Snippet for generating timestamped, optimized videos from After Effects.

.bash_profile

# Snippet for generating timestamped, optimized videos from After Effects.
# Requires ffmpeg for conversion.

# Alias for aerender
alias aerender="/change/to/path/to/aerender/inside/AfterEffects/folder"

# Use this minimally as:
# in=inputfile.extension out=outputfilename render
# There is no need to mention the extension of the output as it uses .mp4 by default

# It can be parametrized further with the following flags:
# in=inputfile.extension out=outputfilename comp="Comp 1" start=0 time=360 render

render() {

	echo "Started at $(date)"

	if [[ $start == "" ]]; then start=0; fi
	if [[ $time == "" ]]; then time=240; fi
	if [[ $comp == "" ]]; then comp="Comp 1"; fi
	if [[ $in == "" ]]; then { echo "Input not found"; return; } fi
	if [[ $out == "" ]]; then { echo "Output not found"; return; } fi
	if [[ $src == "" ]]; then { echo "Using current working directory"; src=`pwd`; } fi

	echo "Input: $in"
	echo "Output: $out"
	echo "Source: $src"

	aerender -project $src/$in -comp "$comp" -output $src/$out.mp4 -s $start -e $time && ffmpeg -i $src/$out.mp4 $src/$out-$(date +%H-%M-%S-%d-%m-%y).mp4;

	return 0;

}