Is there a way to automate react to music expressions between different projects?

[anam69507277]

I'm trying to save time on this. On each video I have a song. I create the keynotes and a FX layer and add there some expressions. The expressions are always the same but the song does change.

[Mylenium]

Expressions can be saved with animation presets. Not sure what more you need to know. If you want something else, you have to explain better. Your post is quite vague and generic.

Mylenium 

[anam69507277]

Hi, I'll try to explain it better:

Each week I create a music video with an image that reacts to that week's song.

In order to the reaction (image to music) to happen I create keyframes from the song in an Audio Amplitude Layer. This layer controls with sliders the Bass and Treble reaction.

Then I crete another layer with FX that has an slider called Shake and something else.

Then I add expressions to both these layers in different places like scale, position...

This is not something I'm used to and it takes me a long time. I created this template expecting to speed up the rest of the videos. Updating the image and title it's easy and fast.

But updating the expressions gets on my nerves.

I wonder if I can make this faster somehow. In Photoshop we have scripts you can record and run and was wondering I can be more efficient in this task.

[Rick Gerard]

When I create animation presets, the links to other layers are always based on index + or - so many layers. For example, if you always put your Autio to Keyframes layer is always going to be laye1, then the reference to that layer should be thisComp.layer(1). Now no matter what layer you need to drive with that data, as long as the control layer is always layer 1, the expression will not break.

Did you follow that?

[anam69507277]

I think I do. This would be to have the same name convention on all projects. I'm doing that with the "Bass" and "Treble" sliders I created. I never change the name as it's called on the expressions. I'll check if there are more names I can keep the same like the Layer's name.

If I do this, the only thing I would have to do is the new keyframes (audio amplitude) and paste there the usual expressions. I wouldn't need to touch the FX layer nor the image and that would save some time.

I guess I was thinking on something like Photoshop macros where you can record steps and play them on other projects.

[Rick Gerard]

If you want to apply the presets to multiple layers automatically, you have to write a script. Most of the time I just have a stack of controllers. I would put all of the sliders and controls on the Audio Amplitude layer, then put the other expressions on the layers you want to control. Save each animation preset as a separate one and just keep a good naming convention.  For example:

RockToTheBeat-Controller.ffx as a start.

RockToTheBeat-Graphics for the graphics layer.

RockToTheBeat-Video for the video layer.

Load your Audio Track, video,  and graphics layer into the comp, run the Keyframe Assistant to generate the Audio Amplitude layer, and apply the presets in order and you should be ready to render after a couple of minor tweaks. 

If your comp has 20 layers, a script would do it all with one click as long as you have all the layers loaded and if necessary renamed. If the layer order is the same you can use the layer index instead of the layer name and avoid a bunch of typing.

[anam69507277]

This is very helpful, it is what I was looking for. Thank you so much!!

[anam69507277]

Hi Rick, I followed your advice and my workflow much improved, thank you very much.

The only thing is that when I create a new Audio Amplitude and then place the preset it pastes the keyframes from the previous song.

I manually deleted them, created another new Amplitude, copied the keyframes and pasted onto the Amplitude with the present/expressions.

Is there a way to do this more efficiently?

[Rick Gerard]

I don't put an expression on the Autio Amplitude layer. It is the driver. The only thing I ever do with Audio Amplitude is select the property that I am using to drive the animation, enable the Value Graph, and look at the values, so I know where to set the thresholds. In this example, the starting trigger value would be about 1.1.

I can't visualize a project that would be more efficient if I were to add an expression to the Both Channels property. Any smoothing or rounding could be done in the expression that drives the property I want to animate. 

I have not seen a detailed screenshot of your project or a flow chart, so I don't understand exactly how you have set things up. Maybe this will help you figure out a more efficient way to organize things.