Autograf Rigging Utilities
NOTE Autograf Rigging Utilities are supported in Templater 3.4 and later.
Autograf Rigging Utilities are specifically designed to make it easy for users to convert an After Effects project file into a Templater Autograf. The first utility to be released by Dataclay is Dynamic Subtitles. Others are planned for future releases. Users can even create their own rigging utilities and include them in the rigging utilities palette.
Dynamic Subtitles
With this utility, you can import SRT subtitle files into a Templater composition from your data source. It lets you automate the addition of closed captions, translations, audio descriptions, and other onscreen text. This can substantially increase the speed at which you can produce videos which require subtitles.
Additional technical details
NOTE You don't need to understand these details to use the Dynamic Subtitles feature. We're providing them for developers and other curious users.
After Effects does not natively support the standard subtitle SRT file format for import. The Dynamic Subtitles feature works around this by creating a "ghosted" copy of the SRT file. This ghosting process:
- Wraps an exact copy of the SRT file inside a file with a .jsx extension, normally used for ExtendScripts
- Normalizes line endings from Windows or macOS to Unix
- Converts all encoding to UTF-8
- Ensures there is one and only one blank line between each subtitle
This process provides a consistent file that Templater is able to process easily and quickly.
Frequently asked questions about Autograf Rigging Utilities
Where are Autograf Rigging Utilities stored on a Windows machine?
If you're running After Effects with Templater on a Windows machine, the default location for rigging utilities is:
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects <year>\Support Files\Scripts\ScriptUI Panels\Templater Rig Utils
What file formats are supported by the Dynamic Subtitles Autograf Rigging Utility?
At this time, only SRT files are supported.
What are the requirements for an Autograf Rigging Utilities icon?
Your icon can follow any design you like, but it must be saved in the PNG format. For a consistent appearance in the rigging utilities window, we recommend your icon should:
- Have a transparent background
- Have dimensions of 37 x 33 pixels
What is the Autograf Rigging Utilities tip file? Do I need one?
We recommend that you create a JSON file to serve as a tool tip when users hover their mouse over the icon. If you don't do so, Templater shows the name of the folder that contains your utility. This may not provide the user experience you want. The following example shows the formatted JSON file for the Dynamic Subtitles utility.
{"en" : "Adds a dynamic subtitle layer to the active composition"
TIP You can localize the tip for other languages by adding more key/value pairs to the JSON object. For example, to display the preceding tip in Spanish, you would edit the JSON file as shown here:
{"en" : "Adds a dynamic subtitle layer to the active composition""es" : "Agrega una capa de subtítulos dinámicos a la composición activa."}
