-
Workflow for making lots of promos
Hi guys. I am starting a new project where I need to produce a daily 30 second promo. The Photoshop files change everyday, but the format never does:
1. Opening animation
2. Photoshop file 1 and VO
3. Photoshop file 2 and VO
4. Photoshop file 3 and VO
5. Photoshop file for schedule and VOSo the sequence is basically 5 pre-comps with a music bed underneath. I want to be able to produce a month of these at a time, or more. The problem is that everytime I want to create a new promo, I need to:
1. Copy a promo sequence and rename it
2. Copy the 4 Photoshop pre-comps and rename them
3. Open the promo sequence and RELINK the 4 pre-comps to the new pre-comps I just named
4. Replace the Photoshops and the VO in the pre-compsIt’s a pain. Anything I can do to cut down on steps would be really helpful. So here’s my plan:
1. Name the Photoshops like this:
Day 1 Class 1
Day 1 Class 2
Day 1 Class 3
Day 1 Schedule
etc2. In Premiere, create 31 sequences called Day 1 through Day 31. Have these all linked up to precomps which have the appropriate Photoshop docs in them.
3. Save the project in a folder called July with all the July Photoshop files
4. Now let’s say I want to do August. I copy the whole folder and change all the Photoshop documents. If I open the new Premiere file, my sequences for August 1-31 should already be there with the right Photoshop files showing. (Maybe? If they’re still linking back to the July folder, it should only take 30 seconds to make them offline and then relink them to identically named files in the August folder.)
5. I still need to change all the VO clips myself. But this way I don’t have to create 31 new sequences, link them up with precomps, and link THOSE to new Photoshop files. That should take care of itself.
Does this make sense? Is there an easier way to do it? Thanks guys!
-
5 Replies
-
How Complex are the edits?
Much of what you do in PPro can be translated to an AE comp via copy and paste between apps.
there is a great versioning tool for After Eeffects called CompsfromSpreadhseet
https://aescripts.com/compsfromspreadsheet/
which allows a ton of automation in versioning in AE.
There are also a lot of tools for automating Photoshop from spreadsheets as well…so you could get this down to a very efficient pipeline with a little elbow grease…
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
The True Comp Duplicator script from aescripts will help with making new sequences and precomps, although I don’t think it will replace the photoshop files and VO for you.
https://aescripts.com/true-comp-duplicator/
Definitely cuts down on a lot of repetition for me!
edit: whoops, I’m in the wrong forum, this is for after effects….but it might help you if after effects is ever part of that workflow
-
Sounds like After Effects will be a lot easier for this kind of automation. The problem is these hundreds of VO clips – I’m recording a lot of clips at a time and counting on Premiere for editing. It might be worth it to use Premiere to edit the audio and export lots of little voiceover clips, THEN use a spreadsheet to have AE stitch it all together, combining Photoshops and VO to build all the comps. I guess I’d still have to adjust the timing of each AE master comp, since each precomp will be a different length.
-
yeah….there’s the same….and then there’s similar….story of my life here at the agency…
conditionals make automation difficult…
but I think you have the right thoughts on it.
if you look at the line share of the set up of each job being automated….
then the tweaking is done by hand….
let me know how you progress….
Alex Udell
Editing, Motion Graphics, and Visual FX -
An alternative workflow is Pixel Factory if the volumes are high enough https://youtu.be/iYwuMdWp07w
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up