how to organize a multilanguages project ?

[Fraard]

Hi there,

I made a project in french, but I need to "duplicate" the movie in several languages.

I would need your advice in order to follow the best process...

Is it better to duplicate the project (on for each language) or to duplicate in the same project the comps ?
Or do you know or practice different solution ?
Of course, what I would avoid is to have too many changes if I need to add or correct something in few days or weeks...

Thank you for your ideas and your experiences,

[Dave_LaRonde]

If ONLY the language of the After Effects text layers changes -- nothing else -- I would duplicate the original project file and rename it.

"projectname DEUTSCH", "projectname ESPANOL", "projectname ENGLISH"..... I think you get the idea.

[OussK]

Also if it's possible depending to your workflow, i prefer to put each text inside separate composition and keep all this compositions inside one folder (maybe called "replace text here") so after you duplicate your project for the second language and you need to change the text you can simply expand the text folder and open each text composition and replace it, and like this you don't need to jump from composition to other and search your text layers. it's a sort of AE template structure.

[Dave_LaRonde]

Considering that words and phrases have very different lengths in different languages, I don't know if that's a good idea.

[OussK]

Yes i know so for that i say if it's possible depending to the project type, also they can give the text composition enough space to handle any text. anyway if they can give more information may we can give him also better suggestion

[Dave_LaRonde]

This is one of these "one size fits all" situations.  If you have a perfect layout in French, it will NOT be a perfect layout in German.

I have also answered people who want to edit 16x9 video who also want it to work in 9x16!  They live in a dream world.  Thinking that you can change languages without also making design changes is living in a dream world, too.

You can't make every AE project automatic and easy.  If you think so, you haven't been using AE for long.

[Fraard]

Well, thank you for your messages !

Concerning the layout, only few words are used in the video. Of course, i need to resize a little bit each texts (that's not automatic at all 🙂 you're right)

But, I thougth that a sort of "magic trick" (or a super-high-tech feature) could prevent to duplicate the project.

If no duplication, no need to change a key or a timing in each project….

[OussK]

i think you mean so if later you need to do some changes you don't need to go to each duplicating project and repeat your steps.

i this case you can organize your project in a way where you keep all the Common animation in one composition than create a separate composition for the text variation (languages). in this case if you do a modification one the main composition it will be update in all languages.

[Martin_Ritter]

I don't know anything about your project, but I wouldn't copy the project file.

Let's assume your client makes a change concerning an asset or animation style which appears in all languages: you'll have to put in the change in every project file. If they are 2 languages to handle, this might be okay, but the more project files, the easier you get confused and the project becomes a mess.

I also wouldn't duplicate the comp, because it will end up as same situation.

Instead, I would keep all in one place. I would create such a project with a main-comp, with only precomps in it, no artwork, or text-layers, or what else. Following this logic, I would create smaller and smaller logical parts of my animation, up to the point where the text of a certain scene appear as a precomp, too.

In this precomp, I would put in all languages for this text and scene only and set the layout for each text individually - as Dave pointed out: there is no layout to fit all.

From this point I would put an expression to the opacity of the text layers, connecting them to a control-layer (usuall null object) with checkboxes to literally "click on the language, I want to play out". I would put this control as top-layer of my main-comp for global access.

Once everything is set up and all expressions are put in (actual, it's nearly the same expression over and over again, so you can copy/paste your way through), you can playout every language with an ease:

If there is a change in one language, just click on it, go down to the scene and comp, make the change, go back up, put the main into render queue and that's it.

If there is a change in your timing, animation, or artwork, just change it ONCE.

If you need to playout all languages at one another over night, duplicate your main comp, pay attention to naming, click on the language you are referring to and put all into queue. You can delete the duplicates after that.

*Martin

[Fraard]

Yes, you've hit on the problem ! And the control-layer seems to be a great way… Thanks Martin ! I'm going to test that.

[Fraard]

Marvellous ! Quite time-consuming to build but it's worth !

I've got 3 comps in the main comp. I wanted to duplicate the "control-layer" (i used an effect one), but it doesn't want (I mean, if I use the same "checkbox" control-layer in an other comp, it display a "solid layer"...)
I've certainly missed sthg.

But I create a new control-layer and a new checkbox parameter and that's ok...

[Martin_Ritter]

Sorry, I can't follow...

Why are you duplicating the control layer?

[Fraard]

1 COMP with 3 comps included (Intro / Middle / End)

Each one has is own texts layers.

I create a layer-effect with the "checkbox parameter" in "Intro" and name it "Check Italian" for instance

If I want to use "Check Italian" in the comp "Middle" : it becomes a "solid layer" (and lost the checkbox effect)... So I had to re-create a new layer-effect "Check Italian" in each comp...

[Martin_Ritter · Accepted solution]

Ahh, I see.

You are doing it a bit too complicated, I think - or I got you wrong.

Have a look at the quick and dirty dummy I made for you to get the idea.

Dropbox - CheckyCheck.aep

Hope this helps!

*Martin

[Fraard]

Clever !

[Martin_Ritter]

Thank you.