Auto-> 'Upres Comp' > 'add Filter' > 'add to Render Queue'

What type of scripts do you need?

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boxwrench
Posts: 7
Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:43 pm

I'm planning to upres about 2500+ DV clips from 640x480 to 1280x720 using the Instant HD filter.
I have automated the processes of converting to 23.98 and squeezing 0.9 ratio pixels to square pixels at 640x480.

I can also import a couple hundred clips into AE, select them all and drag them to the 'New Comp' icon to create 640x480 comps of proper lengths for all. Then I can double click all selected comps to load them as multiple tabs in the timeline. Here is where the automated or bulk processing stops.

Suggested Script workflow:
Next I need to select a tab, cmd+k and adjust the comp size to 1280x720, hit enter, select the video layer, add a preset of the Instant HD filter (could be a paste from clipboard if previously set up) then add the comp to Render Queue and close the tab.

If the above could exist as a script that would repeat, it would theoretically go through all of the open tabs in the timeline without me having the repeat the process by hand.

Then I can go tot The Render Queue, select all and apply output presets for the entire batch as they will all output as the same format and destination.

I've seen the Default Pallet.jsx in the File > Sripts menu and there is a script for Upres Comp, but it will only do one at a time. Is it possible to modify this script to process multiple comps selections in the project window...as a starting point for the larger workflow suggested above?

Thanks for any input.

-Brent Bye
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lloydalvarez
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Hi Brent,

I wrote my FOOTAGE_COMPIFY-720×486_w_Preset-AE7 script to do exactly what you are doing. It currently scales the footage to 720x486, but you can easily change that to 1280x720.
You can get the script here: http://aescripts.com/2006/04/04/footage ... -w-preset/

I wrote that a long time ago and don't think i made it super user friendly, so let me know if you need any help doing the changes and i'll gladly do them for you.

-Lloyd
boxwrench
Posts: 7
Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:43 pm

Hello Lloyd,

Do you think your script is easily adaptable to scale the comp size instead of the actual clip in the comp?

I've done a number of output tests with my footage and found that the Red Giant-Instant HD upres filter does an even better job when compared to the internal scaling abilities of After Effects. The difference between my workflow and yours is that I need to scale the comp first and then apply the Instant HD filter which will do the scaling (really I just need the script to paste a copied filter from the clipboard). Unfortunately your script as described will scale the footage and I'm not sure what the filter would do at that point.

Thanks for the response and suggestions!

-Brent Bye
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lloydalvarez
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Hey Brent,

It was simple enough, so I went ahead and modified the script to do exactly what you need, plus a few extras like being able to define the Render Settings, Output Module and Path of the rendered file.
The script will process any selected footage items, or the entire contents of the project panel if nothing is selected.
Let me know how it works for you.

http://aescripts.com/scripts/InstantHD_ ... or.jsx.zip

-Lloyd
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lloydalvarez
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I don't have the Instant HD filter but based on the online tutorial it seems you just need to apply the filter and it sets itself. If you need to adjust the settings first, then you will need to save it as an animation preset and i'll have to modify the script a bit to make it work that way. Just let me know.

-Lloyd
boxwrench
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Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:43 pm

wow! Lloyd, you're amazing...!

I'll give it a shot tomorrow and see if it works as is.
I can easily make a preset for the Instant HD filter, or would be be just as simple to tell the script to paste the filter settings that could be copied to the clipboard (I'm not sure what makes for sense for an expression script)

Thank you so much for helping.

-Brent Bye
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lloydalvarez
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Ok, in that case you definitely want to use an Animation Preset. Save the InstantHD filter with the settings the way you want them as an Animation Preset and then select that preset when you first run the script.

I re-uploaded the script to the same place, so re-download it to get the latest version.

-Lloyd
oceanstudio
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Joined: March 4th, 2008, 12:58 pm

Hello Lloyd,

My name is Marta Martinez.

I am working with Brent Bye.

We have a couple questions regarding the script. When in AE it gives us an error of "unable to execute script at line 68. suffix is undefined." Don't know if this is why only five comps show up in the render que.

