Workflow - Automatically place pre-compositions (or special characters) into a specified folder

[Editor5FCF]

I'm on a workflow kick having recently setup ProIO.

Do you know of a script/plugin that can move a pre-compisition into a folder automatically? Either every 5 minutes or on the fly - just as AE does when you create a new solid?

Or a step further - if you create a pre or composition starting with a certain character, it also automatically files it for you?

Thank you

[Rick Gerard]

If the main comp is in a Project folder, any pre-comp will also be in that folder.

Maybe this script may help. https://aescripts.com/arrange-project-items-into-folders/

[Mathias Moehl]

If you want to automate your workflows in a  very powerful and 100% customizable way, you should take a look at my tool Automation Blocks for After Effects. It comes with many built-in tools and you can also create your own tools easily or customize the existing ones to your need.

I just did  a quick test and was able to write a script in 5 minutes, which moves all comps whose name starts with "BG" to the project bin with name "background comps":

I am also happy to help with creating such customized tools with Automation Blocks - the goal is to create as many useful examples as possible and to share them in our community library.

Note that scripts should never to things like performing an action every x minutes in the background - such patterns quickly result in performance nightmares. So you need to trigger Automation Blocks script manually (you can also bind them to keyboard shortcuts if you need them frequently).

Automation Blocks is currently in private beta testing phase and if you are interested to join the beta, please send me an email to info@mamoworld.com.

[Mathias Moehl]

... and here is the (work in progress-beta-)documentation of Automation Blocks, if you want to know more:

https://mamoworld.com/docs/automation-blocks/

[Editor5FCF]

That's super cool, I'd be very interestested in a tool like that. I'm no pogrammer, but that looks like a nice easy GUI to follow. What's your timeline on rolling this one out?

Would be super cool if there was a trigger button I could add to KBAR, then I could run a sort of 'clean up' script every so often. 

[Mathias Moehl]

You can export your Automation Blocks tools to jsx, which you can also execute with Kbar 🙂

Timeline:

- right now: private beta

- early June: public beta

- August: release