Can you build premiere pro plugins using the After Effects SDK?

[nicholasb62580568]

I come from the background of using Motion and Final Cut Pro.  I am one of the few programmers who uses the FxPlug API which is used to make Motion and Final cut Pro Plugins.  I am expanding into trying to create plugins for premiere pro.  I am confused by After Effects and Premiere Pro having two different SDKs.  After Effects seems to have some structure to it with a parameter setup and methods for rendering while Premiere Pro seems to have very little structure to it.  I noticed that I can open .plugins created with the After Effects SDK both inside After Effects and Premiere Pro while I have had trouble getting any of the Premiere Pro .bundle's to work correctly at all.  What is the difference in making a .bundle vs a .plugin when .plugins seem to work in both?

I am on a Mac and using Xcode and anytime I try to debug any of the example projects that came with the Premiere Pro SDK I have this error. "This file path does not exist on disk at this location.  /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 - NSDocumentRevisonsDebugMode YES".

I cant even get one of the example projects off the ground to mess with one for debugging and testing purposes.  What are the benefits of using one SDK over the other?

My last question relates to effects and project media files.  Do you need to insert media into the project every time or can I have media built into an effect kind of like a Generator in Final Cut Pro.  In Final Cut Pro you can have media cooked into an effect and media is not needed in the project or the timeline to accomplish this.  It seems like effects only offer presets that are just a difference in parameters but do not have any media built into them.  Is it possible to have media inside of an effect in either Premiere Pro SDK or After Effect SDK?

[Bruce Bullis]

PPro and AE offer very different APIs, to different plug-in types.

Benefits = different plug-ins do different things.

Both SDKs contain debugging information specific to the plug-in type you're developing; not sure which of them you were attempting.

About referenced media; both AE and PPro effect plug-ins can reference external media.

[nicholasb62580568]

Ok thank you I have found some documentation about referencing external media.  I have followed the instructions for debugging both After Effects and Premiere Pro plugins.  I have absolutely no problems with debugging After Effects plugins but I still am having issues with Preimiere Pro.  I keep getting the same error pertaining to this:

"This file path does not exist on disk at this location.  /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 - NSDocumentRevisonsDebugMode YES".

Also if PPro and AE are two totally different APIs and two different plug-in types then why do AE plugins work and PPro but not vice versa?

[Bruce Bullis]

I've never encountered any NSDocument messages, while debugging AE plug-ins. Are you following the SDK Guide's steps (search for 'debugging plug-ins')?

> Also if PPro and AE are two totally different APIs and two different plug-in types then why do AE plugins work

> and PPro but not vice versa?

You're conflating many different types of plug-ins. PPro supports PPro-style video filters, and AE effect plug-ins. AE effect plug-ins work in PPro because the AE effect API is an industry standard. AE also supports Importers and Exporters, traditionally considered PPro plug-ins.

[nicholasb62580568]

Ya i have followed the instructions and placed the .bundle in the MediaCore directory and it still causes that same error.  I will keep looking into it but thank you for answering my questions.  This was very helpful.  I appreciate it. 

[Bruce Bullis]

Well, if it doesn't work, it couldn't be _too_ helpful...

I've asked (current API Engineer) Zac Lam to chime in.

[nicholasb62580568]

Well the preimiere pro example plugins issue i am having still isnt working but just the general knowledge you gave me was very beneficial. 

[tinaa466580]

I am still at a loss how to get some of these example projects working correctly.  No matter what I do I get the exact same error. 

"This file path does not exist on disk at this location.  /Applications/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017.app/Contents/MacOS/Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2017 - NSDocumentRevisonsDebugMode YES".

I have tried setting my Xcode project settings in every conceivable place and.  I have also tried using symbolic linking in my MediaCore directory as well as my path to my plugins/en-us/ in my Adobe Premiere Pro path.  No matter what I do I can never get the example projects to show up.  I get no errors and it builds successfully but every plugin I try never shows up and I cannot edit or test them.  Is there something I am missing?  Why was this so simple with AE example plugins but PPro .bundle plugins are having such a huge problem?

[Zac Lam · Accepted solution]

Hi Nicholas, Tina,

Thanks for your patience, I was out of the office most of last week.

In more recent versions of the Premiere Pro SDK, the effects and transition samples all use the After Effects API as a foundation, and extend the plug-ins using additional Premiere Pro-specific APIs for transition capabilities and GPU support in Premiere Pro.  So basically, it is fine to start with the AE SDK if you want to build an effect that renders on the CPU in Premiere Pro.  But if you want GPU rendering, and/or to build transitions, you'll want to start with the samples in the Premiere Pro SDK.

Are you building the plug-ins directly into the MediaCore plug-ins folder?  This is what you need to do to debug a plug-in.  In XCode, go to File > Project Settings.  In the Project Settings dialog, click Advanced, choose Custom, switch the drop-down menu to Absolute, and fill in the MediaCore plug-ins folder:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Common/Plug-ins/7.0/MediaCore/PrSDK <- I like to create and specify a subfolder 'PrSDK' just to keep things tidy.

Also, when you say no plug-ins show up, are you referring to effects and transitions, or all types of plug-ins?  Since the effects and transition samples use the AE API as a foundation, you'll also need to set up Xcode so that it knows where the After Effects SDK is.  You can do this by going to Xcode > Preferences > Locations > Source Trees.  In there, add the name AE_SDK_BASE_PATH, and the path should be the root of your downloaded AE SDK.

[Dithermaster]

I realize this is an old issue, but it is one of the few pages that come up when searching on this issue, so I thought I'd put the solution here too: The "This file path does not exist on disk at this location" error that includes "NSDocumentRevisonsDebugMode YES" can be fixed by changing your Xcode scheme run setting "Document Versions" "Allow debugging when browsing versions" to unchecked. When it is checked, Xcode is adding a command-line argument that Premiere Pro does not handle (as discussed here: https://github.com/catchorg/Catch2/issues/230 ).