Text Presets

[eachfilm]

Hey,

id like to make a Text preset: just the font, scale, VA and so on.

Only value that are in the Text Area.

I don´t want to make an animation preset but I want to apply basic

Text parameters to other animation presets.

I can´t find any relate help in the web and so I am asking myself?

Am I the only one that used to work with presets?

Any help would be nice.

I asked this question 2 Years ago in the german forum and I got no answer.

This is wired.

[Mylenium]

There is no specific preset system for that. you have to use the standard animation presets which store this stuff just fine within their limitations, of course.

Mylenium

[eachfilm]

So I guess this is one of the options I would like to have as an request for future features.

It´s very important to have the ability to store

presets of the text and redoing this task over and over again. The limitation of the animation presets are, that you can't do this with them, as far as I have explored them .

Any suggestion to this?

I found a script at AE Scripts that does the right thing, but as this project is progressing

I would like to see this feature in future as an "in app" feature and not as an "ad on", don´t you think?

Script is called ptTextedit 2 and looks very good.

what do you think?

[Roei Tzoref]

id like to make a Text preset: just the font, scale, VA and so on. Only value that are in the Text Area. I don´t want to make an animation preset but I want to apply basic Text parameters to other animation presets.

if it's a current text layer in Ae you want to take the parameters from, you can copy paste the source text parameter. it will hold all the formatting options and the text itself.

otherwise you can create a preset (even if there is no animation inside) it can hold only your text formatting (the character panel) options including the text you write. it won't ruin other parameters already applied to the text layer. you can have an animated text layer acting the same way as before but with your new text and formatting options.

[eachfilm]

1.

When I just copy the source Text it won´t work, right?

2.

I have to save it as an animation preset, right?

But when I apply this to another text the the animation is pasted too?

At what point do I select or deselect the animation properties?

thanxs for the info?

[Roei Tzoref]

1.

When I just copy the source Text it won´t work, right?

source text is all the letters you wrote and also all the text formatting options. if you copy paste it will copy and paste as expected. are you experiencing anything different?

2.

I have to save it as an animation preset, right?

if you want, you can save the source text as animation preset. highlight only the source text, then in go to animation in the tools menu->save animation preset. you have now created a preset of just the source text parameters and you can apply it to any layer.

more information here:

Effects and animation presets in After Effects

from the article:

Save an animation preset

• Select any combination of properties (for example, Position and Scale) and property groups (for example, Paint and Transform). If you are selecting only effects, you can select them in the Effect Controls panel.

• Choose Save Animation Preset from the Animation menu or from the Effects & Presets panel menu.

• Specify a name and location for the file, and then click Save.

  For the animation preset to appear in the Effects & Presets panel, it must be saved in the Presets folder.

Note:

If the animation preset does not appear in the Effects & Presets panel, choose Refresh List from the Effects & Presets panel menu.

[eachfilm]

Hey Roei,

If I do so the text is change into the saved preset text.

How can I apply the preset , so that the "text" isn´t changed?

And yes it works. I make a preset with different settings,

but when I apply it i also copies the containing text.

do I miss something ?

thanxs Peter

[eachfilm]

Here´s what i´ve done.

But I want the new text to only have the presets and not the text itself.

[Roei Tzoref]

If I do so the text is change into the saved preset text.

that's correct. source text is the text itself and all the text formatting options. these come together and you can't separate those unless using an expression.

from digging around a bit I found maybe a helpful code that could help you. it's this:

thisLayer.name

alt click on the stopwatch of the source text and paste this code and the text will be taken from the layer's name (which is the default behavior of text layers). I have experimented with this a bit and apparently you can't have this expression active with the formatting together as a preset unless you deactivate it.

so this is my recipe to get what you want:

1. change the formatting options to your liking.

2. alt click on the source text stopwatch and add this expression: thisLayer.name

3. click on the equal sign to make in inactive

4. highlight just the source text layer and save it as a preset

now you can apply this text preset to any layer. after you do, click on the equal sign again to activate the expression.

now you got a text layer with pasted formatting options from your preset, and the text itself is driven from the text layer's name.

if you feel there's a feature that's missing in Ae, you could ask for it - Feature Request/Bug Report Form

BTW - a time saving tip: you don't have to drag and drop effects or preset. just click on it twice and it will apply to the highlighted layer.

[eachfilm]

nice code!

really helpful also for other things.

In my experiment I had to insert the expression after adding the preset, correct?

It´s a good workaround but don´t you think that we deserve a better preset system?

Not only for the people that script and use expressions?

thanxs for the help

I would love to see an expression that does a proper "presetting" , so that with every update of

AE we can use this in future too.

if you find any other solution I would appreciate it if you contact me.

thanxs Peter

[Roei Tzoref · Accepted solution]

In my experiment I had to insert the expression after adding the preset, correct?

sorry but my recent response was not accurate. it seems you can't have this expression with the formatting together as a preset. if you add an inactive expression, it just won't be included in the preset you created.

so you have these options

1. create you formatting text preset as before.

2. after you apply it to a layer, add this code manually

OR you can make this code as another preset. when applied one after the other you can further automate this process. one preset for formatting, another for this code that copies the text from the text layer... that's all I got!

[eachfilm]

Yep,

you are right!

you need 2 presets (animation without animation)

and you need to edit the textlayer´s name as the text you want to promote.

very good.

a bit lot of workaround but it helps me.

thanxs for that.

peter

[Roei Tzoref]

Great! we worked it out. thanks for the feedback. when you write a text layer it will name the layer to what you write so that helps.

[eachfilm]

Hey ,

I found an article related to that topic :

it´s written by Mark Christiansen

http://www.provideocoalition.com/after_effects_script_of_the_week_pt_textedit/

And if even he is struggling with this topic, boy I would like to have a new "text presetting system"

thanxs Peter

[eachfilm]

And this I found at creative Cow

from 2011:

https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/227/18748

cheers

[Roei Tzoref]

Thanks for the link. Mark is one my favorite authors. I see he recommends the script you discovered before.