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render each layer as individual file
I’m trying to find a quick, reliable, & easily repeatable way to do the following. It seems pretty utilitarian & is something that would need to get done often, but I only know AE in limited & focused quantities. I’m sure if I knew how to write scripts, this would be a breeze, but I don’t…
1. I would like to take an x minute piece of footage with multiple cuts, make a duplicate layer for each cut, trim that layer to the duration of the shot, repeat ad infinitum for each cut. I have this script called Magnum Edit Detector that *should* work just fine for this step.
2. Once all the layers are trimmed & duplicated, I would like to be able to render each layer as its own movie, in some sort of automated fashion involving numbering based on layer number. I.e. each subsequent file would named something along the lines of Comp1_001, Comp1_002, etc.
I know how to do all of this manually, that’s not the problem. The problem is the length of time it takes to do this mind-numbingly repetitive (& human error-prone) task: selecting the next layer, manually resetting the work area, command-M, manually entering the file name, etc.
If anybody has any ideas about how I can automated this process, I’d love to hear them.
Thanks.
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6 Replies
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I’d never try to actually edit anything in AE. I suppose I could do this in Final Cut, but it would be just as much, if not more manual work, which I’m trying to avoid – not so much trying to avoid the work, but trying to avoid the mistakes that come with humans doing repetitive mindless tasks. Doing it in After Effects, at least I have a chance of automating & human-proofing more of the process. Magnum already does half the work for me, and it’s more reliable in terms of frame-accuracy than I am. I just need to figure out a way to automate, or semi-automate the render queue & the file naming.
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Yeah I know the blade tool…if I was going to do it in FCP, that’s what I’d use. I was hoping for something more automated, but until I find it, sounds like that’s the quickest way to do it.
I’m sure I’ve got some Finder tool somewhere that I’ll use for batch renaming, or I’ll just use Automator.
Thanks for your help!
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Don’t you wish there was something like Magnum for FCP? There is. It’s called Scene Detector.
So, use it, open up the XML in FCP, drag the timeline clips back to a bin – export that and you have your problem solved (I think.)
Best,
Jeff G
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Ah-ha! Interesting. I’ll definitely look into it. Thanks!
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Back to the original question:
There’s a script linked to from here that does what you asked for, rendering and exporting each layer separately.
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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
Technical Support for professional video software
After Effects Help & Support
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hey that script worked for me, and I’m using Creative Cloud AE 2015. I had to place the script in the right folder, and then access the script from the Windows menu on my Mac on AE. It works great!!! I found it puts a few black frames in, so I made it output as TIF and that way I could easily delete the offending frames. And then use Adobe Media Encoder to wrap it up as a video file.
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