Automation Blocks No Animations

[Ralf22499295i98j]

I recently bought me the Automation Blocks extension, because it seemed promising to simplify my work with Premiere Pro. Unfortunately, no keyframe based automations, for example the Ken Burns automation, wouldn't work. Other non-keyframe based automations like renaming files work properly. So I don't think it's a general problem with the extension.

Any recommendations about this problem are appreciated.

Cheers, Ralf.

Mod note: Please tag Automation Blocks questions with the "SDK" label. Thank you!

[R Neil Haugen]

@Mathias Moehl  any comments?

[Mathias Moehl]

Hi Ralf,

do you get any error messages? The more details I know, the quicker and better I am able to help.

Also, it would be very helpful to see at which block the error happens.

When you open the block code, during the execution of the tool the currently executed block is highlighted (you can see that is a kind of flickering on the blocks while the tool runs) and when it stops at some block with an error, this block stays highlighted.

[Ralf22499295i98j]

Hi Mathias,

thanks for your reply. Wenn I open the block code and run the script, the comment block is highlighted. No step of the script is being executed, but no error message is displayed either. I just get a "done" message in the main window of the extension.

Greetings, Ralf.

[Mathias Moehl]

Hi Ralf,
could it be that the tools you tried only process the currently selected clips in the active sequence and you forgot to select clips?

Because this sounds like the tool finished successfully without any issues.

[Ralf22499295i98j]

Hi Mathias,

sorry for the late reply. I was so busy the last weeks so I couldn't care about my problem with automation blocks.

Of course the clips were selected. I just found the time to test it again.

Now when I try to apply for example the ken burns effect to one single selected object, the console shows the following message. Maybe this helps to solve the problem. Thanks in advance.

Ralf

execute script

keyframe clip \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1

warning: could not find component parameter \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Scale warning: could not find component parameter \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Scale warning: could not find component parameter \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Scale warning: could not find component parameter \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Position warning: could not find component parameter \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Position warning: could not find component parameter \Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Position execution result:undefined destructor final end point 'main script' reached

[Mathias Moehl]

Hi Ralf,

could it be that you have multiple sequences with name "Sequenz 02" in the bin "Test"?

Automation Blocks uses this string to describe the property it wants to animate:

"\Unbenannt_1.prproj\Test\Sequenz 02::V4\1\Motion\Scale"
which means:

in the project "Unbenannt_1.prproj" in the bin "Test" there is a sequence "Sequence 02" and in that sequence from Track "V2" I want the clip 1 (i.e. the first one in that track) and access the property Motion->Scale.

Now if you have multiple project items with the exact same name "Sequence 02" in the bin "Test" then Automation Blocks might look into the wrong sequence and maybe that one does not have a clip in V4. And then the Scale property of that clip also cannot be found.

Bottomline: Make sure to always use unique names for your project items to avoid issues with Automation Blocks (but it is no problem to have items with the same name in different bins).

Cheers,

Mathias

[Ralf22499295i98j]

Hi Mathias,

thanks for your quick reply.

I just ran a test if there really was an issue with the object names. So I created a complete new project with unique names for project, bin, timeline, objects. Same type of error messages than before. Same if I don't put objects and timline in a bin but leave them in the root folder. ☹️

Any other ideas?

Cheers, Ralf.

[Mathias Moehl]

Hi Ralf, are you able to share your project with me such that I can take a look? Either share it here or if you don't want to share it publicly open a support ticket at https://aescripts.com/contact/?direct=1&product_id=2279 (which will also be assigned to me).

[Ralf22499295i98j]

Hi Mathias,

I just sent you the project via the Aescripts support form.

Thanks for your help!

[Ralf22499295i98j · Accepted solution]

Thanks to the great support of Mathias the problem could be solved.

The problem was my German version of Premiere Pro. When Automation Blocks wants to change parameters in the Effect Controls panel, it looks for the English label of the effect. And certainly can't find it in the German version of the App. Changing to English as App language solved the problem.

[Mathias Moehl]

I am looking for ways to make AB more compatible with different UI languages. Currently it is such that tools writen in English Pr might not work on systems with other languages. Most tools work fine, but the one which access clip parameters like "Scale" or "Opacity" don't work, because they have other names in other languages of Pr. So you can write a tool in German Pr, for example, which manipulates the "Skalieren" of a clip, but if you wrote a tool in English Pr which manipulates the  "Scale", Automation Blocks does not know that it should look for "Skalieren" instead of "Scale".

You can change the UI language of Pr quickly as shown here, without the need to reinstall it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9yg88C6g44

1. in Pr use the keyboard shortcut to open up the console window:

    Mac:     fn + command + F12

    Win:     ctrl + F12

2. in the Console, make sure the Debug Database view is open:

3. search in the Console for "ApplicationLanguage" and set it to "en_EN" for English

4. restart Pr

[Mathias Moehl · Accepted solution]

UPDATE: I just published Automation Blocks for Pr 1.1.001, which fixes the language issues and now also supports non-english Pr versions properly.