AE ENHANCERS

It was a bug. I've taken the opportunity to make a few other fixes, including adding compatibility for CS3 (well CS3 Mac at least). And I've changed the name!
(link removed, download from link on first post)

The one new feature, requested by Glove, is that the script can write an estimated position for each syllable to a Point Control effect. This hidden feature only works when using the Animation Presets option. check out the new Point Lightning.ffx preset for an example.

How Point Control works:
In v2b4, if the first effect in an Animation Preset is a Point Control effect, the script will write the estimated position of that word/syllable into it. This can be used to control effects that have spatial values, by linking them to the Point Control value using a simple expression.

To create your own presets that make use of this:
1. Apply a Point Control effect (make it the first effect) and place the Point in the centre of that syllable.
2. Apply other effects and add this expression to any spatial (2D) properties you want to control:

NOTE: You can also keyframe these properties, just don't change or add keyframes to the Point Control effect.
3. Select all the keyframes, expressions and effects and save as an Animation Preset in the pt_SSAnimator_v2b4 > Animation Presets folder.

Excellent script. Really useful! Thank you a lot.

Uhm, Paul, I want to ask you something. I made a animation preset and used it on a .ass file. Everything done well, but when the syllabe had a larger duration, its effect started before the right time, making the karaoke confuse and messed. I made something wrong?

And other question (this is for everyone)
Someone knows some good site with effects plugins that works on text layers?

Thank you!

Have a look at the keyframes on your text layers (select layers and press U) to see what's going on. The animation preset should be applied so the first keyframe is at the start of each syllable. If the Fixed Duration checkbox is off, the script should be stretching the keyframes in proportion to the syllable duration.

Uhm, the keyframes are not starting where they should.
This new Animation Preset I made is totally messed. I don't know what I did wrong. The Point Control didn't worked, and I don't know if I made it right. Can you please take a look at it for me?

http://kakashi.deltaanime.net/krk_test.aep < AE project (can you see if I used Point Control right? I'd be grateful x_x)
http://kakashi.deltaanime.net/death.ffx < Animation preset
http://kakashi.deltaanime.net/test.avi < output video

As can you see on the .avi, it's totally unsinchronized...
Help me please ._.

It looks like it's applying the animation preset so the first Opacity keyframe in the preset lines up with the start of each syllable, even though there are earlier effect keyframes in the preset. I tried adding another 100% Opacity keyframe at the same time as the earliest effect keyframe, then resaved the preset and that seemed to work.

Also, the Point Control does appear to be working, but it isn't in the right place. Did you move the text layers after you ran the script? It won't line up if you do that.

Yea, that was right, now that I've put a 100% opacity keyframe in the start, all the keyframes started where they should. But, the duration is bypassing the other's syllabe time, I mean, the effect isn't ending before the other syllabe's effect start. Should I make the preset with the keyframes closer to each other?
Uhm, no, I didn't moved the text layers after applying the effect.

Thank you!

You can use the Scale Factor setting to adjust the length of the animation.

Re: the point control issue. Try removing any keyframes from the effect property with the expression, turn off the expression, set the property value to 0,0 then turn the expression back on and save the preset. Essentially, the animation of the effect property, when the expression is off, should be centered around 0,0. When you're creating the preset, you should position the point control over the center of the text.

You mean Stretch Factor of your script? That function just makes them shorter... It shouldn't variate depending on the syllabe's duration?
And about the Point Control thing... I didn't understood what you told me to do, I'm kinda noob in After Effects... I'm sorry.
Thank you for the patience ^^'

Sorry, yeah I meant Stretch Factor. Unless Fixed Duration is checked, the keyframes are stretched differently on each syllable, based on its duration. You should be able to use Stretch Factor to get the end of one animation to line up with the start of the next.


No problem, I haven't explained it very well. Here are some steps for creating a point control preset in pt_SSAnimator_v2b4:
1. Create a new composition.
2. From the menu, select Layer > New > Text.
3. Type something like "TEST". You may want to change the size/style settings and make sure it's centered text (in Character and Paragraph panels). SSA Animator creates new text layers using these current settings.
4. Apply an Effect > Expression Controls > Point Control effect to the text layer.
5. In the Effect Controls panel, click the point control's cross-hairs icon and place the point in the center of the text layer.
6. Apply an Effect > Distort > Bulge effect to the text layer.
7. Set both the Bulge Center values (x and y) to zero.
8. Alt-click the little stopwatch icon to the left of Bulge Center, to add an expression.
9. Replace the default expression with the following:

NOTE: At this point you could add keyframes to Bulge Center if you wanted to animate it. But don't add keyframes to or change the value of the Point Control effect.

10. Add three keyframes to make Bulge Height animate from 0 > 1 > 0 over about a second.
11. Twirl open all the Point Control and Bulge values in the Timeline.
12. In the Timeline, click the word "Point" under Point Control to select it.
13. Holding down the Shift key, click "Bulge Center" and "Bulge Height" to select them too.
14. From the menu, select Animation > Save Animation Preset and save the preset in SSA Animator's preset folder.

When you use this preset with SSA Animator, the Bulge effect should be roughly centered over each word/syllable.

NOTE: When using a point control, it's important that the composition is wide/high enough to fit the longest line of text. If you run the script and find your text is going outside the comp bounds, you should make the comp bigger, delete all the text layers and run the script again. After running the script, you shouldn't move the text layers.

Hope that helps.

Oh, now it worked perfectly. I wasn't doing it on the right seqüence, and added the keyframes before the expression. Thanks a lot by the help, its all clear now. When the karaoke gets ready I'll post it here.
Thank you a lot!

And about the Stretch Factor, now I understood what it does. The time is also right now. Thanks!

Paul your script works for AE CS3?

I've tested v2b4 on Mac CS3.

I'm having trouble trying to make my own preset with the script. I run the script and apply just a slider control to see the keyframes of the .ass file. I delete all the text layers except the first one. I then proceed to apply effects and place the keyframes in the correct spots using the slider control as a reference. Then I highlight all the effects and save the preset, but when I run the import script and apply my preset the keyframes are all over the place, and I can't find any pattern to the spacing at all. Also if I add any slider controls they all are 0 after importing the preset, same with point control, its the same value as when I saved the preset. I'm still new to AFX but I'd really like to know how to work this script. You said in a previous post to add any new effects to animator 1, I have no idea what animator 1 is lol. I also highlight non-keyframed values in the effects because I changed them from the default, I think I tried only saving the keyframes but it still messed up. I'm using AFX cs3 and the beta 4 of the script, windows xp.

Also having a problem with the script only importing half a sentence and then just stopping, leaving out the whole rest of the subtitles. Really not sure whats up with that part.

balgus,

I really do need to find the time to put together some proper documentation for this script. It's hard to know where to start with your problems. I think the best thing you could do is email me your .ass file, .ffx preset and the resulting project to paul.tuersley@btinternet.com

Regarding "Animator 1", my earlier comment was specifically about if you modify an existing preset by adding new text animator properties. For example:
1. Run the script and select the Animation Preset > Jump.ffx, then hit "Show Preview".
2. Select one of the resulting lines, then press the "U" key twice to reveal all modified properties.
You'll see that one of the animator groups is called "Animator 1" and contains a Text Position property. If you were to create your own preset by modifying this one, you should add new text animator properties to this animator group.

A rly nice work, thanks paul.... i only have a small problem, i do a text layer when all the properties i want, position in left top, point of crontol in the middle, but when i import the ass script doesnt work, and the text is in the middle of the composition.... but i can live with that xD... btw i was wondering, its possible to make, the text change into a image at the end of the effect???