Is it possible to automate word documents into After Effects?

Report · Nov 30, 2023

Hello Adobe community,

Long story short, my workflow often involves creating many legal disclaimers before publishing my video. This is usually done by grabbing the information from a word or excel document and putting it back into Premiere via copy and paste. I usually receive these documents from another team, and the time it takes to render, bounce it back to them for double check, change any typos etc... is quite a lot if you add it up over the year.

Since we live in the time of AI and automation, I was wondering if there's a way to automate this? I did a bit of digging into .CSV automation through After Effects but since the text is usually quite long, and some parts need to be in bold - it doesn't feel like the way to go.

Thank you!

Report · Nov 30, 2023

This is strictly based on "hard" data, i.e. files or inserting actual data and there's no way to exchange this info otherwise. There are too many limitations on both ends to carry over formatting and update files. If at all I would imagine you could perhaps establish some connection to the web version of Office 365 or Google Docs and fetch the documents via their APIs through a complex AE script, but outside that it's probably hopeless. End even if retrieving the text string works, getting the custom formatting for bold, italic and colors in would be another exercise. So the answer is 95% no. That said, another option is staring you right in the face and it's called InDesign. Why not have them import their docs in ID, format it accordingly and just spool out a PDF to then import in AE? Takes care of everything and surely would not be too much too ask.

Mylenium

Report · Nov 30, 2023

If you know which words needed to be bold, you could include in the CSV these as separate values and create an expression to "fake bold" these words using text animators.

The trouble with importing text via CSV is that the "C" stands for "comma", so any commas in the text will be treated by AE as a new cell in the table. So you'd have to santise your data before pulling it into AE.

I wonder if a simpler approach would be to use PowerPoint to display the text, where you can bold it, send for approval etc... then once signed off, you can save the slides as JPGs, which could exist in the project already. That way on rendering the language is signed off, correct and your workflow slightly improved.

Report · Dec 01, 2023

How many different videos and how many types of disclaimers do you have in mind? Also, would the team be comfortable filling in a 'Google Form' of sorts, as opposed to a doc or excel sheet? If so, we've created an online platform that links to an AE project, with the ability for the user to update text, images, vids, audio, etc. through the platform. This will then ping a virtual version of after effects and your videos would be updated and rendered..

Not sure if it is exactly what you're after, but if you'd like to have a more detailed chat about it then it may be a solution.

With regards to .CSV, as mentioned by Mylenium and Shivering Cactus, you would need some nifty scripts available to be able to sort out bold text, layouts, etc.... In fact we've ended up writing quite a few scripts to automate and link the things we've managed to do on our platform.

Having said all of the above, this is all for AE and not Premiere, so you would either have to be willing to set up a dynamic link, set up an MOGRT file, or else export each video from Premiere and have it imported into a pre-set AE template, where the disclaimer text box is pre-set and updated automatically.

A lot of prep-work, but that's why I asked how many vids or for how long this set up will be used, as it might be worth going through the hassle once to automate and set up, either with our platform or even with CSVs, etc...

If you'd like to discuss further let me know and we'll take it from there

Report · Dec 01, 2023

Hi malcolmricci,

Thank you for your reply. We are possibly open for the Google Form option, but it would be ideal if it could read any Microsoft alternative as we are on that ecosystem.

I'm willing to set up a Mogrt or find a communication method between AE and Premiere so would love to discuss further regarding this workflow.

Thanks again!

Report · Dec 01, 2023

Hey TofuTet,

With regard to word, or the microsoft ecosystem, unfortunately I do not have too much information. As mentioned it would probably require some advanced scripting, etc.

If you'd like to discuss how to possible set up the system with our platform, we could schedule a meeting a possibly discuss pricing etc.

Again there are some complex scripts that are involved, as well as mapping of commands, etc., however I think we might also be able to sort something out through the platform.

Our website is helloadam.tv

I'm attaching a screenshot to give you an idea of how the UI on our platform is.. You could type in text, add in images, video and audio, and even change the text properties such as bold, etc. This is then all pinged to After Effects..

My email is hello@iamricci.com

Let me know if you'd like to schedule an online meeting at some point or other.