I am a first time user of AE an Apple Script; I was hoping you could tell us how to keep the original names of the clips with a suffix and if it is possible to change the best settings to "based on 'Best Settings'" and to change the location of the output we will be rendering.
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lloydalvarez
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Hi Marta,

There were a couple bugs in the script that i've now corrected, so please re-download the script and that should solve the unable to execute error and the retension of the original name.

http://aescripts.com/scripts/InstantHD_ ... or.jsx.zip

As far as the "Based on Best Settings" request, the way you need to do it is go into the Render Settings Templates and create a new template with the settings the way you want them, if you are not familiar with how to do this follow this link: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/AfterEf ... -79df.html and read the section on creating templates.

Then change the name to this new Settings template in the USER VARIABLES in the top part of the script. Here you can also define the place where you want the renders to be saved by changing the path where it says myPath also in the USER VARIABLES section.

Let me know if any of this doesnt make sense.

-Lloyd
oceanstudio
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Joined: March 4th, 2008, 12:58 pm

Hi Lloyd,

sorry to bug you.

this time when i use the current link you sent us it accepts the presetting but it gives the same error of line 68. this time it doesn't even send any comps to the render cue.

Let me know if it is something i could fumble through.

Marta
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lloydalvarez
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Hi Marta,

That's odd, it works fine for me here. Which version of After Effects are you using? And what kind of footage are you sending it? Can you give me an example of one of their names? Oh and can you give me the full error that it's giving you? Does is still say suffix is undefined?


-Lloyd
boxwrench
Posts: 7
Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:43 pm

Hi Lloyd,

Again, you are amazing to be helping us out with this.
(Check your PM box, I'd like to send a little thank you your way ; )

I haven't run the script personally, but will ask Marta more details when she's back in the office.

Just FYI, we're still running AE 7 and are trying in both Tiger and Leopard verions of OS X. All Intell processors.
Is it worth a try on a PowerPC based G4 with AE 7?
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lloydalvarez
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I've only tested the script on CS3 so the issue might be with AE7. I won't have access to AE7 until tonight, but looking at the code it seems like it should work fine.. I would say make sure you are running the latest version because you should not be getting the suffix is undefined error if you are running the latest version. Either way, I will tested on AE7 tonight

-Lloyd
boxwrench
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Joined: February 27th, 2008, 1:43 pm

Hello Lloyd,

We're so dangerously close...

Last week we had used an ealier version of your script and found out that the files names were troublesome.
In our Final Cut Pro 'capture scratch' we had many file names (hundreds of them) that were incremented with numbers, for example: ' file name med shot 2 ' and ' file name med shot 3 ' are very common for us to find in our clip storage. An earlier version of your script was dropping the number from file names ending in a number and then renamed the file redundantly, then added them to the render queue. The script looked like it worked and then clicking the "render" button would give an error that the "Output Module" name was already in use. After investigating we found it was actually the "Output To:" name that was redundant and caused the error.

Then you fixed the script and as far as we can tell, it works great!

The only problem we are having now is unexpected quits in two different OS's on two different types of machines and we're not sure if it's After Effects choking on the script, or if we just have some unhappy machines.

We've tried on a MacPro 8-core Intel running in AE 8 and also on an older G4 running AE8.
Next we will try AE 7 on each machine but not sure if it will be any different.

The problem seems to be when we ask the script to do more than 50 clips at once. We have a couple dozen folders all with an average of about 250 clips each. Hopefully we'll get this workflow down.

Do you think there is a possibility that the script is choking AE at a certain point of repetition?
Thanks for your help through this Lloyd, you Rock pretty seriously...

-Brent Bye
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lloydalvarez
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Hey Brent,

That might be due to the fact that your machine is running out of memory. Javascript normally takes care of memory management automatically, but upon doing some research there are some cases where you need to implement your own memory management calls and this might be one of them. I need to read up on that and i'll try to implement it to the script. Stay tuned..

In the meantime, I say run smaller batches.. 8)

-Lloyd
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