Election Graphics

What type of scripts do you need?

Moderator: byronnash

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sycophant
Posts: 6
Joined: August 8th, 2005, 3:45 am
Location: Auckland, NZ

Hey...

For a little project I am doing (no-budget live election coverage show on community TV) I find myself with no better option than to create graphics in almost-real-time with After Effects.

My plan is to create a few scripts to read in data from text files and create graphics from that data. I will then render them out quickly (somehow) and play them to air from an Avid Xpress suite or something similar.

So I'm looking for any handy pointers for creating this stuff...

Here are some professionally produced graphics from a specialised package, which illustrate the types of visuals I want to create:
http://www.beesys.com/sampleoutput/Elec ... ctions.mpg

Anyone have any scripts that might be useful that I could adapt?
Alternatively, I'd love some advice on how best to streamline the rendering process to make it as quick as possible.

Will it be faster if I pre-render any motion backgrounds and then import them as footage for the new graphics?

Are there any codecs that will render quicker than others?

I've got about 5 weeks to get everything in place (in some way or another).
byronnash
Posts: 321
Joined: July 7th, 2004, 2:30 pm
Location: Charlotte, NC
Contact:

Poke around in the Scripts Library. There is a script that I wrote that reads a text file and changes out text layers from data in the file. That should get you started on how to read/write from files and give you some ideas on how to take it from there. You will have to customize a script that will fit into your graphics. A lot of what that file showed should be able to be scripted with plenty of preplanning and thorough organization. Good luck, let us know how it turns out.
sycophant
Posts: 6
Joined: August 8th, 2005, 3:45 am
Location: Auckland, NZ

Thanks...

I have a fair idea on the data reading. I currently have a script that will read colon-dilimited data from a txt file and create a bar graph with it.

One challenge I am really not sure about is some map stuff I want to do. I have a map of the country broken down into it's electoral areas. I have created a file in photoshop with a seperate layer for each area. I have filled the areas in each one with yellow at the moment. But I would like to be able to have that as a comp in AE and change the colours of the the fill of each layer. Is there an easy way to do that on a non-Solid layer? I thought about applying a hue/saturation effect, but I couldn't see an easy way to script it.

I will be wanting to do a similar thing with a graphical representation of the seats in parliament.
Mylenium
Posts: 139
Joined: July 20th, 2005, 12:07 am

sycophant wrote:Thanks...

I have a fair idea on the data reading. I currently have a script that will read colon-dilimited data from a txt file and create a bar graph with it.

One challenge I am really not sure about is some map stuff I want to do. I have a map of the country broken down into it's electoral areas. I have created a file in photoshop with a seperate layer for each area. I have filled the areas in each one with yellow at the moment. But I would like to be able to have that as a comp in AE and change the colours of the the fill of each layer. Is there an easy way to do that on a non-Solid layer? I thought about applying a hue/saturation effect, but I couldn't see an easy way to script it.

I will be wanting to do a similar thing with a graphical representation of the seats in parliament.
That sound's like an awfully long way to go with a script. Though there has been some discussion about how to apply effects and their parameters using scripts and I even finally gave in to understanding their usefulness for certain types of work, I would suggest that you explore more basic tricks such as expressions in this case.

Layers can be colored in a million ways using effects such as Fill, Tint, Colorama and a few others, using Hue/Saturation is actually faulty thinking on your part - the effect offers no controls that could be triggered using scripts or expressions (it's basically one big custom control with only one stopwatch). Properly linked to a few master color pickers in combination with some conditional statements based on names or index it shoud be easy to achieve what you want. If you for instance wanted to color your parliament seats you could already lay them out as greyscale graphics, then apply a tint effect and trigger this effect's colors using expressions, if you assume that your index represents the number of seats.

Mylenium
[Pour Mylène, ange sur terre]
davestewart
Posts: 114
Joined: March 10th, 2005, 5:50 am
Location: London, UK
Contact:

I've just done all the graphics for the Interactive TV service for the Beethoven Unvovered performances. The work took 3 months of development, scripting, production, and (re)-rendering.

When we had the de-brief meeting with the Beeb the other day, one of the producers wanted to do the same thing next year for the Proms - LIVE. I almost had to cover my mouth to not laugh out loud!

Not that it's not possible, but there are so many variables, and so many potential ways for it NOT to be alright on the night, I wouldn't touch it with a rubber-tipped barge pole, let alone After Effects.

I know discreet Frost specialises in this (data driven braodcast graphics) but it's expensive, and I'm not sure if still available (I couldn't find it on the site).

Another idea (that I'd love to check out) would be to use Macromedia Flash with some kind of output to merge it with TV data. The only bit that I'd be dubious about there would be outputting the alpha channel - might need to get someone to tinker with the ActiveX control, or run it stand-alone.


Anyway - not that I want to put you off! I think it's a great idea to push the envelope... just very risky! Maybe start with stills, and only provide animations if you have time?


Sounds like you're going to make this happen anyway - so definately keep reporting back your findings!

Good luck!
Dave
Mylenium
Posts: 139
Joined: July 20th, 2005, 12:07 am

davestewart wrote: I know discreet Frost specialises in this (data driven braodcast graphics) but it's expensive, and I'm not sure if still available (I couldn't find it on the site).
I think it is still available but only if you inquire directly. There are also other systems such as Inscriber or Chyron graphics as well as literally hundreds of custom solutions specific to tv- stations or broadcast service providers. I think that would be the way to go if you can afford it. Most of those systems can even be rented only as needed which should drastically cut down cost.

Mylenium
[Pour Mylène, ange sur terre]
sycophant
Posts: 6
Joined: August 8th, 2005, 3:45 am
Location: Auckland, NZ

Thanks for the feedback...

I will be going ahead one way or another. It's a zero-budget effort (literally) so it's a matter of beg, borrow and steal. I have a few things I can draw on, maybe even and Inscriber (the PC I am typing this on now runs Inscriber for the linear suite I am in) - but the version I have here is way to low-end for anything like what I would like to make...

I'll get something, somehow, even if I revert to drawing on a whiteboard.

The show will be a mix of comedy and current events as best as we can manage, so if it all goes belly up we can make it look like we meant it that way.

I'm also looking at using OpenOffice's database software (their version of Access) to operate the data generation.. Yet another thing to learn in a few weeks in my spare time...
Mylenium
Posts: 139
Joined: July 20th, 2005, 12:07 am

BTW, I was completely forgetting about the upcoming Data Animator from Digital Anarchy. It's still in Beta, but may help you greatly. The workflow is something like: type in your data in excel - export as CSV - import that CSV in the plugin and adjust the design/ use a preset. Try to contact them directly, perhaps they will let you in on the Beta. If you need someone to put in a kind word for you, get back at me. I also have several pre-made setups with AE only tools (part of it can be found on my website as well as on the creativeCOW tutorials), perhaps you'll look into them as well.

Mylenium
[Pour Mylène, ange sur terre]
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