Templater Changelog

Below is a log of all changes to Templater for each release.

3.4.1 — Build 14982 — May 3, 2024

Adjusted Time Sculpting to require a target composition
Added the justification property to dynamic text styling
BUG FIX: Fixed issue with garbled characters in non-English AE installations
BUG FIX: Fixed issue with forced paragraph justification when styling text

3.4.0 — Build 14959 — April 15, 2024

Introduced Autograf Rigging Utilities and Dynamic Subtitles
Introduced dynamic text styling
Reorganized Templater Preferences dialog
Added Footage Processing and Footage Download events
Enhanced the flags feature to support both double braces {{}} and double brackets [[]]
Introduced new reserved column names: srt-display, srt-data, and srt-bg
Introduced new Bot property keys
Introduced new pre-defined argument macros for shell scripts
Introduced new object methods for ExtendScript API
Introduced target timeline auto zoom-out preference
BUG FIX: Fixed issue with Time Sculpting with nested comps
BUG FIX: Fixed issue with Templater layer groups
BUG FIX: Fixed AE error when Templater Settings applied to audio layers
BUG FIX: Fixed automation issue caused by an intrusive confirmation dialog in AE 24.3

3.3.3 — Build 14392 — December 18, 2023

BUG FIX: Fixed footage download with AE on non-system drive.

3.3.2 — Build 14388 — November 1, 2023

Fixed an issue the Templater Bot stopped processing QUE jobs once 24 hours passed after the user signed in.

3.3.1 — Build 14383 — September 26, 2023

Support for remote footage URLs without file extensions
Support for share links for remote footage

3.3.0 — Build 14350 — August 18, 2023

Ability to group dynamic comp layers horizontally
Support for footage URLs that include parameters
Support for using Templater with an empty data source
Improved the use of markers in spot checking
Enhanced logging to include actions performed when a specific project file is not open
Added a button in Templater Preferences to open the log location in the macOS Finder or Windows Explorer
Grouped all sorting options in their own section in the Job Selector Setup dialog
Fixed an issue where spot checking multiple frames sometimes produced duplicate still images
Fixed an issue where range validation was being incorrectly applied when the data source was QUE
Fixed an issue with using the additional_pages option in the command line interface
Updated EULA for macOS and Windows versions to reflect change of address for Dataclay, LLC

3.2.0 — Build 14224 — February 24, 2023

Templater sends logs to QUE for improved observability
Bot labels rows / jobs as errored for problematic renders
Error logging records problem layers and references
BUG FIX: Fixed rendering of multi-page QUE results using CLI
BUG FIX: Fixed failed installation error on macOS Ventura
BUG FIX: Fixed registering QUE satellites on non-English versions of Windows

3.1.1 — Build 14151 — October 19, 2022

Installers are now compatible with After Effects 2023

3.1.0 — Build 14150 — September 28, 2022

Simpler authorization flow for Google Sheets and QUE
Google Sheets and QUE authorization redirect to localhost
Improved implementation for footage retrieval on Windows
Support for .obj, .c4d, .heic, and .heif file types
BUG FIX — Wand tool works without a connected data source
BUG FIX — Error is displayed when TSV is used with Bot

3.0.0 — Build 14020 — March 31, 2022

Support for Dataclay QUE as a Templater data source
Support for Spot Checking target compositions
Support for expression based layout engines
Support for Multi-Frame Rendering in After Effects 2022
Added support for Google Shared Drives
Improved messaging from licensing framework
Installers target After Effects Beta
Installed utility files on Windows are now digitally signed
The{{off}}flag now mutes audio in addition to visually hiding a layer
Improved footage type support for JFIF and WEBP file assets
Improved error messaging for missing output destination
Improved error messaging for missing footage root
Improved error messaging for footage importation

2.9.7 — Build 9465 — October 27, 2021

Installers compatible with After Effects 2022

2.9.6 — Build 9464 — March 16, 2021

Installers compatible with After Effects 2021
Image sequence support for dynamic footage layers
Improved network communication on Windows
Included Output Module and Render Setting Templates
Defaults for Output Module and Render Setting selection
Specify a path for writing Templater's log
Improved messaging for license expiration and renewal date
Improved log messages for Templater requests to Google
Bug Fix — OS versions correctly logged
Bug Fix — Resolved licensing issue via CLI
Bug Fix — Fixed logic for scaling footage layers
Bug Fix — Dynamic audio layers ignore spatial layout params
Bug Fix — Hard crash adding comp to AME Queue
Bug Fix — Fixed issue with unique footage downloads
Bug Fix — Fixed naming issue when `output` column is empty

