Skip to main content
W
williamr35512572
Participant
October 22, 2018
Question

Using metadata and embedded timecode in AE

  • October 22, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 4276 views

I'm very new to the creative cloud and am trying to prepare for a long term video project that involves recording practice (and hopefully progress) learning an instrument over time.

I'm using a combination of DSLR cameras and a time code generator called TentacleSync along with a timecode generating field recorder to sync 2-3 video feeds with recorded audio. 

I'm planning on using Prelude to ingest the files to make sure I have the metadata (including date of recording) properly stored with the files.

The plan was, for each project I'm practicing, to compile together something between a timelapse and a montage of quick edits of progression over time starting with mistakes and ending on a playable piece.

Here's the part I'm struggling with:

To display the transition of time, I wanted to create an AR composition over all of the edits that would display a lower third showing the channel's logo, the video title, and the date and proper passage of time based on the date of the video and embedded timecode (just for displaying as a clock, framecount isn't needed). I wanted all of this to be in a consistent format (i.e. using the font and design I've set up for the video vs the generic format of the old timecode effect).

For this to be remotely feasible, I need a way to make AE aware of the metadata (file date) and timecode (time offset) and produce some sort of expression that would use this to generate the display.  (My knowledge of AE expressions is that they exist.)

I've been googling for days, and I keep finding examples that show how to simulate a time clock, but nothing that would actually use the actual time in the files as part of the process.

Is this a thing that can actually be done, or do I need to figure out another way to do this?  If it is possible, can anyone point in a direction of where I might get started figuring it out?

Thanks in advance.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    Kyle Hamrick
    Community Expert
    Kyle HamrickCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 22, 2018

    I don't believe expressions would be able to pull from clip metadata, though a script probably would. You could use either expressions or a timecode effect to display the actual comp time (which would align with the clips' timecodes if each comp was just a clip), but that sounds like a clumsy workflow.

    Unless you're doing other things requiring After Effects, I'd think you could handle this in Premiere with a properly-built .mogrt.
    My first though is to buy/create a clock template that simply allows for a start and end time (which you could just enter manually via the Essential Graphics Panel in Premiere), and buzzes through the time as quickly or slowly as needed to cover that time span. With some of the recently-released Responsive Time features, I'd think this would be fairly easy for someone who knows what they're doing. I actually may see if anyone has tackled this, and if not, make it myself for Adobe Stock.   

    What style of clock are you looking for? Digital?

    R
    Community Expert
    Rick GerardCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    October 22, 2018

    If you actually have timecode on the footage and you make sure that the footage is interpreted to use the timecode then a simple expression on a text layer will do the trick.

    Right from the Expression Language Menu>Layer section there is an option in the Sub-objects there is a method that will retreive the source time.

    At the top of the Expression Language Menu in the Global section is a method to retrieve NTSC timecode or straight timecode if you are working with straight timecode.

    All you have to do is define a variable to replace the t = time + thisComp.displayStartTime with the Source time of the layer. The final expression applied to the Source Text property of a text layer will look like this:

    t = thisComp.layer("My Footage 001").sourceTime(t = time);

    timeToNTSCTimecode(t, ntscDropFrame = true, isDuration = false)

    You can hide the frame numbers with a simple mask, and if you choose a monospaced font the characters won't be bouncing around as the numbers change.

    This allows you to create a text layer paired with a clip in After Effects and read the timecode from the clip.

    Timecode does not record dates. That metadata is in the header of the video file and I'll have to do some research to see if there is some easy way to retrieve that data from a clip. After Effects does have a Metadata Panel that will show all of the data in any resource you select in the Project Panel, I'm just not sure that you can access the data using an expression. I'll bet Dan Ebberts would know.

    Anyway, I hope this gets you started. You could change ("My Footage 001") to (index + 1) and save this expression as an Animation Preset and it would work with any text layer you put right above a footage layer, but the setup would almost certainly not work as an Essential Graphics preset because it has to reference a specific clip inside an AE comp.

    I hope this helps get you started. You'll need a new text layer above each clip in the comp. It would be a lot easier to assemble the project in Premiere Pro because AE is just about the worst video editing app ever made. It's just the wrong tool for the job of assembling a movie that is longer than a few seconds.

    Here's the animation preset if you want to try it out: Timecode of layer below.ffx

      W
      williamr35512572Author
      Participant
      October 22, 2018

      Thank you for such a fast and detailed answer! 

      Let me follow up with just one question to make sure I don't shoot myself in the foot.

      For this to work, I'm going to want to make my edits first and then import the footage from Premiere into an After Effects project?  I just recently realized you could do this.  My first learning project was a mess of footage and AE projects plopped onto the timeline in Premiere. 

      Kyle Hamrick
      Community Expert
      Kyle HamrickCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      October 22, 2018

      Aside from this time overlay, what else are you doing that you think requires AE? Sending a big, footage-heavy project to AE will definitely complicate your workflow significantly, and if it's otherwise mostly just an edit, I'd think you could probably keep almost everything in Premiere.

      Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
      Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices