What's New

Templater Changelog

For details on each release of Templater, please read the Templater Changelog.

Templater 3.8: New Features & Improvements

Templater 3.8 introduces an improved architecture for its main batch render, replication, and spot check algorithms delivering increased performance, broader support for multi-target jobs, and modernized logging and render status tracking.

New Feature: Per-target Output Configurations

The "target" property in your data source now supports per-target render settings, output modules, and custom output naming. Instead of providing a simple list of composition names, you can pass an array of objects where each object maps a composition name to its own configuration.

  • Supported Configuration Keys

    • NOTE  All keys are optional. When omitted, Templater falls back to the job-level value, or the selection in the Templater panel.

    • settings : Name of an AE Render Settings template to use for this target.
    • module : Name of an AE Output Module template to use for this target.
    • output : Custom output name and optional subfolder path relative to the output destination.
  • Example
    • {
    "target": [
        { 
            "FINAL_1080P": {
                "settings": "Best Settings",
                "module":   "Lossless",
                "output":   "hd/custom_1080p"
            }
        },
        { 
            "FINAL_720P": {
                "settings": "Draft Settings",
                "module":   "H.264 - Match Render",
                "output":   "sd/custom_720p"
            }
        },
        { 
            "SOCIAL SQUARE": {
                "module": "Lossless"
            }
        },
        "SOCIAL PORTRAIT"
    ]
}

    In this example:

    • Composition FINAL_1080P renders with "Best Settings", outputs via "Lossless", and saves as hd/custom_1080p within the output destination.
    • Composition FINAL_720P renders with "Draft Settings", outputs via "H.264", and saves as sd/custom_720p.
    • Composition SOCIAL SQUARE uses only output module "Lossless". Render settings and output naming fall back to defaults.
    • Composition SOCIAL PORTRAIT is a plain string entry. All settings come from the job level or the Templater panel.

  • Output Path Behavior

    • The "output" value is a literal path relative to the output destination folder. It can include subdirectory components separated by "/" or "\\" — Templater normalizes path separators across platforms and creates any necessary subdirectories automatically.

  • Fallback Behavior

    • If a per-target "settings" or "module" name does not match any template installed in the After Effects project, Templater logs a warning and falls back to the job-level or panel default. This ensures rendering continues even if a template name contains a typo.

  • Compatibility

    • All previously supported "target" formats continue to work:

    • Single string: "FINAL_1080P"
    • Comma-separated string: "FINAL_1080P, FINAL_720P"
    • Comma-separated quoted strings: "FINAL_1080P", "FINAL_720P"
    • JSON array of strings: ["FINAL_1080P", "FINAL_720P"]
    • Mixed array of strings and config objects: ["FINAL_720P", {"SOCIAL SQUARE": {"module": "Lossless"}}]

New Feature: Validate footage sources before batch execution

In After Effects, rendering fails when projects contain footage items with missing or bad references to source files. These missing links to source files cause the infamous "Failed at N/A" message on render items listed within AE's Render Queue. In the context of Templater batch processing, this "soft crashes" After Effects in that it will appear to be unresponsive and interacting with its GUI does not work — it "freezes".

With this new feature enabled, Templater validates a project's footage items before it starts processing. Users must resolve all project items to actual file sources in order for batch processing to function as designed. Otherwise, Templater experiences a fatal error and cannot continue without user intervention. In this case, error code, ERR::MISSFTG, will appear in the render-status field inside Templater's connected data source.

New Feature: Render status tracking in Google Sheets sources

Users authorized with write permissions to Templater's connected Google Sheet can now track the render status of the rows that it processes in manual batch mode (Pro edition automation).

If a render-status column does not exist in Templater's connected Google Sheet, one will be auto-appended to the last column and Templater will write the state of the jobs into cells under that column. Error codes are also written into the render-status column to surface issues Templater encounters.

To prevent any render-status tracking in Google Sheets you can disable a preference found in the "Data Source" tab. Note that, by default, render-status tracking is turned on. You may want to turn it off if speed is a concern.

New Feature: Preference to halt processing on missing projects

You can now choose to halt batch processing when Templater processes a job that references a missing After Effects project file. A new render-status error, ERR::AEP, will display as a label within the render-status column when Templater cannot find the file referenced in an aep column.

New Feature: Check for Templater updates from preferences

You can now check for updates that Templater has from within the Templater Preferences > Updates panel. Inspect the Changelog and open the latest readme file before running the upgrade sequence directly from within Templater.

Improvement: Multi-target support in ExtendScript API

The $D.target() method now returns the currently active target composition when called with no parameter, and returns all resolved target comps when called with a truthy argument — for example, $D.target(true).

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

New argument macro, $target_name, for passing name of actively processed comp to a shell script.

Upgraded integrated AI models from OpenAI and Anthropic

Increased performance and speed for Templater switching and opening Autograf project files.

All target compositions specified in a multi-target job will have Time Sculpting rules applied.

Logging is now clearer and reports duration of various tasks that Templater performs.

Fixed a bug related to the project item structure when Templater replicates compositions to disk.

Fixed a bug related to detecting local Tab-Separated TSV files from local JSON formatted files.

Fixed a bug when Templater Bot is configured to both Render and Replicate target compositions.