2.9.5 — Build 9431 — March 6, 2020

Updated Templater to use Google Sheets API Version 4
Cache preview data for faster previews
Search Google Sheets documents to link
Default visual and audio placeholders for missing footage
Bug Fix - Retrieve correct row within range during preview
Bug Fix - CLI checking JSON feed with headers
User interface messaging updates
Included a new End User License Agreement (EULA) for Enterprise use

2.9.2 — Build 8678 — November 19, 2019

Installers compatible with After Effects CC 2020
Fixed a replication bug when"output"column or property specifies sub directories
New preference for removing unused footage after each job
New Templater ExtendScript API methods to update layout and timeline
Google Sheets minimum polling frequency reduced to 0.3 mins
JSON minimum polling frequency reduced to 0.2 mins
Fixed a Time Sculpting bug related to nested compositions
Updated messaging in various parts of UI
Included a new End User License Agreement (EULA) for Enterprise use

2.9.1 — Build 8495 — Oct 7, 2019

Installer is macOS 10.15 Catalina compatible
Fixed bug when requesting license from floating licensing server

2.9.0 — Build 8240 — Feb 25, 2019

Streamlined graphical and command line user interfaces
Added transport controls for intuitive previewing
Added new buttons to open data, footage, and output locations from the main panel
Added a preference for handling empty or null footage references
Changed Refresh and Cycle Previews buttons to icons
Improved messaging when enabling Bot from command line
Fixed a bug for specifying the JSON polling interval via command line
Reduced start up time on floating licensing builds

2.8.4 — Build 7777 — November 22, 2018

Fixed issue related to faulty macOS installer for CC 2019
Fixed target comp selection bug when switching .aep files.
Fixed target retrieval within registered ExtendScripts
Minor updates to various error messaging

2.8.3 — Build 7767 — October 20, 2018

Templater now compatible with After Effects CC 2019
Minimum data source polling reduced to 30 seconds

2.8.2 — Build 7759 — September 28, 2018

Fixed regression bug for opening referenced .aep files.

2.8.1 — Build 7750 — September 21, 2018

Fixed a bug related to opening referenced .aep files.
No longer need target comp to Preview
New preference to prevent script execution on Preview

2.8.0 — Build 7720— August 28, 2018

Composition layers can be swapped with other project comps Users can now specify project compositions in Templater's data source to swap with pre-composition layers. Within the data source, wrap composition names with double-brace notation to specify project comps to be swapped with pre-comp layers marked with the Templater Settings effect.
Unicode support for event script arguments Command line arguments for event scripts can now include UTF-8 character encoding. Prior to version 2.8.0, event scripts would not properly execute if arguments passed to them contained special unicode characters.
Option to execute shell scripts asynchronously Users now have a choice to execute shell scripts registered to Templater events either synchronously or asynchronously. To enable asynchronous execution of a registered event script, tick the checkbox for that event in the "Register Shell Scripts with Events" dialog.
Auto-import Templater job data as JSON footage. Use Templater's job data as a footage item within the After Effects project file. When enabled within Templater's preferences, a JSON footage item will appear within AE's Project panel as Templater reads from the data source. Note that this feature is in an experimental phase as Adobe irons out bugs with their implementation of JSON footage items.
Improved support for South Asian and Middle Eastern languages. In AE versions 14.2 and later, Templater no longer attempts to do any character reversing for text written in languages with right-to-left transcription. Users should enable the "South Asian and Middle Eastern" preference within After Effects' main preferences dialog under "Type".
Fixed a bug related to Templater's attachment feature for text layers constructed as a TextBox (i.e. clicking and dragging with AE's Type tool). After upgrading to After Effects 15.1.1, and using Templater 2.7.1, layers would not attach properly to sibling text layers constructed as a text box.
Fixed issue with project file retrieval. When Templater's data source referenced After Effects project files — using the `aep` column or property — it would close the current project file even when the next, consecutive job referenced that same file. In version 2.8.0 when consecutive jobs reference the same project file, Templater keeps processing that file without closing it first.

