material became dull or boring, Chad is good at keeping you interested, and I ended up re-visiting many lessons over and over again, to make sure I grasped every concept perfectly. My free month of Lynda.com I got from attending an Adobe seminar has seriously made me consider joining on a monthly basis, as long as I can find the time to get value for money!

How to enable Script Panels in After Effects CS3 in One Minute and add your own Scripts

To add scripts that can later be added as a panel in the user interface, create a folder in the After Effects CS3 'Scripts' folder called ScriptUI Panels

Example:
\Scripts\ScriptUI Panels

Then, any .jsx, .js or .jsxbin scripts that you add in there can be launched from the 'Window' menu in AE CS3.

Once you have started a script once, and the scripts undocked window appears, you can dock it to any panel you like by dragging it using the dotted symbols left to the little arrow button.

The great thing is that next time you start AE CS3 the script window will remain tabbed where you put it.

Good luck writing and adding scripts to AE CS3. Please leave feedback if you found this helpful!

How One Easy Tweak Makes Multiprocessing in After Effects CS3 Double the Power

I have run some tests on the time savings in making use of the Multiple Frames Simultaneously Rendering in After Effects CS3. Test Project: A heavy test project with lots of effects and filters, 30 seconds long, with 25 FPS:

Results with Multiple Frames Rendering OFF:
Render Time: 38 Min, 4 Sec

Results with Multiple Frames Rendering ON:
Render Time: 20 Min, 34 Sec

The result is that by setting up After Effects with optimal memory and making use of multiple cores and multiple frame rendering, I was able to render out the video in half the time.

Important to note is that After Effects requires 400 MB of RAM per background process, so as we have for example 4 cores (like on my test machine) you need to set the Maximum RAM Cache Size to a low enough value to allow for (4x400) 1600 MB of RAM for the rendering processes (so you need to have ~ 4 GB of ram installed).

These are my own optimal settings (based on Adobe guidelines and optimal use of RAM):

Maximum Memory Usage: 3.0 GB (120%) *
Maximum RAM Cache Size: 46% (1.4 GB or whatever value leaves you with the 400 MB per core for the background tasks.)

So in summary, enabling Multiprocessing support and allowing enough memory per CPU, you will get a speed boost of about 50% in rendering times, which is amazing!

*) Enabling 3.0 GB requires a custom boot config, as I have explained in a previous post.

Free After Effects Basic Training Online

In this Free Video Training Series from Video Copilot.net, you will learn everything you need to know to start using After Effects today. This is not an overview of the software, this is a real training series that covers advanced techniques for Motion Tracking, Color Keying and even 3D; Title Design. But they also cover the basics too: http://www.videocopilot.net/basic/index.html

Function to directly refer to a Project Item by Name

I wrote this function to allow you to directly refer to a Project item by it's name (assuming you know the name). This way you do not have to use the index number for the item, something I didn't like when writing scripts:

function projectItem(name)
{
var items = app.project.items;
i = 1;
while (i <= items.length) {
  if (items[i].name == name)
 {
  return app.project.item(i);
  break;
  }
i++;
}
}

And here is an example of using it. Assuming there is a folder named 'folder' in the Project Window:

newComp = projectItem("folder").items.addComp("Lower-Level Comp", 640, 480, 1.0, 5.0, 25.0);

3D Text Creator

Another great script I found written by Lloyd Alvarez:
3D Text Creator

It creates your required number of text layers in 3D space, very useful. (You have to add a 3d camera to see the effect).

BG Renderer CS3

A new version for CS3 of the BG Renderer has been released. It now runs as an embedable panel that is saved as part of your workspace. It also utilizes the built in multiprocessing support that was added in CS3. This script takes whatever items are queued and ready in the render queue and sends them to render in the background allowing you to keep working in After Effects.


Check out the authors website AEScripts.com for full information about this great script. Thanks a lot for this Script. It's great and works like a charm. I would recommend it to anyone who uses AE CS3!

After Effects Scripting blog starts!

Todays is the start of my new AE Scripts blog, dedicated to everything After Effects, with a clear focus on Scripting, hacks and advanced techniques, mixed with news and resources about After Effects and related plugins. I will post all of my own Scripts on here, for you to enjoy.