Changing images/video using a Json file

[darrenM]

I'm trying to create a look similar to showing the starting line up for a sports team where there is an image, name, stats... that appear on the screen then transition to the next player.  I can read in the text through a Json file, but I'm stumbling on the image/video clip.  I've tried a place holder but don't know how to set the source.  How can this be done using a file reference?  I'm trying to create the visual slides for our school's virtual commencement, there are 450 graduates and manually doing it seems a bit ridiculous.  What 

[Code One Films]

Hey @darrenM, take a look at Templator, a plugin that does this automatically for you: https://aescripts.com/templater/

There are different versions at different price points available dependant on your needs. It can read text & media sources (photo, video etc) from a link on a google sheet. Or a link in a JSON I suppose. 

[Arie Stavchansky]

Hi Darren,

I'll have to second the recommendation from Code One Films about Templater from Dataclay.  You can acheive what you want very quickly allowing you to focus on your creativity in After Effects while maintaining the data in a live connection with a Google Sheet.  JSON files can be cumbersome to maintain,  update, and edit.

Hope this helps!

[darrenM]

Thanks, I'll check it out

[Guido Eijrond]

How do you have the images referenced?

You might have the filenames similar to a field in the JSON, e.g. a student ID code which can match the filename.
In that case you can write a simple expression that will display the correct footage.

You can do this by just loading all 450 images in the project and then adding an if-statement on the Opacity Property of each image layer in the comp.

Here is an example:

StudentImageSelection_20201102.zip 

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If the image is referenced by an URL or if the image has to be retrieved in some way or another, you can make another type of script that will pre-flight your project by creating a copy of the project, downloading the images and placing the project with the specific data in a seperate folder to be rendered or send it directly of to a render system.

The suggested AEScripts Templater is a great place to start if you do not want to write your own code or above example doesn't do the trick for you.