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Hi again, I'm using automation blocks a lot lately and I was wondering if it's possible to do something like this: the idea is to insert a text in the dialog box with those characteristics (see photo), and for each empty line create a new layer with the corresponding text.
design the interface of the photo as to catch the idea.
also one of the main functions should be to be able to shifts and sets the in point and out point of selected layers to markers set on a marker layer. similar to the function of the script automate to sequence from Lloyd Alvarez.
As a lyric video designer I am always looking for ways to automate as much of my work as possible and I was wondering if it is possible to do this with automation blocks.
Maybe they can be separate actions, an action to create the text layers and another action to sync them with the markers layer. In fact, this last action would be interesting to have separately, something like selecting the layers and the marker layer and running the action to set the in point and out point of the layers and if there are slight changes in the position of the markers, when selecting the layers again and running the action, the layers would be updated. it would be fantastic.
I hope I haven't been too confusing.
Thanks a lot.
Hi,
thank you for this amazing idea! Actually, this week I added this tool to the Community Library of Automation Blocks:
Layer/Text/Text To Text Layers
It shows a dialog where you can enter some text and then it creates one text layer either
- for each line of the text or
- for each word of the text
It also analyzes the length of each line/word and chooses the duration such that the text can be read easily.
I see that this is not 100% what you want, yet, but should be a good starting point.
...update: I just added an option to the Text To Text Layers tool, such that it can now also create one text layer per paragraph instead of one per line or word.
Hi Carlmad,
I created two new Automation Blocks tools which offer you a very efficient workflow for your task:
After you created the text layers for each individual paragraph, you can run the Change Text At Markers on each of those layers again, too, to make the words there appear marker by marker.
Cheers,
Mathias
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Hi,
thank you for this amazing idea! Actually, this week I added this tool to the Community Library of Automation Blocks:
Layer/Text/Text To Text Layers
It shows a dialog where you can enter some text and then it creates one text layer either
- for each line of the text or
- for each word of the text
It also analyzes the length of each line/word and chooses the duration such that the text can be read easily.
I see that this is not 100% what you want, yet, but should be a good starting point.
I will schedule some time next week to see if I can create a variant that is closer to what you need. In particular
- the combination with the markers, such that you can control the timing better
- the extra option to do one layer per paragraph instead of one per word or line
Is it important for you to have each text on a separate layer - such that you can aesily modify them independently?
Otherwise, we could also do a tool, which simply applies an expression to the source text of a single text layer. In the expression we could save the entire lyrics text and based on markers on that text layer the expression could decide which part should be shown.
Pro: just a single layer & easy workflow (first run the tool to create the expression then add markers to let the texts appear step by step
Contra: Since it is a single layer, you cannot combine it so easily with other tools (like Automation Blocks Better Fade Tool, for example) to animate the individual texts in and out.
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update: I just added an option to the Text To Text Layers tool, such that it can now also create one text layer per paragraph instead of one per line or word.
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oh! thank you very much, this was exactly what I was talking about, it's perfect. From here I can start to see how to do so that instead of giving me a percentage for the duration, it is synchronized with a marker layer. This is definitely one of the most powerful tools I've tried. not only because it automates a lot of work but at the same time you can learn how coding works and also it gives you full control of what you are doing.
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Now that I think about it, I have an alternative idea similar to the one you mentioned. It would be text to text layers tool by paragraphs, cool. then a tool in which for each text layer adds a marker for each word with the word itself inside the comments (SHOT NEW 1). that way let's say with another tool, you can apply the expression similar to this:
anim = thisProperty;
delayDur = framesToTime(effect("Delay Duration")("Slider").value);
numMarkers = marker.numKeys;
delay = (textIndex - 1)*delayDur;
if (numMarkers > 0) {
delay = textIndex <= numMarkers ? marker.key(textIndex).time : marker.key(numMarkers).time;
}
anim.valueAtTime(time - delay)
the one I took from Ukramedia "Link Text Animation to Markers in After Effects" video (very good by the way).
that way the texts would be separated by paragraph(layer) and also each paragraph(layer) would have markers for each word, to later be able to synchronize them with the audio.
what do you think ?
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Hi Carlmad,
I created two new Automation Blocks tools which offer you a very efficient workflow for your task:
After you created the text layers for each individual paragraph, you can run the Change Text At Markers on each of those layers again, too, to make the words there appear marker by marker.
Cheers,
Mathias
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PS: I just updated the "Change Text At Markers" tool such that the text is shows in the dialog is set by default to the source text of the text layer itself. Hence, you can run the tool on each paragraph's layer quickly without the need to cut & paste the texts again.
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Hi Matias. thank you very much for your time. absolutely amazing tool. This will save me a lot of work time. If I have new ideas I will let you know. Since now this tool has become essential for my workflow. It's perfect, thank you very much again.
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Great to hear that 🙂
Your feedback is very helpful. The better I understand the workflows of Automation Blocks users, the better I can add tools to the library which make you more productive.
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By the way, I also just added two tools to
- export selected text layers to an srt file
- import srt files as text layers
You find both tools in the Automation Blocks Community Library at
Import & Export/Text/Subtitles
Exporting text layers to srt is useful, if you want the text not only to be part of the video itself, but also be available as subtitle which can be switched on/off in the video player, can be translated etc.
Importing from srt could be the basis of an alternative workflow for you like this:
1) open your audio file in Premiere Pro and use Premiere Pro's speech to text to create text (and its timing) automatically
https://photography.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-premiere-speech-to-text--cms-38709
2) export the captions created in step 1 as srt file:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k11NMidZ7rI
3) import the srt into Ae using Automation Blocks' new "Create Text Layers from Srt File" tool and you instantly have text layers with the right in and out points.
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First thank you so much for responding so quickly, I'm definitely going to check out that new tool. About the question: is it important to have the texts separated to have more control yes, specifically to synchronize the text with the music.
The way I work is by synchronizing word by word with the music, so once I have the texts separated by paragraphs, I would use the TextExploder tool (another awesome super useful tool) to get the texts separated word by word in their place.
That way I can control the animation and the timing of each word. I will leave one of my videos to capture the idea. in it, you can see the paragraphs and also each word is synchronized with the audio.
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[edited: I removed this reply - I accidentally posted it here, but it was an answer to a different post...]