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Activity Forums Adobe After Effects how to make names of footage show up over video?

  • how to make names of footage show up over video?

    Posted by Jeremy Webb on December 13, 2006 at 12:49 am

    is there a way (maybe a script or something) to have the clip that appears have it’s name automatically appear on render. like a timecode reader that reads file names?

    Jeremy Webb replied 19 years, 4 months ago 3 Members · 6 Replies
  • 6 Replies
  • Steve Roberts

    December 13, 2006 at 1:33 am

    You can make a text layer, and for its source property, use an expression that refers to the name of the relevant footage layer:
    thisComp.layer(“whatever.mov”).name
    … where whatever.mov is the name of the footage layer.

    Or you could use:
    thisComp.layer(index+1).name
    … assuming that the footage layer is immediately below the text layer. The text layer may be layer 5 (index), while the footage layer would have to be layer 6 (index + 1).

    If that doesn’t suit your needs, let us know …

  • Jeremy Webb

    December 13, 2006 at 5:18 pm

    thanks steve, that second one is almost exactly what i need, now is there a way so that it will look at any layer below it? (not just the one directly below it. for example i bring in a fcp timeline through automatic duck, then i want to add a text layer above all of layers and have it display each clip as they come up? is there a way to make this work?

  • Jeremy Webb

    December 13, 2006 at 6:14 pm

    the reason i want this, is that i want to export a quicktime with the names in it for other people to use as a reference. there will only be one layer on at a time as it is more of an edit than a layered comp.

  • Steve Roberts

    December 13, 2006 at 9:52 pm

    Ah. I can’t think of a way to use one text layer that will use the name of the currently visible layer as a source. You could, however, use a text layer for each footage layer (with just the one expression), then adjust the text layer’s in/out points to match that of the footage layer below.

  • Dan Ebberts

    December 14, 2006 at 4:28 pm

    This expression (for a text layer’s source text) gives the name of the source of the current active layer (if it has no source it gives the layer name). Apply to a text layer at the top of the layer stack.

    txt = “”;
    for (j = 1; j <= thisComp.numLayers; j++){ if (j == index) continue; L = thisComp.layer(j); if (! (L.hasVideo && L.active)) continue; if (time >= L.inPoint && time < L.outPoint){ try{ txt = L.source.name; }catch(err1){ txt = L.name } break; } } txt Dan

  • Jeremy Webb

    December 14, 2006 at 5:01 pm

    thanks dan, that was exactly what i needed. i owe you a beer

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