Adobe After Effects Help Thread

[Medalist]

This really can't be done unless you do it out of AE itself. Are you using Shinji's script? Or Paul Thursley's ? or something? Could you please name the script.

[G.U.N.D.A.M]

I use SSA Import ver 1.3 by Paul Tuersley
i tried Shinjipierres script but there was some kind of error

[Devastator]

If you use shinjipierre's script, make sure there are no empty dialogue lines or you'll get an error message saying something about pointing to itself. shinjipierre 'sort of' shows how to replicate the \kf effect or at least a similar effect in his video, though I only use the script to obtain the flags on the timeline and work from that.

Replicating the \kf effect is easy though, but I don't really understand why one would want to go through the trouble of finding a way to do the same thing under one environment when they know perfectly well how to use it in another, unless you plan to do more with it than just a \kf effect.

====

Actually, shinjipierre's shows something similar to \k, my bad. Both \k (text layer with keyframes on the text value) and \kf (keyframed mask) are easy to replicate though.

[dj_tjerk]

Also.. when using shinji's script.. and you use version 0.7, (0.73 is latest), be sure you have a comp selected when you execute the script.
About the left-to-right fill effect (that's what \kf does right?), I dont know of any easy way to create with a script. You can do it by hand though, or you need something like a position calculation script which walks over the line like \kf would.

Btw.. isnt paul tuersley's script based on characters and shinji's script on words?

[Devastator]

Originally Posted by dj_tjerk

Also.. when using shinji's script.. and you use version 0.7, (0.73 is latest), be sure you have a comp selected when you execute the script.
[...]

Btw.. isnt paul tuersley's script based on characters and shinji's script on words?

I don't think that's the case. Regardless as to whether I've selected a composition or not (or even had a composition in the project), a new one is created upon loading the script (and I do have 0.7).

shinji's script takes in a line and locates every \k (and presumably \kf or \K as well) and creates flags on the time line labeled with the text found in each partition (also setting up 8 or so karaoke effect patterns). If none are found, no flags are produced.

[dj_tjerk]

With words and character i mean the advanced section of a text animator selector. So it is either based on words or characters. When you use 'based on characters' (including or excluding spaces) and you add a fill effect which slowly fills the syllable, the first character of the syllable will be filled before filling the second character, iirc. I can be completely wrong though

[shinjipierre]

Btw.. isnt paul tuersley's script based on characters and shinji's script on words?

That's the difference between our scripts, and that's why there are these annoying spaces in mine ^^. I'm a computer graphist, not a coder, I thought it would be easier like that, for text animation, at least.
if I remember well, you can't make the words zoom in and out with characters-based animation.
For effects and such it must be about the same.

left-to-right fill effect (that's what \kf does right?), I dont know of any easy way to create with a script.

Well, maybe the wipe effect... but, well, it's still not really easy to use...
Maybe you could use animatext (if I remember the name of this plugin correctly).
It has a left ro right fill function.


By the way, shinjipierre.be will expire soon ^^... so... I don't know... I may put a script section in my portfolio.

[G.U.N.D.A.M]

"unable to execute script at line 288 after effects error: unable to call " set value at a time because of parameter 1 NaN is not a number"
thats whats written in the error box (i use AE 6.5 and shinjipierre script 0.5 ver)
note: the text get imported but without \ks or \kfs

[dj_tjerk]

(dont blame me if i'm wrong) With the characters, paul tuersley only 'allowed', in the first versions of the script when layer per line was still used, sudden-like fill (hold frames iirc), and in the later versions he uses layer/line for everything. At least i havent found a setting where a layer per line is made instead of layer per syllable. I find layer per line easier to work with, although sometimes it limits your options in AE (like setting a fixed duration). Then i would just precomp them to make it work easier

I will look into the wipe effect, although I doubt I'll ever need it :+ but well.. you never know.. Tnx for the tip anyway

[shinjipierre]

(i use AE 6.5 and shinjipierre script 0.5 ver)

Well, you should use version 0.73...

In fact, it works with after effects 6.5 if I remember well.

and well, the script has issues with {\k0} and {\k}.. and i don't really want to code it ^^.

[Devastator]

Figured I'd share 2 functions that I've been working on in the past while based off a past version of TheFluff's InsertSign function (I don't recall seeing the FrameCount() in his code before).

Precondition:
0 <= start < raw.FrameCount(), if start < 0 (or unspecified), 0 is assumed

Post-condition:
afx is overlayed onto raw starting at start to either afx.FrameCount() + start - 1 or raw.FrameCount() (whichever comes first)

function Insert(clip raw, clip afx, int "start") {
  rframes = raw.FrameCount()
  aframes = afx.FrameCount()
  
  start = (String(start) == "" || start < 0) ? 0 : start
  Assert(start < rframes, "Insert: start frame out of bounds: " + String(start))
  
  sign = raw.Trim(start, (start + aframes >= rframes) ? rframes - 1 : start + aframes - 1).Overlay(afx, mask=afx.ShowAlpha())
  pre = (start == 0) ? sign : raw.Trim(0, (start == 1) ? -1 : start - 1) ++ sign
  return (start + aframes >= rframes) ? pre : pre ++ raw.Trim(start + aframes, 0)
}

Here is the same function with added functionality.

