Adobe 12040118 Using Help - Page 6

Help Using Help Writing Scripts Writing Scripts Back 6 When you use Adobe After Effects, you create projects, compositions, and Render Queue items along with all of the elements that they contain: footage, images, solids, layers, masks, effects, and properties. Each of these items, in scripting terms, is an object. The heart of a scriptable application is the object model. In After Effects, the object model is composed of projects, items, compositions, layers, and Render Queue items. Each object has its own special attributes, and every object in an After Effects project has its own identity (although not all are accessible to scripting). You should be familiar with the After Effects object model in order to create scripts. For more resources for learning scripting, see "More resources to learn scripting" on page 8. Editing scripts After Effects 6.5 does not include a script editor. You can use any text editor to create, edit, and save scripts, but it is recommended that you choose an application that does not automatically add header information when saving files and that saves with Unicode (UTF-8) encoding. Windows applications that are useful for editing scripts include EM Editor or the built-in Notepad (be sure to set Encoding within save options to UTF-8). Mac OS applications that are useful for editing scripts include BBEdit or the built-in OS X Textedit (be sure to set the Save type in Preferences to Unicode [UTF-8]). The .jsx format After Effects scripts must include the .jsx file extension in order to be properly recognized by the application. This extension is a variation on the standard ".js" extension used with normal JavaScript files; any UTF-8 encoded text file with this extension will be recognized. The Scripts menu and Scripts folder After Effects scripts reside in the Scripts folder, within the same folder as your After Effects 6.5 application file. Only scripts contained in this Scripts folder are automatically listed in the Scripts menu, although a script file can reside anywhere. To run a script that does not appear in the Scripts menu, choose File > Run Script > Choose File, and choose the script in the Open dialog box. Alternatively, you can send After Effects a script from a command line (on Windows) or from AppleScript (on Mac OS). To appear in the Open dialog box, your script must include the proper .jsx file extension. Shutdown and Startup folders Within the Scripts folder are two folders called Startup and Shutdown. After Effects runs scripts in these folders automatically on starting and quitting, respectively. In the Startup folder you can place scripts that you wish to execute at startup of the application. They are executed after the application is initialized and all plug-ins are loaded. Using Help Back 6