Lower Third Generator script v0
Tired of tediously putting together lower thirds for tons of names? Even while reusing the “name.split” expression? Me too.
I recently started working up a script that automatically creates lower thirds from a list of name/title pairs from a JSON file. This is my first foray into actual scripting for After Effects and it’s still pretty early in development. I created this version over a couple days after having to make 33 lower thirds, each with a left and right version, so 66 total. Even with expressions, the process was annoying. Any repeated task is ripe for automation. So I did that. It created all 66 comps in about 15 seconds.
The README file includes detailed instructions on how to use the script, but here’s a quick breakdown anyway. The script relies on 2 comps: a text comp and a design/animation comp. These are included in the .aep and are already set up with the proper expressions, naming and master properties for the script to use. Feel free to change any of the animation in those comps, but be aware that it’s not been tested hardcore yet. The script reads from a JSON file that is formatted into name and title pairs. The README has instructions on how to set up your own (basically, export a spreadsheet with name/title columns to .csv, import it to a .csv-to-.json converter and make sure it converts to hash format").
There’s still a lot to do on this script. If you find it useful or have suggestions for improvement, please drop me a line! It’s pay what you want, but if it helped you out, consider sending me the price of an alright coffee or a tenth of a pizza.