[REQ] Script for batch looping comps
by Jason Mika
on
Mar 4, 2008 at 6:41:04 pm
Greetings Cowmunity,
I'm looking for a way to improve my work flow and have the notion that this can be done with scripting. As I'm just getting comfortable with writing expressions from scratch or modifying existing ones. I don't think I'm ready to try writing a script,
yet.
What I would like to accomplish with "my" first script
is an auto looper for rendered movie comps or precomps.
The execution would be as follows....
apply script to current comp(with single movie file/precomp)
go to 0:00:02:00
split clip (ctrl/shift ,D)
go to or home(0:00:0:00)
set layer one inpoint
go to to layer one out point minus 1 second
select layer 2
set layer 2 inpoint
select layer 1
insert transparency keyframe @100%
go to outpoint
insert transparency keyframe @0%
select layer 2
go to outpoint
set end to current time
This is the bulk of what I would like to do
and having a script or even a GUI
button that does this would save me
(and potentially anyone else that makes loops from
nonlooped compositions on a regular basis)
buckets of time spent repeating this process.
Other variables that could be added but are not necessary...
add to render queue after applying
renaming comp with a prefix of "loop_"
apply to source folder contents
(IE: make comps from movie folder and apply to said comps)
transition time(would have to change all go to and split times based on trans time variable)
If anyone finds this process as a valuable time saver
and wants to take it on. I would me more than appreciative.
I promise to learn something in the process and share my knowledge if an when I can.
I am always impressed and some times in awe at the level of community shared knowledge and expertise found in these forums and know that alot of people would not be where they
are today in they're careers/art if it was not for the people
willing to teach those that are willing to learn.
If this script or something similar exists,
sorry for the long post and.... Link please.
Re: [REQ] Script for batch looping comps by Trent Armstrong on Mar 5, 2008 at 6:53:33 pm
Hi there!
I would like to offer up a solution that is a little different than your method. It seems that if you have a 3 minute comp and you want something that is 30 sec to loop through the length of the comp that you are duplicating, moving back in time one sec from the end of the first clip and then doing a dissolve to get the loop. Then you are duplicating again until you fill your comp. Is that correct?
You might try creating a comp that is length of your looping clip minus 1 sec, go to the end of the timeline and split your clip. There should be one sec of clip left over. Take that one second and snap it to the beginning of the timeline and do the opacity transition from 100 to 0.
You also might need to stretch the end of the bottom clip out a little past the end of the composition.
Then take this precomp into your final comp and turn on TimeRemap for the precomp. Next, set your time marker to the last keyframe and back up one frame.
Create a new keyframe here and delete the last keyframe. Then set an expression for TimeRemap and enter this: loopOut("cycle", 0) and stretch your layers out point to the end of the comp.
This will repeat your loop precomp until the comp is done! A very important point is to set the frame rate of your looping comp to 30 fps so there is no issue with the loop point
This technique works even better if you create your loop in a way that there are no dissolves.
Confession: I don't know anything about Scripting yet so I have to resort to expressions. I hope this helps in the meantime!
Re: [REQ] Script for batch looping comps by Jason Mika on Mar 5, 2008 at 10:06:21 pm
Greetings Trent,
Thanks for you're reply and suggestion.
I might not have been very clear in what I was trying to accomplish.
I am making individual loops for a media server with pretty much the same method that you are describing.IE splitting and fading.
I'm just moving the transition to the end of the clips
and leaving some wiggle room to shift layer 2 in the transition period to match better if possible.
So if I start with a 30 second source clip I end up with a 29sec loop.
I have the keyboard shortcut sequence down and when I am doing a batch run of these I can move pretty fast and get in a good rhythm.
But since its such a repetitive task I would like to automate it in a preset action like recording actions in Photoshop.
The only way to do this in AE as far as I know is scripting.
Im gonna have a go at it and I will post the results if I
have any success.
In the meantime if somebody else can offer any suggestion
or advice on scripting this action I'm all eyes.
