JSON file bug rendering outside of AE UI

[ATOMIC BOY]

There seems to be a rendering bug in using some data files in AE CC2018.

I’m using JSON files to auto populate text strings of different languages in a project. There are three main comps (1 main, 2 pre-comps) that use this technique.

To make pick-whipping easy, there is an instance of the same JSON file in each of the comps. Everything works and renders perfectly in the After Effects UI.

The problem is when I render them outside of the UI, using either AErender or Media Encoder, nothing that is pick whipped to the JSON files within the corresponding pre-comps auto populates data. Though there are instances where information is being pick whipped to the pre-comps from the main comp, and those work fine.

So, data coming from the Main Comp works fine. Anything attempting to get data from within a pre-comp does not auto populate at all when outside of the normal UI.

After Effects CC 2018, 15.1.2

macOS Sierra

10.12.6 (16G29)

iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2017)

4.2 GHz Intel Core i7

64 GB 2400 MHz DDR4

Radeon Pro 580 8192 MB

[Rick Gerard]

The Adobe Media Encoder creates a new temporary AEP project using the comp that is currently loaded in AE populating with the data from that state of the comp. If you open up a comp directly in the AME the data from the last save is used.

I have not checked myself but I suspect that if you are populating data fields from a JSON file and you replace that file with a different one with the same name and in the same directory that you would have to import the AEP into AME again. You could not just duplicate the comp in the AME and render it again.

If replacing the JSON files with new ones with the same name and in the same folder, then importing the AEP and comp does not work, let us know. I think it should. When I use JSON files I always save each version in a separate folder using the same names, then I create an empty folder to contain the files that the AEP will use, then I copy and paste the different versions into the folder AE uses. A typical folder name for the folder containing the linked files would be 19-06-21 ClientName, and the folders containing the different versions would be 19-06-21 ClientNameEng, 19-06-21 ClientName-FR and so on. The files would all be names something like 19-06-21 ClientName-Sales Numbers.json and 19-06-28 ClientName-Sales Numbers.

If that does not solve your problem we probably need to see timelines with the modified properties of the layers revealed and even a flow chart to figure out what is going on.

[ATOMIC BOY]

Each language is it's own self standing project file, saved out and closed while rendering.

All the text layers in the main comp referencing the JSON file retrieve the text correctly, so it doesn't appear to be a project/file name confusion issue.

The text layers that are not rendering properly, all in pre-comps, are not getting any information from the JSON file at all, they simply show the dummy text the project was initially built with which the JSON file normally would replace.

The work around is still just rendering the files through the UI, individually, or by importing all of the individual project files into one and putting them in the same queue. Renders without issue either way, but obviously it's a bummer a system has to get tied up with 14 hours of rendering.

I'll try to put together a representational flow chart and post it, since it is interesting that some of the pre-comps that are pick whipped to the data coming out of the main comp work fine as well. Only the locally pick-whipped data doesn't work from within it's own pre-comp.

[Rick Gerard]

I suspect you may have found a bug. I don't have time to check but I've never run into that problem before. All nested comps seem to update just fine if I change files.

I'll try it later with the latest builds of AE and let you know.

[ATOMIC BOY]

Here is a general flowchart of what is working ( green √ ) and not ( red X ), when trying to render outside of the AE UI.

All source text originates from the same JSON file, but different instances of that are locally added to each pre-comp. There are 43 different text layers in the actual project, some with repetitive content, which is why you can see there are some comp-to-pre-comp relationships that actually work fine. It's just the file instances placed locally in the pre-comps that don't seem to be providing their data.

If I have some time when these finish rendering (tomorrow), I'll try to investigate the actual script the pickwhip generated to see if there is a syntax issue that anything outside of the UI may not like.

[ATOMIC BOY]

After some more tests, I think I’ve zeroed in on the actual bug in this project set up: A JSON file at the top level of a comp will break all other instances of itself in pre-comps, when rendering outside of the UI.

1) When I render the main comp, the pre-comps do NOT work.

2) Rendering only the pre-comp directly, it does NOT work.

3) When the project is reduced down to only the pre-comp, it WORKS.

4) If the pre-comp is added to a main comp and render the main comp, it WORKS.

5) If I take that exact same main comp and add an instance of the JSON file, though it is just sitting there and is essentially unused, it does NOT work.

For some reason it appears that when rendering outside of the AE UI, something seems to acknowledge that a comp is a part of a larger comp structure or something, and won’t let the local instance of the data file feed information if it already exists at the root of the parent comp.

Again, for anyone quickly browsing this thread, when rendering through the UI everything works fine with no issues at all.

[JohnColombo]

Hi ATOMIC_BOY,

This is John from the After Effects team. I'm sorry to see you're experiencing this issue with aerender and AME. Usually the first thing I'd ask when seeing problems with renders projects with .json files is whether the .json files have been added to the composition as a layer, but it appears you've done that already.

What expression syntax are you using to link to the .json file? Is it referencing the footage item e.g. "footage("file.json").sourceData" or is reference the layer first, then linking to the source e.g. "thisComp.layer("file.json").source.sourceData"? Or perhaps the expressions are using a different syntax to link up to the .json?

Thanks for any other info you can give,

- John, AE QE

[im.pvn]

Maybe they can help me here. I use the file for the project with the weather forecast:
{
"City": [
{"City": "Dixon", "Temp Day": "-11 °", "Temp Night": "-27 °", "Weather": 8, "Wind": "10-12"}

.........

]
}

Everything works until I restart After Effects
Many windows appear with an error like on the screen

[JohnColombo]

Hi olegp41802673,

Thanks for reporting these errors. This is a known issue with pseudo effects in 17.0 and the team is working on a fix. When you see these errors, dismiss them and close the project without saving, then reopen it from the Open Recent menu. The errors should not reappear until you close and reopen the After Effects application.

Please let me know if you have any additional issues,

- John, AE QE

[im.pvn]

All would be fine, but only after opening the project the values ​​in the fields for expressions are completely deleted, so using JSON becomes impossible for me. 

At the moment, the only way out is to create a composition with all text layers and specify layers as a source of text within the project

[JohnColombo]

Hi olegp41802673,

When the expressions have disappeared, if you close the project without saving and reopen the same project, do your expressions return? We've had some reports of this and found this was working to restore the expressions. 

Thanks,

- John

[im.pvn]

Expressions disappear even when closed without saving. But at the same time, some expressions remain untouched, in my case this is the name of the city, that is, the very first value in the group (the above gave an example of data from a file). Could this be due to the fact that the JSON file is used as a layer in a large number of compositions? After some time, I went in to restore the expressions and open/close the project, I will also inform you about the results

[im.pvn]

Expressions can disappear even when the project is closed without saving and reopening. This does not always happen, but it is possible.