Precondition:
0 <= start <= end (unless 0 or unspecified) < raw.FrameCount(), if start < 0, 0 is assumed, if end < 0 or end >= raw.FrameCount() - 1, 0 is assumed

- nopost is assumed true under any condition end = 0
- extend is assumed true if unspecified

Postcondition:
afx is overlayed onto raw starting at frame start. If nopost is true, end specifies the last frame number of the resulting video, the entire video is kept otherwise. If extend is true, then provided length(end - start) >= start + afx.FrameCount() < raw.FrameCount(), the last frame of afx is duplicated until end is reached (this is the way Overlay works), the sign ends at start + afx.FrameCount() - 1 or raw.FrameCount() - 1 (whichever comes first) otherwise

function Insert2(clip raw, clip afx, int "start", int "end", bool "nopost", bool "extend") {
  rframes = raw.FrameCount()
  aframes = afx.FrameCount()
  
  start = (String(start) == "" || start < 0) ? 0 : start
  Assert(start < rframes, "Insert2: start out of bounds: " + String(start))
  
  e = (String(end) == "" || end < 0 || rframes < end) ? 0 : end
  Assert(e == 0 || e >= start, "Insert2: start frame beyond end frame")
  
  extend = default(extend, true)
  
  end = (extend) ? ((rframes < start + aframes) ? ((e != 0 && e < rframes - 1) ? e : 0) : e) : ((rframes < start + aframes) ? ((e != 0 && e < rframes - 1) ? e : 0) : (e != 0 && e < start + aframes - 1) ? e : ((start + aframes == rframes) ? 0 : start + aframes - 1))
  nopost = (end == 0) ? true : default(nopost, false)

  sign = raw.Trim(start, end).Overlay(afx, mask=afx.ShowAlpha())
  pre = (start == 0) ? sign : raw.Trim(0, (start == 1) ? -1 : start - 1) ++ sign
  return (nopost == false) ? pre ++ raw.Trim(end + 1, 0) : ((e != end) ? pre ++ raw.Trim(end + 1, e) : pre)
}

And here's a FYI on the conditional for end:

e = (end == "" || end < 0 || rframes < end) ? 0 : end        # Set e to 0 if end falls in any category, else end
if (extend)                            # We want to extend the sign to fit the clip
   if (rframes < start + aframes)                # Check if the max frame is passed
      if (e != 0 && e < rframes - 1)                # Check if the given end frame is less than the last frame
         end = e
      else                            # The given end frame exceeds the number of frames in raw
         end = 0
   else                            # If not passed, we can extend all the way to end
      end = e
else                                # We want to stop the sign as soon as the end of the clip is reached
   if (rframes < start + aframes)                # Check if the max frame is passed
      if (e != 0 && e < rframes - 1)                # Check if the given end frame is less than the last frame
         end = e
      else                            # The given end frame exceeds the number of frames in raw
         end = 0
   else                            # start + aframes is equal to or less than rframes
      if (e != 0 && e < start + aframes - 1)            # Check if the given end frame is less than the start + length of the clip
         end = e
      else
         if (start + aframes == rframes)            # Check if start + aframes is the last frame
            end = 0
         else                            # start + aframes indicates a frame before the last frame
            end = start + aframes - 1

Naturally any optimizations of code are welcome.

Bug fixes - using start = 1 assigned the entire video to pre (thanks to martino for asking about the differences between the scripts)

[Rappunzelt]

hello, i have a problem when i try to compress the uncompressed rbg with winrar, the file is still too big like 200 mg for only a video of 1 min.
i had see before people that compress with winrar and the file is very small

how can i do that?

please help

[dj_tjerk]

The biggest filesize I ever got after packing it was 110 MB with a 720p karaoke. You sure you use highest settings for compression and only have the karaoke (not the background video/anime) outputted to uncompressed video (rgba straight). And what is the size of the avi itself?

[Rappunzelt]

hmm, the raw size of the raw is of 250 mg and the uncompressed rbg is of 2500 gbs

[dj_tjerk]

oke.. what are you trying to make uncompressed now? just an OP or ED.. or the whole video. I would never make the video itself uncompressed (2500gbs? isnt that a little too much..) certainly not when it has more than only the video of the kara/logo or whatever.

So tell me.. what are you trying to accomplish? Overlaying a karaoke? Or something totally different...

[Rappunzelt]

Huh, i wrote before what im trying to do, compress the uncopressed rbg in a rar to send it to the encoder and he will overlay the karaoke.

and the proyects is of only a ending 1.50 mins the resolution is hight too

[dj_tjerk]

Well.. i think that's the smallest you can get then... The uncompressed overlay video i had was 6.9 GB's big and compressed to 110 MB using 7zip's Ultra compression method. If your karaoke has less black/empty space, so more color and alpha information, it can easily have a minimum of 200 MB.

I have compressed a couple of 720x480 overlays from about 2.9GB's to 17MB however. Guess it's just your karaoke that makes your compressed file big (original size of video is always as big a random sample of same length and resolution)

EDIT:
tired -> weird english?

[TheFluff]

Hint: completely black, uncompressed RGB32 video with a transparent alpha channel compresses extremely well, because it's basically just a lot of very, very long strings of zeroes (which would compress well even with something as simplistic as run-length encoding). The less blackness you have, the worse your video compresses. If you have enough stuff going on, using a lossless video codec instead of a generic binary compression tool (like 7zip or WinRAR) will save you space.

[abo taha]

hi, guys

well i want to know if i can export the effects i did in ass\ssa.

and if i can't how can i put it in the episode....??

[dj_tjerk]

What is the use of exporting the effects to after effects? If you don't even know how to render the subs onto the video using textsub/vsfilter, I seriously question if you know how to export video out of after effects to make an overlay.

I'm sure there are enough walkthroughs out there about rendering ass/ssa subs onto a video...