2.7.1 — Build 7320— April 19, 2018

Fixed a bug in the command line interface that required the"suppress_ae_dialogs" to be set to true in order for Templater to initialize.
Fixed an issue that caused Templater to hang during data retrieval while using the Preview task. The bug would manifest if there was no target composition set.
Fixed an initialization bug that would sometimes prevent Templater to start on macOS.
Updated documentation to reflect new event architecture as implemented for both graphical user interface and command line interface.

2.7.0 — Build 7281— March 26, 2018

Newly Enhanced and Robust Event Architecture. You can now register both shell and ExtendScript scripts to a new set of Templater events. Events are now also broadcast when Previewing with Templater. See Templater Events for a full description of available events.
New Argument Macros for Registered Event Scripts. A few new argument macros about Templater can be passed to event scripts: $log (the full path to the templater.log file), $log_dir (the full path to the directory containing the templater.log file), and $event (a string identifier that references the most recently broadcast event).
New ExtendScript API. You now have access to read and manipulate Templater's internal memory using ExtendScript files that are registered to listen for a Templater event. Developers can accomplish this by using the $D object. For full documentation for this API, see Using ExtendScripts.
Improved File Naming for Downloaded Cloud-based Footage Assets. When the `Allow unique downloads for cloud-based assets` preference is enabled, the downloaded asset will have a more precise identifier prepended to the downloaded file. The prepend string includes the job's row index value, column or property name, and ID value if available.
View Log File from Templater Panel. A new "Show Log" button appears within the Templater panel. When clicked, Templater opens a new terminal window displaying a real-time log of Templater's operations.

2.6.1 — Build 6705— October 23, 2017

Updated installers for Creative Cloud 2018

2.6.0 — Build 6705— September 17, 2017

Fully Featured 30-day Timed Trials! Users can trial all functions within Templaterfor 30 days without any limitation. In trial mode, watermarks are superimposed atop layers designated as dynamic. Users can now try out all functions from all editions of Templaterinclude Rig, Pro, and Bot.
Unified Licensing Framework. Templater's licensing framework is now standardized across manufacturer and reseller builds. If you are upgrading Templater purchased through a reseller such as aescripts + aeplugins you will need to acquire new products keys.
Bug Fixes and Improved Architecture for Templater events. Previously, any registered post-job or post-batch scripts would not execute property when using Templater's replication feature. This issue is now fixed making registered post-job and post-batch scripts execute as documented. Code architecture for event scripts is prepared for implementing more events types such as: pre-data-capture, post-data-capture, pre-job, etc. These will be implemented in coming releases.
The header in the Templater log file now displays more details about the machine running Templater. Specifically, it includes the current username, the machine ID, and the operating system. This helps Dataclay's support team understand issues customers are encountering.

2.5.0 — Build 6473 — December 21, 2016

Introducing Time Sculpting: use time-based rules to sequence and arrange layers for a truly dynamic composition timeline. Handle footage layers of varying duration with ease by setting rules on each layer
New parameters under a "Time" group in Templater Settings controls fall into one of the following categories: (a) Time Cropping, (b) Layer Shifting, (c) Layer Trimming, and (d) Layer Stretching.
Improved Bot performance with remote JSON feeds: Bot will not stop and exit out of its "watch mode" when there is a problem with the JSON feed. Bot will continue watching its connected data source until the user disables it.
Improved auto importing functionality: previously Templater would error if footage files contained uppercase letters in file name extensions. This issue is resolved. File names can now have uppercase or lowercase extensions.

2.1.13 — Build 6422 — Nov 6, 2016

Templater 2 installer installs to Adobe After Effects CC 2017 which is now supported.

2.1.11 — Build 6365 — June 26, 2016

Templater installs to Adobe After Effects CC 2015.3 and that version is now supported.

2.1.10 — Build 6326 — May 2, 2016

Improved batch processing: Templater no longer deletes the output in a specified output location before a batch process begins. Instead, Templater will overwrite existing files with the same name as the output filename.
Replication Bug Fix: In some cases, versioned project file replicates were accummulating unnecessary item references. In order to fix this, Templater now purges any references to unused footage within the project file before saving a replicate. If using the CLI, replication tasks ignore the"save_on_completion" key in the templater-options.json file. The master project file will always be saved before Templater closes After Effects.
Improved data retrieval: The code for retrieving data has been re-architected for more consistency and robustness.
Improved Bot support: The Bot now supports Remote JSON URLs as data sources. HOWEVER, Templater cannot update the "render-status" value automatically because the data source is specific to the user. Therefore, users should write custom scripts to update"render-status"values at appropriate events to avoid re-rendering"ready" data.

