Rendering Spot Checks in a Batch Process

Follow these steps to set up Spot Checking for your versioned video as a batch process or when replicating or rendering.

NOTE  Spot checking requires Templater 3.0 or newer. It is supported in Pro or Bot editions only.

Before you begin, ensure all of the following conditions are met:

  • The Templater Settings effect has been applied to all layers intended to be dynamic.
  • Column names or property keys in your data source match the names of dynamic layers.
  • A data source, footage folder, and output folder are entered into the fields in the Batch Assets section of the Templater panel.
  1. Specify a target composition.
  2. In the Templater panel, click Preferences to open the Templater's Preferences dialog.
  3. In the Templater Preferences dialog, under Spot Checks:
    1. Click Load Settings and Module Templates to populate the dropdown menus with listings of all Render Settings and Output Module templates available to After Effects.
    2. Select a render settings template from the Render Settings dropdown menu.
    3. Select an output module from the Output Module dropdown menu. For spot checking, we recommend an Output Module template that generates still images, such as PNG or JPG.
    4. In the Sample ___ frames from comps without timeline markers field, enter the number of spot checks you want Templater to render when no markers exist in a target composition. This provides a back-up in case spot checking fails. You can also use this setting instead of creating your own spot check markers, but since Templater spreads the sampling across the entire composition, you may or may not see the information you need.
    5. If you want Templater to spot check while it performs rendering or replication tasks, enable either checkbox, or both, next to the Create when  __Rendering  __Replicating labels.
  4. In the Templater panel, under Transport, enter a valid data range from your data source that the batch render will process.

    NOTE  Start row must be greater than 1 for Google Sheets and tabbed-delimited files. For JSON object arrays, start row must be greater than 0. Also, the end row must always be greater than the start row.

  1. In the Job prefix field, enter an identifying prefix to give each spot check output file the same prefix for this particular batch render.
  2. Click Spot Check to generate spot checks immediately. Or, if spot checking is enabled for rendering or replication tasks, click Render or Replicate.

Using Dataclay's Output Module and Render Setting Templates

Templater installs two files containing After Effects output module and render setting templates. The output modules are stored in dataclay-output-modules.aom and the render settings are stored in dataclay-render-settings.ars .

On Windows, these files install to C:\Users\Public\Documents\Dataclay, and on macOS they installed to /Applications/Dataclay.

These templates help you setup your output workflow by offering a way to quickly output drafts and by enabling you to standardize final output formats across multiple machines.

Follow these steps to load Dataclay's output modules into Templater.

  1. Open After Effects and launch the Templaterpanel.

  2. In AE's main menu click Edit > Templates > Output Module .... A dialog titled Output Module Templates will appear.

  3. In the lower left corner, click Load...

  4. Find and select the dataclay-output-modules.aom file specified at the location above for your operating system. Click OK.

    NOTE  If an error dialog appears you can safely ignore it by clicking OK again.

  5. In the Templater Preferences dialog, within the Spot Checks group, click Load Settings & Module Templates. Click the Output Module drop down menu to see the list of loaded Output Module Templates.

  6. Refer to the table for specifications of each Output Module Template.

    Output Module Template Container Video Codec Outputs Alpha Channel Notes
    dclay-AVILOSSLESS Audio Video Interleaved (.AVI) None No Quick render on Windows. Large file size.
    dclay-AVILOSSLESS_Alpha Audio Video Interleaved (.AVI) None Yes Quick render on Windows with transparency channel. Large file sizes.
    dclay-PNGSEQ Portable Network Graphics (.PNG) None No Quick render to sequence of still images. Also useful for quality control of batch processing by enabling you to spot check how Templater treats your data in each video. Set your target composition's work area to a single frame duration and choose this to render out a still images for each video.
    dclay-PNGSEQ_Alpha Portable Network Graphics (.PNG) None Yes Quick render to sequence of still images with a transparency channel. Use this for quality control of batch processing by enabling you to spot check how Templater treats your data in each video. Set your target composition's work area to a single frame duration and choose this to render out a still images for each video.
    dclay-QT422HQ QuickTime (.MOV) Apple ProRes 422 HQ No Apple ProRes offers excellent compression while offering superb quality. Output files will be a reasonable byte size, but After Effects renders them at a slower pace compared to uncompressed formats because it must calculate compression for each frame.
    dclay-QTANIM QuickTime (.MOV) Animation No Useful for when your target composition is comprised mostly of illustrative graphics rather than live action footage. It offers decent compression with acceptable file sizes.
    dclay-QTANIM_Alpha QuickTime (.MOV) Animation Yes Useful for when your target composition is comprised mostly of illustrative graphics and you need a transparency channel in the final output. It offers decent compression with acceptable file sizes.
    dclay-QTLOSSLESS QuickTime (.MOV) None No Quick render times as no compression is calculated. Uncompressed output comes with very large file sizes.

 

Follow these steps to load Dataclay's render settings into Templater

  1. Open After Effects and launch the Templaterpanel.

  2. In AE's main menu click Edit > Templates > Render Settings... a dialog titled Render Settings Templates will appear.

  3. In the lower left corner, click Load...

  4. Find and select the dataclay-render-settings.aom file specified at the location above for your operating system. Click OK.

    NOTE  If an error dialog appears you can safely ignore it by clicking OK again.

  5. In the Templater Preferences dialog, within the Spot Checks group, click Load Settings & Module Templates. Click the Render Settings drop down menu to see the list of loaded Render Settings Templates.

  6. Refer to the table for specifications of each Render Settings Template.

    Render Setting Template Output Duration Render Quality Notes
    dclay-best-comp Duration of target comp Best Quality This is the best choice when you want to output production level quality. Use this when you want After Effects to render your target composition at the highest quality level. If using any of Templater's Time Sculpting features, this template ensures the entire duration of the composition is rendered regardless of how Templater adjusts the target comp's length.
    dclay-best-workarea Duration of target comp's work area Best Quality Use this when you want After Effects to render only a portion of the target composition's timeline at the highest quality level. These settings are useful while pre-flighting your AE project for batch processes because you can control how many frames should render with each re-version. With these render settings, After Effects outputs frames within the target composition's work area only.
    dclay-draft-comp Duration of target comp Draft Quality Use this when you need Templater to speed through batch rendering processes. Output quality is very low, but you can plow through many render jobs to test your output. These settings guarantee the entire duration of the target composition are rendered.
    dclay-draft-workarea Duration of target comp's work area Draft Quality Use this when you need Templater to speed through batch rendering processes. Output quality is very low, but you can plow through many Templater render jobs to test your output. These settings will only render frames within the target composition's work area.

Related Topics

Spot Checking