This month has been busy with lots of little projects. I wanted to show off one of them, a customizable bar / brewery video menu!
A new micro brewery is opening up locally and I wanted to do this project so I could work with After Effects scripting. I’ve written plenty of After Effects expressions while creating my .mogrts (motion graphics templates) for Adobe Stock. Expressions are short javascript “programs” that run on layers and objects as your video runs. However, I’ve never scripted anything for AE. A script is a one time program that you run that can do things that take more “power”, like creating nodes and changing fonts.
Note: All the information in the sample is just stand-in for demo purposes.
Here, I wanted to use a script to read in a simple text file with menu information and use it to modify an After Effects template. This way, someone with no knowledge of AE can modify the current beers and food items in the text file and then simply load that into AE through the script, and then render out a movie file that can be played on video screens. This setup allows the menu to be easily changed. I also added in lots of options to show different columns, move things around easily, timing, etc. These can be found in the Essential Graphics window. All the timing for the playback is based on those options, as well as the end result from importing the beer and food information.
If you’re in need of a similar setup to create a beer and food menu for your bar or restaurant, use the contact page to get in touch. I can create a similar setup for you based on your needs and style. Pricing is partly dependent on modifications needed. Thanks!
