AutoDate render name?

[Eric Miro]

That is true … the date and time that the file was created is part of the metadata of every file, but i want the date to be a part of the file name.

ie. FILENAME_MMDDYY.mov

I am doing a lot of renders each day for a client who requires very specific file names. I use a copy of the previous day’s AE project and leave my render Que set up as it was the previous day. When I render the files over, I need the new files NOT to overwrite the old ones, but rather have the current date in the new file name.

Make sense?

Thanks again.
-Eric

[Kevin Camp]

yep, i was thinking on mac, you could probably use automator to do something like that…

ae can add a lot of other stuff to the file name automatically… in the render queue, if you click the arrow next to ‘output to’ and choose ‘custom’ from the menu there are lots of ways it can append the file name, but date/time is not one of them.

however it seems like it would be a good suggestion…

https://www.adobe.com/go/wish

Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Chris Wright]

if I remember correctly, AE names the file as the comp you add to the render query, so basically if you append the comp with a date, the rendered file will be called the same. One way is have the script rename the final comp using simple expressions.

here’s the script i made.
https://www.megaupload.com/?d=CX2WVCKG

also, you can use various batch software out there that will post-time stamp the filenames using the operating system’s code. But they are not free, although I could probably write a simple visual basic script that does the same thing.

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/

[Eric Miro]

Awesome!

Thanks you all for your help.
I totally forgot about the arrow by the Output TO: field.
.. and … I am about to try out your script Chris. Will let you know how it works out in a bit.

-Eric

[Chris Wright]

here it is in _MMDDYY format

https://www.mediafire.com/?o537xb0v3lt1xe9

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/

[Eric Miro]

Thanks again Chris! Pretty amazing!

The only thing I wonder if it would be easy to do is for me to select many comps at once and run the script on them all … if not, the way you have it now def. saves me a TON of time!

It is EXACTLY what I was looking for.

Thanks so much!

-Eric

[Chris Wright]

select all the comps you want to be date appended

update

https://www.mediafire.com/?mbp6v3v33axriib

https://technicolorsoftware.hostzi.com/

[Eric Miro]

Once again,

Thanks for your help!
Let me get you a beer sometime if you are ever in the NY or Chicago area!

-Eric