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jensh20631531
Participant
Oct 24, 2019 3:55 PM UTC
Question

Expressions not working in Essential Graphics (mogrt)

I do not know if this is an After Effects or Premiere Pro Issue:

When using Expressions in an Essential Graphics Template in Ae (.mogrt), they do not seem to be working in Pr.

 

Example: Having a checkbox for controlling the visibility of a Comp via an Expression works fine in Ae, does nothing in Pr. There are no Expression Errors in Ae, no Error Messages - the checkbox just does not do anything. I followed three different tutorials on the net to eliminate my own stupidity - none gave a working Essential Graphics Template.

 

Funny enough, when editing a working Essential Graphics Template (such as the "Adobe News LowerRight") in Ae and exporting as a new Essential Graphics Template, Expressions keep working - for example the "Inverse Rotation" Checkbox. 

 

My System is running the most current Versions: Windows 10 Version 10.0.18362 Build 18362, Premiere Pro 13.1.5 (Build 47) and After Effects 16.1.3 Build 5. All Drivers are up to date. My System is on German Locale, Pr too, Ae is forced to English.

I tested on a colleages machine - same results.

 

Does anyone have an idea what I could try next?

Thanks in advance - Jens

    15 replies

    Felipe379024008qa5
    Participant
    Feb 28, 2025 2:15 PM UTC

    A couple of years forward here. I think I got the same kind of problem with the latest Premiere Pro/After Effects version available where expressions doesn't work in MOGRTs.

     

    For what I understood from your problem, expressions are not working in premiere pro at all, where in my case they seem to work perfectly in the preview panel, but not in final render.

    I did the same thing you did for a MOGRT (made a checkbox to toggle an object's visibility using opacity), tried pressing the checkbox in premiere and it did toggle the visibility, but always in final renders it goes back again.

     

    I tried multiple variants to fix this, such as making a position expression to move it away from working area, but I'm guessing the problem really is expressions. Premiere Pro simply can't render expression changes in Graphics Template, which doesn't make any sense and is very frustrating.

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    steve33418912mtef
    Participant
    Jun 13, 2024 7:44 AM UTC

    I got my Problem FIXED. I have everything on English my Client on German. Guess what the Checkboxes in the expressions are now Called "Kontrollkästchen" and dont work anymore. All my Checkboxes which switch things on and off didnt work because of that. I hope this helps someone.

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      kulss
      kulss
      Inspiring
      Jun 14, 2024 11:31 AM UTC

      As @R Neil Haugen pointed out, you have to use the Universalizer, which is pressing "Alt" or "Opt" when using the pick whip on After Effects. That'll write the expression in an universalized language and you will stop having these type of issues. When not pressing "Alt" while using the pick whip, After Effects writes the expression in the language you have After Effects set on (English on this case). If you then use Premiere on German, MOGRTs will not work as the German Premiere can't understand English expressions.

       

      Down below you have an screen capture from Jarle Leirpoll's book Making MOGRTs. It's a great place to look for answers when it comes to MOGRTs!

       

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        EALS
        EALS
        Inspiring
        Aug 11, 2021 6:14 PM UTC

        I've neve had this issue, but yesterday I sent a pack of MOGRTs to my client and he reported the same issue: expressions are not working. They are just disabled. What is more weird is: we are both using the same Premiere version.

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        Corvinus Corax
        Corvinus Corax
        Inspiring
        Sep 7, 2021 11:21 AM UTC

        Same here...I've been working with heavily scripted MOGRTs for years now, but today I got a new template where most (but not all!) expressions seem to be broken.

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        WO-Berlin
        Participating Frequently
        Sep 21, 2021 2:32 PM UTC

        So, I had the same problem and even worse… when passing projects on to, they caused crashes on other machines. Turns out… Adobe for some wildly weird reason renames variables if you have a mismatch between languages settings. Like your mogrt and After Effects being in English and your Premiere is in German. 

        In my case, it all originates from this "Hack" of putting an empty file called "ae_force_english.txt" in my documents' folder (on a Mac).  When I remove that and launch my After Effects in the same language as my Premiere custom scripts work again… although I had to rewire everything because After Effects rename all your "checkboxes" to "Kontrollkästchen" and so forth…

         

        I am still baffled about why Adobe would rename variables in a project?! That is really bad design.

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          R Neil Haugen
          R Neil Haugen
          Legend
          Oct 24, 2019 4:23 PM UTC

          Yea ... check this ebook:

          Leirpoll ebook, Making Mogrts: https://adobe.ly/makemogrts

           

          Jarle was one of the originators of the whole mogrts concept ... and when he was working on this book, and had Adobe check it, they simply bought it out and posted it on their site for free for all users. Clear, direct, and a lot better than any YouTuber I've seen.

           

          Note: I was the spell-checker (credited) and a main "tester" but received no compensation other than the joy of working with Jarle.

           

          Neil

           

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          Everyone's mileage always varies ...
            jensh20631531Author
            Participant
            Oct 25, 2019 6:35 AM UTC

            Neil, thank you for the eBook! Great work you and Jarle did there!

            Now I am certain my issue is a bug in Premiere - here is what I did:

            1. Made a comp with one solid in Ae, added a checkbox and an expression to set the visibility of the solid (setting opacity to 0 / 100). Works in Ae, does not work as Mogrt in Pr.
            2. Added a Camera-Shake Deblur Effect to the solid in Ae and exported a new Mogrt (got the warning that After Effects has to be installed) - and this one works.

            So I am now convinced that Premieres support for expressions is broken. As soon as Ae handles a Mogrt, expressions work as intended...

            Is this the right place to file a bug report? Should I provide my two Test-mogrts to someone?

            Thanks again for your support - Jens

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            R Neil Haugen
            R Neil Haugen
            Legend
            Oct 25, 2019 5:42 PM UTC

            The best place for bug reports is the UserVoice system ...

             

            Adobe UserVoice Bug /Feature form: https://adobe-video.uservoice.com/forums/911233-premiere-pro

             

            That goes directly to the engineer's system so everything there does get looked at ... and also then collated and sent to the upper managers who decide budgets. Adobe lives by metrics, so ... it's best to give them their metrics.

             

            That first one should work ... really ... I've done that myself. Huh. Maybe I need to find time to test it again.

             

            Neil

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            Everyone's mileage always varies ...
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