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Quick effects palette

Posted: February 1st, 2010, 9:47 am
by cfx
Hi,

This is a very simple script but useful... :oops:

In some compositing package (Fusion, Nuke...), I like to access to effects (not all but the most useful) with "button bar"...
In repetitive task in AE it's painful to browse the list of all effects in menu or with mouse (right click...).
I made a little script that do it :
Image

At this time the list of effects is hard coded in the script...
Later i try to make a script who load the list in a preference text...
Of course it's easy to modify this script to customize for you. :D

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: February 9th, 2010, 1:52 pm
by Disciple
This is sooo awesome! Please do add the possibility of customizing this, it would reach even greater heights of awesomeness

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: February 10th, 2010, 2:30 pm
by pdeb
Thanks so much for this!

I've added 2 of your palettes to my workspace, one for effects, one for presets.

I don't have a great deal of scripting experience, and I can say it's relatively simple to customize.

For presets, I've added paths to my .ffx files:

Code: Select all

   var presetPath1 = ("/Applications/Adobe After Effects CS4/Presets/PdB/UnMult White.ffx");
   var myPreset1 = File(presetPath1);
then call the vars in your function

It works brilliantly - great time saver!

pdeb

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: February 10th, 2010, 2:46 pm
by pdeb
meant to include this - nice and compact

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: March 10th, 2010, 4:31 pm
by hype
This is awesome!!! Can't wait to try it! I hope it's easy to modify the fx you want on the toolbar.

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: March 14th, 2010, 2:25 pm
by cfx
Thanks for your feedback ! :D

The 1.2 is done
Image

Easily customizable...
Works for effects and preset !
You have only to edit the head of the script, only arrays to modify... example :

Code: Select all

///// effects example
var But_01=["Fst Blr",	// the name of the button
					"fx",	// fx for an effects or preset to apply preset
					"Fast Blur",	//exact effect name or preset path (copy the name in effects pallette in AE)
					"Blurriness",	// custom property name only for fx (if you want to modify one default property for example the fast blur blurriness is "0" , to modify more than one property you could create a  preset)
					9]; //custom property value for fx
...
///// Preset example
var But_18=["601 to RGB",	// text on button,  max is 7 char
					"preset",	// fx or preset
					"C:/Program Files (x86)/Adobe/Adobe After Effects CS4/Support Files/Presets/Image - Utilities/Levels - video to computer.ffx"];	//exact effect name or preset path (copy the name in effects pallette in AE)

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: March 23rd, 2010, 1:41 am
by hype
I'm getting an error, it doesn't recognize the "staticText" in line 134.

I'm using CS3, not CS4. Could that be why? If so, is there any way to make it CS3 functional? I really, really would love to be using this tool!!!

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: March 25th, 2010, 1:35 am
by cfx
"staticText" isn't supported in cs3...
I have removed this in the script for cs3 compatibility...
You can download the new version in my last post. :D

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: March 25th, 2010, 9:35 am
by lloydalvarez
StaticText is compatible with CS3, just make sure you capitalize it correctly. If you are using add the you need to keep it all lowercase:

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myPanel.sep = myPanel.add("statictext", [210, 10, 220, 25], "|");
-Lloyd

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: March 25th, 2010, 1:45 pm
by hype
Excellent, thanks guys! I'll let you know how it goes.

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 4:48 pm
by hype
Dang, this thing is awesome! I've already gotten completely used to just having this there at the top!

Here's a little something I ran into, though, wondering if there's maybe a fix for it.

I wanted to have the Glow effect on it, so I changed the script like I'm supposed to to customize. However, I also have Pete's Plugins installed, and he has a glow in that set called "Glow", just like the default AE glow. Unfortunately, the palette grabs the Pete's plugin one, not the AE one. Any ideas on how I can get it to differentiate?

Even if there's not, this is still an amazing tool!!

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 11:12 pm
by pdeb
Hype, I imagine just applying Pete's glow to a layer, saving that as an ffx, then adding that ffx to the toolbar will do the trick.

Pete Debay

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: April 2nd, 2010, 11:13 pm
by pdeb
errr, I meant adding AE glow to an ffx...stand corrected

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: April 5th, 2010, 11:53 am
by hype
good solution, thanks for the tip!!

Re: Quick effects palette

Posted: April 6th, 2010, 2:01 am
by cfx
lloydalvarez wrote:StaticText is compatible with CS3, just make sure you capitalize it correctly. If you are using add the you need to keep it all lowercase:

Code: Select all

myPanel.sep = myPanel.add("statictext", [210, 10, 220, 25], "|");
-Lloyd
Thank you for having me back in the right way ! :D
Fred