CompsFromSpreadsheet V5 (AEscripts)

Automated Versioning of Your Comps

CompsFromSpreadsheet allows you to quickly generate copies of your After Effects compositions, updating the new comps with data from a spreadsheet used to insert text and replace layers.

New in Version 5 - May 5, 2015

Layers replaced with compositions can receive data from the spreadsheet

Ability to define import directory

Composition length can be adjusted based on layers length

Output Module and Render Settings can be set from the spreadsheet

Various bug fixes and minor featuresRead about the new features in detail: CompsFromSpreadsheet 5 New Features PDF

Creating Template Comps

In order to use CompsFromSpreadsheet you need to create a template composition to receive data from your spreadsheet.

Text layers that begin with ^(shift 6) will be able to receive data from the spreadsheet as the source text for that layer. If you need a new line or comma in a text layer DO NOT put these characters in your spreadsheet. Instead use <br> for a newline and <c> for a comma and CompsFromSpreadsheet will replace these symbols with their intended values at runtime.

If you have a text layer named ^date it will receive today?s date (great if you?re generating slates) default format is MM/DD/YYYY numerically. You can switch to a different date format by clicking on the settings window and going to the Misc tab.

If you have a non-text layer in your comp that begins with #, it will be replaced by the project item named in your spreadsheet.

If you have a non-text layer in your comp that begins with a >, it will be replaced by a file. CompsFromSpreadsheet will import a file based on the path in your spreadsheet, then that imported file will replace the layer. If you have the same file referenced more than once in your spreadsheet, CompsFromSpreadsheet will only import it once and use that item for every other time the file is referenced. Instead of putting the path in your spreadsheet, you can define a default import directory.

If you have a precomp layer in your comp that begins with !, any layer in the precomp setup for compsFromSpreadsheet will be updated from the spreadsheet.

You can designate a layer to control the length of the composition by putting a ~ at the end of the name. So if you have a layer that is named audio which will receive imported audio files you can add a ~ to the end making the layer name >audio~ this will cause this layer to dictate the length of the comp. So when CompsFromSpreadsheet replaces that layer with the imported audio file, it will adjust the compositions length so that the comp ends on the last frame of the imported audio file.

Compatibility: After Effects CC 2014, CC, CS6, CS5.5, CS5, CS4, CS3

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