Adobe 65009963 Scripting Guide - Page 8

How to include After Effects scripting in an AppleScript (Mac OS), Testing and troubleshooting

Get Adobe 65009963 - After Effects CS4 PDF manuals and user guides
UPC - 883919156262
View all Adobe 65009963 manuals
Add to My Manuals
Save this manual to your list of manuals

Page 8 highlights

Overview Testing and troubleshooting 8 Alternatively, you can specify the location of the JSX file to be executed. For example: afterfx.exe -r c:\myDocuments\Scripts\yourAEScriptHere.jsx afterfx.exe -r "c:\myDocuments\Scripts\Script Name with Spaces.jsx" How to include After Effects scripting in an AppleScript (Mac OS) Following are three examples of AppleScript scripts that will send an existing JSX file containing an After Effects script to the application without using the After Effects user interface to execute the script. In the first example, you copy your After Effects script directly into the Script Editor and then run it. The script text appears within quotation marks following the DoScript command, so internal quotes in the script must be escaped using the backslash escape character, as follows: tell application "Adobe After Effects CS3" DoScript "alert(\"You just sent an alert to After Effects\")" end tell Alternatively, you could display a dialog box asking for the location of the JSX file to be executed, as follows: set theFile to choose file tell application "Adobe After Effects CS3" DoScript theFile end tell Finally, this script is perhaps most useful when you are working directly on editing a JSX script and want to send it to After Effects for testing or to run. To use it effectively you must enter the application that contains the open JSX file (in this example it is TextEdit); if you do not know the proper name of the application, type in your best guess to replace "TextEdit" and AppleScript prompts you to locate it. Simply highlight the script text that you want to run, and then activate this AppleScript: (* This script sends the current selection to After Effects as a script. *) tell application "TextEdit" set the_script to selection as text end tell tell application "Adobe After Effects CS3" activate DoScript the_script end tell For more information on using AppleScript, check out Matt Neuberg's AppleScript: the Definitive Guide (O'Reilly & Associates) or Sal Soghoian's AppleScript 1-2-3 (Peachpit Press). Testing and troubleshooting Any After Effects script that contains an error preventing it from being completed generates an error message from the application. This error message includes information about the nature of the error and the line of the script on which it occurred. 8

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142
  • 143
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146
  • 147
  • 148
  • 149
  • 150
  • 151
  • 152
  • 153
  • 154
  • 155
  • 156
  • 157
  • 158
  • 159
  • 160
  • 161
  • 162
  • 163
  • 164
  • 165
  • 166
  • 167
  • 168
  • 169
  • 170
  • 171
  • 172
  • 173
  • 174
  • 175
  • 176
  • 177
  • 178
  • 179
  • 180
  • 181
  • 182
  • 183
  • 184
  • 185
  • 186
  • 187
  • 188
  • 189
  • 190
  • 191
  • 192
  • 193
8
Overview
Testing and troubleshooting
8
Alternatively, you can specify the location of the JSX file to be executed. For example:
afterfx.exe -r c:\myDocuments\Scripts\yourAEScriptHere.jsx
afterfx.exe -r "c:\myDocuments\Scripts\Script Name with Spaces.jsx"
How to include After Effects scripting in an AppleScript (Mac OS)
Following are three examples of AppleScript scripts that will send an existing JSX file containing an After
Effects script to the application without using the After Effects user interface to execute the script.
In the first example, you copy your After Effects script directly into the Script Editor and then run it. The script
text appears within quotation marks following the DoScript command, so internal quotes in the script must
be escaped using the backslash escape character, as follows:
tell application "Adobe After Effects CS3"
DoScript "alert(\"You just sent an alert to After Effects\")"
end tell
Alternatively, you could display a dialog box asking for the location of the JSX file to be executed, as follows:
set theFile to choose file
tell application "Adobe After Effects CS3"
DoScript theFile
end tell
Finally, this script is perhaps most useful when you are working directly on editing a JSX script and want to
send it to After Effects for testing or to run. To use it effectively you must enter the application that contains
the open JSX file (in this example it is TextEdit); if you do not know the proper name of the application, type
in your best guess to replace “TextEdit” and AppleScript prompts you to locate it.
Simply highlight the script text that you want to run, and then activate this AppleScript:
(*
This script sends the current selection to After Effects as a script.
*)
tell application "TextEdit"
set the_script to selection as text
end tell
tell application "Adobe After Effects CS3"
activate
DoScript the_script
end tell
For more information on using AppleScript, check out Matt Neuberg’s
AppleScript: the Definitive Guide
(O’Reilly & Associates) or Sal Soghoian’s
AppleScript 1-2-3
(Peachpit Press).
Testing and troubleshooting
Any After Effects script that contains an error preventing it from being completed generates an error message
from the application. This error message includes information about the nature of the error and the line of
the script on which it occurred.