2.1.8 — Build 6326 — March 17, 2016

New Feature: Users now have the option to specify an After Effects Output Module and Render Settings Template from within Templater's connected spreadsheet or other data source. Use "module" as the column name for specifying a job's Output Module. Use "render-setting" as the column name for specifying the Render Settings Template for each job.
Bug Fix: Fixed a crash bug where an infinite loop was caused if the authorized Google account did not have access to the Google Sheet loaded from the After Effects Project XMP data that was saved by Templater.
Improved Event Scripting: For Templater Bot's "Post Job", "Post Batch", and "On Bot Disable" events, users can now enter any command as they would if they were in a terminal session. In this command line, users can input special variables as arguments that get information about the processed job. Users can also pass specific job data as command line arguments by prefixing a column name or property key with a dollar symbol ($). See Using Job Details in Shell Scripts for more information, and head over to Dataclay's event-scripts code repository to see updated sample scripts.
Improved Post Batch Details: When a script file or command is registered with Templater Bot's "Post Batch" event, the auto-generated templater-batch-details.json file now includes absolute paths to each output file generated in the batch process.
Improved Logging: Templaternow outputs a templater.err file and logs only error messages to this file. Error message are logged as single-line json objects so other apps can inspect them with ease. The templater.err file is written to the same location as the templater.log and templater.out. When using Templater's command line interface, specifying alog_locationin the templater-options.json file is no longer required, but it is still strongly recommended. If the log location is not specified, all templater log files are written to the system's temporary directory. See Troubleshooting the Templater Command Line Interface for more information.
Bug Fix: Interactively selecting a footage source when Templater recognizes a faulty footage reference was not functioning properly. This has been fixed and users can now select a file when clicking the "Find" button or when Templater's preferences is set to "Let me find the footage asset"
Regression Bug Fix: In 2.1.7, when running a batch render or replication task, not having an "id" column or property key in the data source resulted in a single filename being overwritten. Users now do not need an "id" column or property key to get unique file names written to disk.

2.1.7 — Build 6014 — Feb 2, 2016

Bug Fix: Previously, if using Google Sheets as a data source while having The Bot enabled for extended periods of time (i.e. 3 hours or longer), Templater would report the error: "undefined is not an object" and subsequently shut down The Bot. This was due to how Google's API expires authentication tokens while Templater was in a "background processing" mode. This error no longer shows up, and Templater will automatically refresh its Google access token when Google sets it to expire.
Bug Fix: Previously, when a user signed out of their Google Drive account from within the "Google Spreadsheet Setup" dialog, the UI would not immediately reflect that a sign out occurred. Now, when a user clicks sign out, the UI updates immediately.

2.1.6 — Build 6005 — Jan 20, 2016

Bug Fix: If a remote JSON data source URL contained query parameters, Templater would freeze upon retreival. URLs pointing to remote JSON data sources can now have query parameters.

2.1.5 — Build 6004 — Jan 13, 2016

Bug Fix: 2.1.4 introduced a bug related to Templater licensing that has been resolved. If you have 2.1.4 installed, please be sure to update to 2.1.5.
Bug Fix: With the introduction of Remote JSON Data sources in version 2.1.4, the command line interface cofiguration file (templater-options.json) can declare new properties within the "prefs" object. In 2.1.4, if the user did not specify a "remote_json" property within the "prefs" object, Templater CLI would report an error. This has been fixed, and so a "remote_json" property is no longer required.

