Ahhhh. That's my problem. 

The text is just a list of names. 

I'll use a script instead to populate the text layers. 

Thanks. 

Phil

Phil Spitler  |  Creative Technologist   |  Bonfire Labs  |  t : 415.394.8200  m : 415.571.3139

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On Feb 8, 2014, at 4:40 PM, "Dan Ebberts" <debberts@comcast.net> wrote:

What is in your text file?

 

It has to be formatted as a valid JavaScript text string.

 

If it’s more than one line, it would be like this:

 

"Line 1 text\r" +

"Line 2 text\r";

 

Dan

 

From: Phil Spitler

Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2014 4:02 PM

To: After Effects Mail List

Subject: Re: [AE] Source Text from external file

 

Thanks guys.

 

Dan, I ge the "not found" when using your method. I changed the path to the location of my file.

 

myPath = "~/Desktop/names.txt";

try{

$.evalFile (myPath);

}catch (err){

  "not found"

}

 

 

David, I was looking at you examples earlier and they are looking to modify the layer based on the comp name found in the text doc.

 

I really just want to dump the contents into my text layer.

 

Phil

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Phil Spitler  |  Creative Technologist   |  Bonfire Labs  |  t : 415.394.8200  m : 415.571.3139

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn

 

 

On Feb 8, 2014, at 3:41 PM, David Torno wrote:

I did a video tutorial on this awhile back as well.

 

http://provideocoalition.com/pvcexclusive/story/expression_shorts_-_read_external_text_document

David Torno

Technical Director

http://www.ghosttownmedia.com

O: 213.739.2290

C: 818.391.6060

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On Feb 8, 2014, at 3:16 PM, Phil Spitler <phil@bonfirelabs.com> wrote:

I'm sure I have done this in the past and I know I can do it with a script no problem but i would rather it be an expression.

 

There are plenty of examples on the web but they all seem to be populating comps using an eval(comp.name) piece of code.

 

I just want to have an expression on the source text of a layer that will read the file and put it into that layer.

 

Any ideas?

 

 

Thanks.

 

Phil

 

Phil Spitler  |  Creative Technologist   |  Bonfire Labs  |  t : 415.394.8200  m : 415.571.3139

Website | Facebook | LinkedIn