Adobe After Effects - Manual (Page 710)

Scripts
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Note:
Loading and running scripts
Scripts included with After Effects
Writing and modifying scripts
Where to find additional useful scripts
A script is a series of commands that tells an application to perform a series of operations. You can use scripts in most Adobe applications to
automate repetitive tasks, perform complex calculations, and even use some functionality not directly exposed through the graphical user interface.
For example, you can direct After Effects to reorder the layers in a composition, find and replace source text in text layers, or send an e-mail
message when rendering is complete.
After Effects scripts use the Adobe ExtendScript language, which is an extended form of JavaScript, similar to Adobe ActionScript. ExtendScript
files have the .jsx or jsxbin filename extension.
For a description of the scripting capabilities available with After Effects, see the After Effects Scripting Guide on the After Effects Developer
Center section of the Adobe website. For a detailed list of changes in After Effects scripting from After Effects CS3 to After Effects CS5.5 and later,
see the Adobe website .
For scripting changes, and a new scripting guide for After Effects CS6, see this post on the After Effects blog.
Loading and running scripts
When After Effects starts, it loads scripts from the Scripts folder. By default, the Scripts folder is in the following locations for After Effects:
(Windows) Program Files\Adobe\Adobe After Effects \Support Files
(Mac OS) Applications/Adobe After Effects
Scripts are also installed in user locations starting with After Effects 12.1. See the What's New in After Effects 12.2 for additional information.
Several scripts come with After Effects and are automatically installed in the Scripts folder.
Loaded scripts are available from the File > Scripts menu. If you edit a script while After Effects is running, you must save your changes for the
changes to be applied. If you place a script in the Scripts folder while After Effects is running, you must restart After Effects for the script to appear
in the Scripts menu, though you can immediately run the new script using the Run Script File command.
Scripts in the ScriptUI Panels folder are available from the bottom of the Window menu. If a script has been written to provide a user interface in a
dockable panel, the script should be put in the ScriptUI folder. ScriptUI panels work much the same as the default panels in the After Effects user
interface.
The default is for scripts to not be allowed to write files or send or receive communication over a network. To allow scripts to write files and
communicate over a network, choose Edit > Preferences > General (Windows) or After Effects > Preferences > General (Mac OS), and select the
Allow Scripts To Write Files And Access Network option.
To run a loaded script, choose File > Scripts > [script name].
To run a script that has not been loaded, choose File > Scripts > Run Script File, locate and select a script, and click Open.
To stop a running script, press Esc.
To run a script from the command line, call afterfx.exe from the command line. Use the -r switch and the full path of the script to run as
arguments. This command does not open a new instance of the After Effects application; it runs the script in the existing instance.
Example (for Windows):
afterfx -r c:\script_path\example_script.jsx
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