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TweakvideoMatt
Inspiring
March 5, 2018
Question

Text edit automation - which software for Render Forest, GoAnimate and Powtoon etc

  • March 5, 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 975 views

How do automated template animation companies allow users to edit "fields" in animation???

I'm interested in building a company like Render Forest and I'd like to know if they had some bespoke software developed for them or if there is a generic sync software that we can tag in to the back of After Effects projects?

They are all cloud based but I wish to know how they build the infrastructure.

Any help is most appreciated!!

Matt

This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Kevin-Monahan
Community Manager
Community Manager
March 15, 2018

TweakvideoMatt,

I've marked this as a discussion rather than a question, as it seems to be just that.

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio
Roland Kahlenberg
Legend
March 5, 2018

AE is great for stuff like these. Text Fields, property and keyframe values can all be input via scripts that read specially prepared text files.

Very Advanced After Effects Training | Adaptive & Responsive Toolkits | Intelligent Design Assets (IDAs) | MoGraph Design System DEV
TweakvideoMatt
Inspiring
March 6, 2018

Roland - nice one and I appreciate your input. What terms mind I try Googling to find a freelancer who could help?

Mylenium
Legend
March 5, 2018

How do automated template animation companies allow users to edit "fields" in animation???

That's entirely their own voodoo using custom scripts and proprietary plug-ins/ extensions plus of course a suitable web interface. No simple answers here and clearly they are not going to tell you how they exactly do it to protect their business. If you want to do something similar, you have to build your own frameworks.

Mylenium

Community Expert
March 5, 2018

Frankly, folks that use those services are folks with very limited budgets and most of the time they do not get the results they want or expect from their marketing because it takes a great deal of skill to produce effective marketing. There are a lot of folks that will try something like this, so there is a fair amount of money to be made from one time or two-time customers but do not expect to win any awards or build long-term and profitable relationships with clients with this kind of service. I have several clients that I have served for almost forty years that have tried these kinds of canned solutions only to come back to me for carefully thought out and effective work because the videos they produced were not effective enough to be worth the few dollars they spent for them. Some of the videos actually hurt their reputation.

That said, Mylenium is right on the mark here. You cannot use After Effects to easily automate this kind of online or app-based solution. You have to build it on your own. If you are not willing to take the time to learn a bunch of technology that is completely unrelated to animation and then take the time to experiment and learn how to apply that backbone to creating a video you will have to hire someone. Just getting things to move on the screen is fairly easy, but turning that movement into effective storytelling requires a great deal of experience and skill. You cannot automate that.

A better approach may be to create some scripts or plug-ins that will help a true creative automate the work inside After Effects. There are lots of folks in the After Effects Scripting subspace in this forum that can help an After Effects user get there. There are lots of great examples of those kinds of tools at AE scripts.com and folks that have helped me and dozens of others be a lot more productive like my friend Mathias Möhlias and his team.

TweakvideoMatt
Inspiring
March 6, 2018

Dear Rick,

Thanks ever so much for investing the time to respond with such useful info! Highly appreciated!

I agree with you about "canned solutions" and while I'll continue to push my staff to make more amazing examples to add to our portfolio, (https://tweakvideo.com/animation-videos) ,I'm looking to make .pdfs more engaging rather than dull down a bespoke, well thought-out, animation piece.

I'm investigating the links now    (i've just emailed the guys at AE scripts.com) and Mathias is next on my list! - Thanks!

For knowledge share, I'm using Trello for project management. What do you use yourself? I like also Basecamp!

And for Storyboarding, we still use Adobe InDesign. Adobe's solution (Spark) doesn't cut it for us... What do you use for Storyboarding? We sometimes put Agency logos on ours to allow us to work White Label - The online solution "Boords" wouldn't allow this. Surely the next person to perfect cascading Storyboarding software will make a mint.

We made the switch from Maya to Blender for 3D this year. Lower quality but much shorter render times. Element 3D is an awesome plug in!

Matthew