Templater for Adobe After Effects

The core idea is mapping a data source onto composition layers. Spreadsheets from Google Sheets, tab-separated files exported from Excel, and JSON arrays all work, and each column drives a layer property. Change the data, and every dependent video updates on the next run. It's the difference between editing videos and generating them. One template, many outputs. That scales.

Once a master composition is rigged, Templater can replicate it for every row in your data and keep the results in an organized folder structure. You can send those comps to After Effects' own render queue or push the whole batch to Adobe Media Encoder. What used to be an afternoon of clicking becomes a single run. Press go, walk away.

Footage rarely arrives in the exact length a template needs. Time Sculpting uses time-based rules to crop, trim, shift, and stretch layers, so clips of different durations still fit the design. Dataclay calls the feature patented, and it's the reason a single template can absorb messy source footage without manual fixes. No relinking. No rescaling by hand. It just fits.

When data changes the size of a text block or image, things shift. Templater adjusts the layers it controls relative to their composition and sibling layers automatically, so you don't realign and rescale by hand after every update. It's the behind-the-scenes work that keeps a template looking intentional. Miss it, and every render needs a manual pass.

Templater reads text exactly as it appears in your spreadsheet, including commas, quotes, apostrophes, and line breaks. You can insert characters from any language, and right-to-left scripts are supported out of the box, as long as your installed fonts carry the needed glyphs. That makes one template viable across markets.

Rig prepares a project to accept data and previews how it looks. Pro adds batch rendering and replication. Bot layers automation on top, watching for incoming data or accepting pushed data through the command line to kick off renders with no human in the loop. You pick the edition that matches how hands-off you want to be. Not sure which one you need? Start with the volume.

Templater broadcasts events that your own scripts can listen for, so you can run shell scripts or ExtendScripts to extend its automation. Combined with CLI support, that opens the door to building web or mobile apps that generate videos from direct user input, rather than a fixed spreadsheet.