Converting AE project to a legacy filetype

[Walter Soyka]

[Spencer Tweed] “And please don’t post that it is impossible – I simply won’t believe you and it will just be wasted time in trying to figure this out.”

It’s impossible!

In all seriousness, there’s no official way to do it, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy way to do it. Search this forum for a couple suggestions: one is to open CS4 and CS5 on the same machine at the same time, and copy and paste layers, effects, settings, etc. from one to the other. Another is to export a Premiere Pro project from AE CS5, then importing the PPro project in AE CS4. Not everything translates, so you’ll have to double-check effects, expressions, keyframes, etc.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Joey Foreman]

Wouldn’t the 64 bit nature of CS5’s plug-ins be an issue?

Joey Foreman
Editor/Compositor/VFX Artist

[Spencer Tweed]

Hopefully not, all of the parameters are the same (which is all I care about).

[Spencer Tweed]

Thanks Walter,

I’m thinking that I will do a combo of both – export the premier file and then copy over the keys and whatnot.

I was just mucking around with Notepad ++ to see if I could somehow edit the file to get it across. I KNOW that it is possible this way – it has to be. No dice yet, it looks as though Adobe hid it away because even if I search “10.0.1” and replace it out, it still somehow knows that it is a CS5 project file.

If I am saying anything incredibly stupid let me know, I am certainly no software developer.

– Spencer

[Spencer Tweed]

Maybe this helps something:

If I look at the file in notepad ++ there are basically two sections. The top half looks like a bunch of Egyptian writing and the bottom half is just some .xmp metadata on the file. If I copy over the top half (the Taiwanese stuff) from the CS4 file and replace the top half of the CS5 file I can then open in in CS4 – the only problem is that this half seems to contain all of the data that I need (layer data, effect data, etc).

The good news is that I have at least eliminated half of the document from scrutiny, as this doesn’t seem to effect whether or not the file opens in AE CS4. The bad news is that this stuff looks like Russian to me.

– Spencer

[Walter Soyka]

[Spencer Tweed] “I was just mucking around with Notepad ++ to see if I could somehow edit the file to get it across. I KNOW that it is possible this way – it has to be. No dice yet, it looks as though Adobe hid it away because even if I search “10.0.1” and replace it out, it still somehow knows that it is a CS5 project file. If I am saying anything incredibly stupid let me know, I am certainly no software developer.”

I have no idea what Adobe has changed under the hood in their internal file format between CS4 and CS5. Maybe it’s not much — maybe it’s a lot. All I know is that they don’t provide any way to save down for AE. You might file a feature request [link]. Adobe engineers do read and track them.

Personally, I’ve either started collaborative work in CS3, assumed responsibility for changes myself, or browbeaten my collaborators into upgrading.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Spencer Tweed]

Thanks for the link Walter, I feel much better after ranting for a paragraph or two to Adobe.

– Spencer

[Spencer Tweed]

Okay, I admit defeat on text-editing the project file. I don’t think that it would be too hard to make some sort of script or applicaiton though that could do this. For example you could just make a program that opens the CS5 (or whatever version) file and the rebuilds the same thing in CS4.

Try this: copy some keyframes on an effect and paste it into notepad (or text edit). You will see that there is nothing esoteric about it: it just says what the effect is called, what parameter you have selected and what the comp data is. Using just this data you could batch-rebuild the same project in another version of After Effects. The only thing you have to make sure of is that all of the plug-ins are the same for the two versions.

I don’t have the time or the know-how to do this right now, but it is something for the future. Not to mention I bet someone could make a nice, shiny, pretty penny off of this one! (hint hint)

– Spencer

[Olin Padilla]

Here’s the sneaky way to do it:

Tell them to just download the free 30 day trial of CS5. By the time the 30 days are up, the project should be done and they will have already started at least one new CS5 project. In a pinch they will have to buy the full version, BUT not for your project. This way it’s not you that’s making them spend money, plus you won’t have to deal with the same problem next time you work with them.

[Spencer Tweed]

Yeah, I considered that option. I could suggest it, but I don’t think they’ll bite. They have already requested that the files get converted, and I am looking for a more long-term solution anyway.

– Spencer