VE Exporter

Prerequisites

Usage notes

• Close AE before installing VE Exporter to prevent installation failure.

• Run AE with administrator privileges.

Install VE Exporter

Windows

1. Download the VE Exporter plug-in. For the download link, see VE_Exporter.

2. Install the VE Exporter plug-in.

   For the installation directory, select the Support Files folder in the AE installation directory. For example: C:\Program Files\Adobe\After Effects CC 2018\Support Files.

   Note

   This example uses AE CC 2018. The actual installation directory depends on your specific AE version and setup.

3. Verify the installation.

   Open AE. From the menu bar, select Window. If VE Exporter appears in the Window list, the installation is successful. If the installation failed, see Common issues when installing VE Exporter.

macOS

1. Download and decompress the VE Exporter plug-in. For the download link, see VE_Exporter.plugin.

2. Install the VE Exporter plug-in.

   Copy VE_Exporter.plugin to the plug-ins folder in the AE installation directory.

3. Verify the installation.

   Open AE. From the menu bar, select Window. If VE Exporter appears in the Window list, the installation is successful. If the installation failed, see Common issues when installing VE Exporter.

Using VE Exporter

1. Import assets.

   1. Open your AEP source file in AE.

   2. From the menu bar, choose Window > VE Exporter, and select Create Standard Template 2.0 to open the plug-in interface.

   3. Click Load Composition to import the assets from the source file into the asset list.

   At the top of the VE Exporter interface, click the Load Composition button. The asset list then displays all assets from the composition, including the Name, editing group, UI tag, and additional data columns. The central area shows a preview of the user editing interface for the current composition.

2. Edit assets.

   The VE Exporter editing interface has four main areas: ① the asset list in the upper left, ② the user editing interface preview in the center, ③ the layer list at the bottom, and ④ the screenshot frame list and other functions on the right.

   The following table describes each area of the asset editing interface.

   Number	Description
   ①	Asset list area
   ②	User editing interface preview area
   ③	Layer list area
   ④	Screenshot frame list area and other functions

   Asset list

   The asset list displays all assets loaded from the composition in the AEP source file. In this area, you can configure assets as replaceable, modify editing group IDs, and set UI tags.

   Function	Description
   Name	The name of the asset file.
   Editing group	Determines whether an asset is editable. Editable assets are assigned an editing group ID. When you mark an asset as editable, VE Exporter creates a new editing group and places the asset in it. By default, each editable asset has its own editing group. You can change the editing group ID. Assets with the same ID belong to the same editing group. To change the ID, select the asset, right-click it in the user editing interface preview area, select Move to another editing group, and set the new ID. In the Intelligent Media Service console, replaceable assets in advanced templates are displayed by editing group.
   UI tag	Assigns a UI tag to an asset, similar to an ID in a standard template. This tag allows you to locate and edit the asset when using the template. To set a tag, click the input field in the UI tag column for the target asset and enter the tag. You can use the UI tag to query all information related to the corresponding asset.
   Additional data	Adds notes to an asset to describe its purpose. To add a note, click Edit in the Additional data column for the target asset and enter your content.

   Editing interface preview

   This area displays the editing preview for assets, organized by editing group.

   The following table describes the functions of this area.

   Location	Description
   Left	The asset list for the editing interface. It is displayed in reverse layer order, meaning the topmost layer in AE appears at the bottom of the list, and the bottommost layer appears at the top.
   Center	The preview area for the editing interface. It shows a preview of the selected asset.
   Right	This area provides functions for adjusting asset styles and animations.

   • Edit text styles

     You can load the text style from an AE text layer into VE Exporter and then modify it.

     Editable text style properties include Font (for example, FangZheng Lanting Hei), Font Size, Font Color (set with a color picker), and Text Alignment.

   • Edit image styles

     You can load properties such as anchor point, position, scale, rotation, and opacity from an AE layer into VE Exporter and then modify them.

   • Reset clickable area

     The clickable area is the region that responds to a touch or click. By default, it matches the position and size of the replaceable asset. You can also manually drag to change its position and size.

   • Link Assets

     Use the Link Assets function to replace multiple assets with a single source asset. For example, if a template contains two identical profile pictures that need to be replaced, you can link them. This way, the user only needs to replace one picture, and both instances are updated. To do this, mark both profile picture assets as editable and select the Link Assets option for them.

     Note

     If an editing group contains multiple assets, you must select Link Assets for all of them to enable replacement with a single asset.

   • Select an accessory image

     You can add an accessory image to a picture or text asset. If added to a picture, the accessory image layer is placed above the picture layer. If added to text, the accessory image layer is placed below the text layer. The following example describes adding an accessory image to a picture.

     Note

     Accessory images are not user assets and are not included in the final video rendering.

     In the Select an accessory image area of the right-side editing panel, choose an accessory image. The preview area will show the accessory image overlaid on the original picture.

   Layer list

   This area displays the list of layers from the loaded composition. It includes properties such as layer name, UI tag, additional assets, and sampling mode.

   Note

   Unlike the asset list, the layer list information applies to the layer, not the asset. For example, a layer's UI tag is for the layer, while an asset's UI tag is for the asset.

   Below the layer list are three function buttons: Template Check, Preview Effect, and Export Template.

   Screenshot frames and other functions

   • Add a new screenshot frame

     After you add a screenshot frame, the system saves the current frame as an image when you submit the template video for rendering. You can then perform operations on this image.

   • Add background music

     Use this function in the asset or composition panel to select a music file and add background music to the video.

3. Check the template

   After editing the template, click Template Check in the layer list area. If the check finds issues, resolve them before proceeding.

4. Preview the template

   Click Preview Effect in the layer list area to preview the template's final appearance. The preview matches the final output.

5. Export the template

   Click Export Template in the layer list area. Compress all the generated files into a single .zip package.

   The exported template directory contains an assets folder, a config.json configuration file, a datas folder, and a ui folder.

   Important

   • Do not modify the internal structure of these folders.

   • The package must be in .zip format. Do not use other formats such as .7z, .rar, or .tar.

   • The .zip package name cannot contain Chinese characters or special symbols.

Video tutorials

Introduction to VE Exporter standard templates

Introduction to text and image properties in VE Exporter