Fixed a bug for more accurate QUE credit usage across all data source types.

Templater 3.7: New Features & Improvements

Templater 3.7 contains several exciting new features as well as an important change for those who use Google Sheets as their data source. It also includes UI updates and several bug fixes.

New Feature: Multi-target rendering [Available in 3.7.5+]

Multi-target rendering allows you to generate multiple composition outputs from a single data source row or job by specifying a list or an array of composition names in the `target` field.

This feature is useful if, for example, you need to export a set of aspect ratios such as landscape, portrait, and square compositions using data from only a single row or job.

In multi-target processing, output files are named according to Templater's devised `output` value appended with the corresponding composition name from the multi-target list.

Event scripts for shell execution can reference specific output file paths using the `$out_file.<target_name>` or `$out_file[index]` tokens.

Event scripts for ExtendScript execution can reference output file information by passing in the target comp name into the $D.output() method. If Templater processed multiple targets, and no composition name is passed into the $D.output() method, it returns an array of output info Objects. For backwards compatibility, if Templater processed only a single target for a job, then $D.output() returns only a single Object.

QUE Credits are accurately metered per output.

NOTE  Multi-target jobs are NOT yet supported by Dataclay Projector as of this Templater release. Support will come in a future release of Projector.

New Feature: QUE Meter for Templater Output

QUE Meter is a new account plan that supports a pay-per-output licensing model for Templater.

This new offering makes Templater more cost effective for users who produce auto-customized video campaigns less frequently. It can also make it easier to tie costs to specific campaigns when those costs are billed to clients.

You can continue to use Templater Rig to prepare your After Effects projects for automation workflows. Then, when you're ready to create output, purchase some QUE Credits for your QUE Meter. Sign into your QUE Meter account via Templater to enable all Pro and Bot features.

Spot checking, replicating, and rendering—whether initiated by an end-user or Bot—will each consume QUE Credits. One QUE Credit is deducted from the QUE Meter per successful output.

The QUE Meter *requires* Templater to run on a machine with an active internet connection that can communicate with QUE's API domain que-api.dataclay.com.

You can purchase QUE Credits for your QUE Meter at: https://dataclay.com/credits/

New Feature: File Picker for Google Drive

Google has introduced a number of new security requirements that affect how Templater obtains authorization to read data to and from Google Sheets documents. As a result, the workflow for authorizing Templater to access your Google Sheets documents has changed with this release.

After you authorize Templater to access your Google account, you will need to also launch the File Picker for Google Drive from Templater to grant access to specific Sheets available in your Google Drive.

WARNING  If you rely on Google Sheets as a data source, you must upgrade Templater to version 3.7 soon. In the near future, earlier versions of Templater will no longer support direct integration with Google Sheets.

New Feature: Support for Generative AI Text

You can now use your existing AI service to generate synthetic text content for dynamic text layers. Enter a prompt directly within a text layer's Templater Settings effect under the Generative AI parameter group.

When Templater cannot map a value to a dynamic text layer, it will attempt to send the layer's stored prompt to your preferred generative AI service and will await a suggestion that will map to the dynamic text layer. This feature currently supports:

Integrations with additional AI services and models are on the roadmap, as well as the ability to use this feature with audio visual layers. Please send us feedback about this feature as we plan to expand on it in future releases.

New Feature: Media Connector for Google Drive

Templater now supports URL references to Google Drive media assets. You can streamline your workflows by linking to videos, images, and other digital assets stored in Google Drive—no need to download or manually import files. Simply insert the asset URL into Templater's connected data source, and Templater will handle the rest.

To enable this feature, some initial setup is required. You will need to configure a Google Cloud Platform project for the Google Drive account that owns the media. While this step is a bit more advanced, it’s essential for secure and reliable access to your assets.

User Interface Updates

You can now set a preference to highlight the most recently previewed row in your Google Sheets data source. This can help you to better identify the spreadsheet row that Templater most recently processed

A new set of preferences has been added to control the generative AI feature.

The Templater app logo has been added in various locations throughout the UI.

Other Improvements & Bug Fixes

Templater is now compatible with After Effects running on Windows ARM.

Improved Templater processing speeds for local JSON files.

It's now possible to preview connected data without having an After Effects project file open: connect, show the log file, and preview data with the transport.

It's now possible to permanently erase all Autograf metadata stored in an open After Effects project file. In the Templater panel, go to Preferences > Advanced > Erase all Autograf data from current AE Project.

The feature for removing the Templater Settings effect from layers in replicated target compositions has been deprecated.

Previously misinterpreted values for updating dynamic essential properties are now interpreted correctly.

Offline license deactivation is now possible without having an activated license.

SRT subtitle layers better estimate line count in paragraphs.

Bugs were fixed relating to machine profiling on Windows machines during QUE Satellite registration by removing dependency on the `wmic` command.

Improved Templater authorization implementation for accessing both QUE and Google Sheets.

Fixed a long-standing bug where Templater would not interpret null values in the data source correctly.

Improved the installation wizard for the floating licensing build of Templater

Fixed a bug where Templater would not save the primary license server

The offline help documentation in CHM format no longer ships with the Templater archive. Download the most recent docs @ https://dataclay.com/downloads/templater-docs.