the sdk only deals with importing files into an AE project or rendering out to custom file types. if you wish to save some file with some arbitrary data in it at a click of a button, you just do it directly using fopen/fwrite/fclose, as you would in javascript. ... View more

basically, you can fetch any mask using AEGP_MaskSuite6, and then read it's vercitces using AEGP_MaskOutlineSuite3. if i recall correctly, shapes can be parsed using AEGP_MaskOutlineSuite3 as well... (just push the shape data in to the same suite callbacks... it's fiiiiine! you'll be fiiiine!) it's a bit of a hassle to find a shape layer's shape param. you'll need to traverse the layer's dynamic streams to arrive at the correct one. solve it once, earn the badge. but! as fat as i know, both mask and shape vetices data is delvered to you "unmodified". masks won't be delivered expanded by the "expand" param, shapes won't arrive "rounded" if have been set so by the user. some shapes aren't shapy. say, a "star" shape layer is parametric. there's no shape param to read. so it is possible, but somewhat messy and limited. ... View more

ah, nice! but is there some limit on the param name length? i think there is... just make sure you don't exceed it or some strange crahses will occurr... ... View more

copying my answer here as well: so... i put together a working sample the shows buffer resizing in smartFX. (based on the "smarty pants" sample) download it from here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w4Fc9rtGXjU-YT4CC-6q01ft2MOvOLtt/view?usp=sharing from what i gathered during the making of this was that you should put the expanded buffer rect in "extra->output->result_rect". seems AE will take just that rect. i didn't see AE asking for the max_result_rect yet...   so depending on your implementation, you should decide *what* get's expanded. is it relative to any buffer you get, be it cropped by a mask or the comp bounds? is it relative to the original layer size? is it relative to the max rect of the input? all these very much depend on your implementation. in the sample project, i expanded the input buffer whatever it may be, and put it in the "extra->output->result_rect". then i expanded the "in_result.max_result_rect" and put the expanded result in " extra->output->max_result_rect". from all i've seen, AE always used the rect from "extra->output->result_rect" for the render call, even when the layer was scaled down and exposed the area around the original layer that it *could* grow into. ... View more

well... i ran into the problem recently. i didn't find a way to invoke an AEGP from the javascript side directly without some aid from a C external object. (and even then it's not as clear cut and immediate as you'd image...) simplest solution IMHO, is to leave some flag in the javasciprt global scope, and have the AEGP check for that floag on idle_hook calls. these happen 20-50 times per second, so it's not immediate and synchronous, but it gets the work done easily without any shenanigans. ... View more

let's start by defning that sync thing, and then we can address the issues at hand: you'd like 2 params to interact at all times. 1. during user interaction. 2. during timeline scrubbing. 3. during rendering.   i'm afraid that's not etirely possilbe, but there could be some workarounds that are a comprimse... let's define the problems: 1. the leat of your problems: if both params are keyframable, they might have contaraditory keyframe settings. meaning, linear/ease-in-out/hold settings that even though the keyframes might be synced, the in between might be off sync.   2. even if you wanted to have one param be keyframelss, you'd want to have the values synced to the current time. but wahat exactly IS the current time? the time set in the comp UI at the moment? but what it that comp is a source for multiple layers in other comps with different time offsets? then you would have multiple "current times" at any given frame of the master comp. and what about rendering (which we will get to in a moment)? AE render multiple frames simultaniously, so you get multiple render competing over the value of their redspective "current time".   3. and now the biggie. once upon a time (before AE2015), you could change the value of a param even during rendering. it was fugly. it messed up the render cache. but you could do it. nowdays AE prevents changing anything in the project from the render thread, so changing a param "on the fly" during rendering is no longer possible.   so what CAN you do? 1. use an expression instead of keyframes on one of the params. you can set it programatically during UPDATE_PARAMS_UI using AEGP_SetExpression. if that's good enough for you, it satisifies all of the above. 2. experiment with PF_PUI_STD_CONTROL_ONLY. it would make the param not keyframable (but maybe it would also make it not connectable via expression... so... experiment.) 3. experiment with PF_PUI_DISABLED. i think it would still allow the user to connect an expression to is, but won't allow the user to change that param manually.   ... View more