Templater Editions And Licenses

Templater is currently available as three separate editions, each with a specific feature set. There are also several licensing options, including fixed, floating, and metered usage licenses.

Read our handy descriptions below to see which edition or combination of editions and licenses is right for your studio.

Templater Licensing Models

ClosedWhat is a Standard (Node-Locked) License?

The Templater Standard license is a node-locked, or fixed, license. This means it is allocated to a specific computer. However, if you need to move the license to a different machine, you can manually deactivate the license and then reactivate it on another computer. This might be needed if you get a new computer, if you have personnel changes, or for other reasons. Deactivation and reactivation can be done from within Templater Preferences or from your Dataclay.com profile. The Standard License is sufficient for most users.

ClosedWhat is a Floating License?

Templater can lease a license from a pool of licenses managed by server software that you install, setup, and activate. When After Effects quits, Templater's license is released and returned to the pool of licenses. If the machine After Effects is running on is no longer available, the server software will release the license after a user-specified amount of time. The server setup files are provided with your Templater installation files. You will also need to connect the machines running Templater to the licensing server.

TIP This configuration is particularly useful when using virtual machines. If you use a standard (node-locked) license, every time you spin up or reboot a new virtual machine, Templater will need to be deactivated and reactivated manually.

ClosedWhat is Metered Usage Licensing?

Metered usage licensing supports a pay-as-you-go model for customized video outputs with Templater. It combines:

  • A standard perpetual license for Templater Rig, allowing you to map data to dynamic elements in video comps and perform live previews using that data within those comps
  • A free QUE license, giving you access to the QUE Meter
  • Ability to purchase QUE Credits when you're ready to output customized videos. Spot check, replicate, and render each consume one credit per output. Your QUE Credits balance is tracked by your QUE Meter and can be seen in both Templater and QUE at any time.

Templater Editions

ClosedTemplater Rig

Templater Rig allows you to prepare an After Effects project file for dynamic content, map data from a data source to your project file, and preview how dynamic elements change as information from your data source is processed.

ClosedTemplater Pro

Templater Pro extends Templater Rig by offering desktop automation, allowing you to render or replicate batches of versioned compositions using data from your data source. You can prepare an After Effects project file for dynamic content, map data from a data source to your layers, preview, replicate, and render.

ClosedTemplater Bot

Templater Bot is a fully automated enterprise solution for custom video on demand. It works as an automated system. You can use it to check for incoming data periodically, pull new data in, and render video as a background process. Or you can use a command line interface to push data in to create new renders. Once your After Effects project is initially prepared, you can use Templater Bot to customize and render it without operating the After Effects user interface. Developers can create front end applications, such as web or mobile apps, that feed data into the Templater data source, offering a collaborative, custom video content creation solution.

Table 1: Feature Comparison for Templater Editions

Feature Rig Pro Bot
Use a QUE Campaign as a Data Source
Use a JSON-formatted Text File as Data Source
Use a Google Sheets Document as Data Source
Use a Tab-separated Value File as Data Source
Use a Remote JSON URL Feed as a Data Source
Local Footage References
Cloud-based Footage References
Apply Layout Rules
Project-specific Batch Assets Presets
Preview Compositions with Data
Log Templater Activity to File
Batch Replicate Compositions  
Batch Render Compositions  
Batch Render with Adobe Media Encoder  
Custom Output File Naming  
Switch AE Projects within the Data Source  
Run Shell Scripts while Templater Processes    
Command-line Interface Control    
Version AE Projects as a Background Process    
Process Extremely Large Data Sources