aerender Shape Color from json - works in GUI, does not work in aerender

Hi Everyone, 

I’m having a weird problem. A certain expression works on AE GUI but it does not work when rendered with aerender.

I am trying to create a dynamic creative app for my agency. Basically, I have an aep template that has a json object. I modify the json and render via aerender.

I can change text, images, videos, text style, etc dynamically.

Here’s the problem:

I can’t change a shape’s color with aerender. The json is parsed correctly (textboxes show the values correctly, and even hexToRgb conversion is done correctly). But the shape does not seem to pickup color. When I open the AE GUI, it runs correctly. However, aerender does not render correctly. 

I tried different methods, including putting the expression in shape’s fill color, using a color object, linked with the shape embedding the shape in a comp and using tint / fill effects. All these methods I mentioned work in AE GUI with no problem. However they don’t work in aerender. The color code comes from the json correctly, but the shape’s color is not applied right. I even tried parsing the RGB hex letter by letter.

I’d deeply appreciate if you could give me some pointers.

BTW, if you’d like to take a look, I have a sample template I am experimenting in the attachment