2.1.4 — Build 5977 — Jan 11, 2016

New Feature: Data source support for remote JSON URLs. Users can now enter a URL into the "Data source" field (Panel) or "data_source" property (Command Line Interface). The response that comes back from the URL must already conform to the structure as specified in Dataclay's support documentation for local JSON file. If Basic Authentication is needed, click on "Remote JSON Configuration" within Templater Preferences dialog to enter a username and password and to add any custom request headers. NOTE: In this update, The Bot DOES NOT support remote JSON data sources.
New Feature: From within the "Google Spreadsheet Setup" dialog, users can view the selected Google Spreadsheet. First select a worksheet from the list, then click on "Open and view this spreadsheet" to launch a browser window and view worksheet's Google Sheet.
Improved Bot: Templater Bot now fully supports local JSON files. JSON Objects can now have a 'render-status' and 'bot' property. If The Bot is enabled, and the data source is set to a local JSON formatted file, The Bot will parse the objects with a 'render-status' set to 'ready', process them, and then update the local data source. Multiple Bots can process the same local file as well. Templater Preferences dialog now has a preference for the interval duration for checking local JSON files for ready data objects.
Improved output: Improved output capabilities in Pro and Bot editions. When using the command line interface (CLI) with Templater Bot, an output directory that does not exist in the file system will be created automatically. Users can now specify sub-directories under the output column to neatly organize their output. For example, if the 'output' column / property in a datasource has 'subdir/myrender' as a value, then the 'myrender' output file will be found under the directory named 'subdir' relative to the specified directory specified in "Output folder" field (Panel) or "output_location" property (CLI).
Improved messaging: Log messages are more accurate when Bot is enabled and retrieving data from data source. Paths specified for "log_location" for the command line interface no longer need to already exist in the file system. Templater will attempt to create the log location if it cannot find it. Minor fixes to additional messages.
Bug Fix: Fixed aescripts + aeplugins subscription activation bug. OSX Users installing Templater on machines with a space character in their home directory name can now activate subscription features for Templater.
Bug Fix: Launching Templater Bot via the command line interface with "replica_comps_to_ame" set to true task would hang when "quit_on_completion" was set to true.
Bug Fix: In some cases, users were unable to use a lowercase 'id' label in a spreadsheet column header or property. Now, both 'id' and 'ID' will work for a proper column label.
Bug Fix: Output prefixes were not being applied to output names specified under the 'output' column in a data source. This has been fixed. Users can now use the 'prefix' field to prepend custom output names.

2.0.3 — Nov 3, 2016

This update affects all Templater 2 users. It is highly recommended that all users update to this version as soon as possible to avoid any hard crashes to their projects.
Fixed another AE hard crash bug: In some cases, when nesting pre-comps that have layers with the Templater Settings effect applied, or when the Templater Settings plugin is applied to a time remapped layer, AE would exhibit a hard crash. This was due to the way Templater would report which frame, for a specific layer with the Templater Settings effect was applied, was being rendered when launched via its. command line interface. The bug has been fixed and no crashing should occur as a result of this issue.
Version number has changed in logging header and "About" dialog.

2.0.2 — Oct 27, 2015

When sending replicated compositions to Adobe Media Encoder CC 2015, the correct output names were not being carried over. This has been fixed. This bug was only apparent when using AME CC 2015, not AME CC 2014.
Version number has changed in logging header and "About" dialog.

2.0.1 — Oct 25, 2005

This slight upgrade is recommended for all Templater users, and should be installed to avoid having AE crash when Templater 2 ScriptUI panel is part of the workspace that is loaded when opening a project or if Templater 2 ScriptUI panel is part of AE's default workspace when it starts up.
MAJOR FIX FOR AE CRASH - Fixed a crash bug that sometimes occurred when Templater's ScriptUI panel loaded upon AE startup. The reason this was happening was due to the way the available Render Templates and Output Modules were being retrieved on initialization. Now, when first installing and launching Templater, users will need to click the "Refresh" button to populate the dropdown menus for Render Settings and Output Modules on the main panel. To save the setting, click the "Save" button on the main panel. When Templater launches again, only one item will appear in the dropdown menu—the one saved from the previous session. If a user wants a different Render Settings template or Output module, they will need to click the "Refresh" button again.
Some language on the UI changed. For example, the word "prefix" was misspelled in the term "Job prefix".
The logging header now shows 2.0.1 as the version number.

2.0.0 — Oct 14, 2015

The Bot for Templater: Simplify your workflow with a fully automated enterprise solution for custom video on demand.
Command-line interface: Engage with Templater processes through shell commands.
Cloud-based footage support: Use URLs as footage sources.
Logging system: Record a sequence of actions by Templater for later review.
Improved previewing: Cycle through previews or preview one row at a time.
Project-specific presets: Save Batch Assets information within the project file to quickly open and link a pre-existing project.
Switching between AE project templates: Use the same spreadsheet to hold data for multiple AE projects.
More ways to specify a target composition: Set the target comp from within the data source or the AE project.
Custom output file naming: Easily name your output files.