Import Footage and Create Comp with Extendscript

[Dan Ebberts]

At the end of your Generate Compositions loop, add this:

newComp.layers.add(sourceFootage);

Dan

[Keenan Parry]

Thank you so much Dan, I seriously love you. Do you mind if I pick your brain a little more? I’ve got it working mostly correct now but still running into little issues that are stumping me.

Expected behavior:
If there is an After Effects project opened with another comp (lets call this COMP_TEST) already inside, the script should ignore COMP_TEST, import the footage, create compositions, add to render queue, then start the queue.

What actually happens:
When COMP_TEST is already present in the project file, the script appears to treat this composition as if it’s imported footage, creates a comp out of it, and adds to to the queue.

Any ideas how to make the script only make compositions out of the imported footage? I think my problem is here since it’s clearly making compositions out of the entire project instead of the freshly imported footage:
// Array holding source footage
var sourceList = new Array();
for (var i = 1; i <= app.project.items.length; i++) {
sourceList[sourceList.length] = app.project.items[i];
}

Really can’t be sure. What I’m attempted to eventually do is add COMP_TEST to the comps created from footage and have COMP_TEST starting at the end point of the footage contained. That’s the next phase, but don’t wanna get too ahead of myself.

Thanks so much Dan.

//Source Folder
//Manually select folder
var sourceFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Select folder with source files");

// Import source files into project
var sourceFiles = sourceFolder.getFiles();
for (var i = 0; i < sourceFiles.length; i++) {
app.project.importFile(new ImportOptions(sourceFiles[i]));
}

// Array holding source footage
var sourceList = new Array();
for (var i = 1; i <= app.project.items.length; i++) {
sourceList[sourceList.length] = app.project.items[i];
}

// Generate Compositions and add sequential number
for (var i = 0; i < sourceList.length; i++) {
var sourceFootage = sourceList[i];
var compName = sourceFootage.name.substring(0, sourceFootage.name.indexOf(".")) + "_" + i;
var newComp = app.project.items.addComp(compName, sourceFootage.width, sourceFootage.height, 1, sourceFootage.duration, sourceFootage.frameRate);
newComp.layers.add(sourceFootage);

//Add comps to render queue
var renderQ = app.project.renderQueue.items.add(newComp);
var outputModule = renderQ.outputModule(1);
var outputFolder = "CUSTOM_PATH";

//Apply template (codec) and change output folder
outputModule.applyTemplate("ProRes");
outputModule.file = File(outputFolder + "/" + compName);
}

//Start Render
app.project.renderQueue.render();

[Dan Ebberts]

I haven’t tested this, but try setting up your footage array this way:


//Source Folder
//Manually select folder
var sourceFolder = Folder.selectDialog("Select folder with source files");

// Array holding source footage
var sourceList = new Array();

// Import source files into project
var sourceFiles = sourceFolder.getFiles();
var footage;
for (var i = 0; i < sourceFiles.length; i++) {
footage = app.project.importFile(new ImportOptions(sourceFiles[i]));
sourceList.push(footage);
}


Dan

[Keenan Parry]

Much appreciated! It does indeed ignore the comp now, but seems to be importing the footage twice, though it only creates one set of comps for rendering. So everything is working as it should, besides there being two sets of footage in the project now.

[Keenan Parry]

Oh wait! Ignore that please, it’s working perfectly. I was importing the files twice because I left legacy code in there. My bad

[Keenan Parry]

Got one more for ya…..

So, last thing I’m trying to get this script to do is to add a composition (bump) to the end of the newly created comps (newComp). I got this to work successfully by adding the variable var bump = app.project.item(1); at the beginning of my for loop and then newComp.layers.add(bump); at the end. I also added sourceFootage.duration+bump.duration to adjust for the duration of both comps. This works as expected, but I’m having trouble getting the bump layer to start at the end point of the footage, meaning it doesn’t start at the beginning of the comp like default.

A better way to say it perhaps: how do I get the end point of bump to line up to the end of newComp?

// Generate Compositions - Add _00_Text_Bump to Comps - add sequential number to end of name
for (var i = 0; i < sourceList.length; i++) {
var bump = app.project.item(1);
var sourceFootage = sourceList[i];
var compName = sourceFootage.name.substring(0, sourceFootage.name.indexOf(".")) + "_" + i;
var newComp = app.project.items.addComp(compName, sourceFootage.width, sourceFootage.height, 1, sourceFootage.duration+bump.duration, sourceFootage.frameRate);
newComp.layers.add(sourceFootage);
newComp.layers.add(bump);

[Keenan Parry]

So sorry once again, I figured it out!