How to automate video editing tasks with ChatGPT
Video editing often involves time-consuming and repetitive tasks that can slow down your workflow. Automating these tasks can save you a lot of time, letting you focus on the creative side of editing.
This guide shows how to use ChatGPT to create scripts for your video editor, to automate repetitive video editing tasks, whether or not you have any programming knowledge.
Can ChatGPT create Video Editor scripts?
Surprisingly, ChatGPT can generate code quite well. I’ve personally been using ChatGPT to write WordPress plugins, and it turns out it’s just as effective for video editing scripts.
Whether you’re working with Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro, or any other video editor that supports scripts, ChatGPT can assist in generating scripts to streamline your workflow. You can tell Chatgpt what you need, such as batch uploading clips, applying filters, or creating animations, and it will generate customized code snippets that align with your editing workflow.
Some things you can automate with Scripts
Before diving into scripting, let’s look at some repetitive tasks that can be automated:
- Batch Rendering: Automate the rendering process for multiple compositions.
- Layer Management: Organize and manage layers efficiently.
- Text Replacement: Quickly replace text in multiple layers.
- File Importing and Organizing: Automate the import and organization of files into your project.
- Marker Management: Add, remove, or adjust markers across your timeline.
These examples are just the beginning. ChatGPT can help you automate these tasks and more with simple prompts for generating scripts.
How to get started
If you’re new to scripting, start with basic tasks like file importing and text replacement. ChatGPT can guide you through creating these scripts. For more complex scripts, a bit of scripting knowledge will be beneficial.
Writing Script Code with ChatGPT
To create a script for your video editor using ChatGPT, simply write a prompt and ChatGPT will respond with the code for your script. Copy the generated code and paste it into your script file. Test your code, and if there are errors, you can troubleshoot and fix them using ChatGPT.
Writing prompts to create video editor script in ChatGPT.
Before using prompts, it’s important to understand that ChatGPT is great at helping with simple coding tasks or routines rather than creating complex scripts from scratch. It may sometimes struggle to create fully functional complex scripts.
With that in mind, here’s how you can prompt it:
Clearly describe the task you want to automate and ask ChatGPT to take on the persona of an experienced Video Editor script developer. If you are creating a script for After Effects you can ask it to act as an experienced After Effects script developer.
Here are some example prompts you can use:
- “As a seasoned Adobe After Effects script developer, write a script to [describe the task].”
- “Create a script for that will [describe the functionality needed].”
- “Generate a script for After Effects to automate [specific task].”
- “Assist me in writing a script for [task], ensuring it includes [specific details or conditions].”
don’t forget to replace text within brackets with your own text.
Optimized ChatGPT Tools for After Effects scripting
If you want to create a script for After Effects (AE) and have access to the GPT store you can use ChatGPT tools designed for AE, like the After Effects Script Assistant custom GPT and AfterEffects Assistant. These tools make creating AE scripts easier.
Testing and Fixing Script Code
ChatGPT generated code is usually good, but not always perfect, so you need to know how to deal with any errors and bugs that arise when you are trying to use the code generated by ChatGPT.
If a script doesn’t work as expected, you can describe the issue to ChatGPT. It will try to fix the error and generate new code without the error, here is how you can identify errors and fix them with ChatGPT:
- Run the Script: Implement the generated script in your video editor and observe its behavior.
- Document Issues: Note any errors or unexpected outcomes.
- Give ChatGPT feedback: Describe the issues to ChatGPT and ask it to fix the problem.
Example prompts you can use to fix your code in ChatGPT:
- “The script you provided has an error that reads [the description of the error] try to fix it”
- “I’m encountering an unexpected result when using this script for [purpose of the script]. What could be the problem?”
Refining the script
By iteratively testing and providing feedback, you can improve the script’s functionality. Use specific prompts to guide ChatGPT in refining the script. For example, use this prompt to refine or improve the script “The script is almost correct, but it needs to [purpose of the script] more precisely. How can we do that?”
Tips for Good Results with ChatGPT
a) Be Specific
The more detailed and specific your prompt, the better the script code will be. Avoid vague requests. If you have trouble writing prompts you can use prompt generating tools to create your prompt.
Example of specific prompts :
“Write a script for After Effects to replace text in all text layers with the words ‘Sample Text’.”
“Generate a script to import and organize video files into folders based on their metadata.”
b) Break Down tasks
For complex video editor scripts, break down the script into smaller, manageable features and generate scripts for each feature separately.
c) Provide ChatGPT feedback
Remember that ChatGPT’s code might not be 100% correct on the first try. But through testing and asking ChatGPT to fix errors in the script, you can develop a functional script.
Here is an example prompt for providing feedback to ChatGPT:
“The script works, but it doesn’t handle empty text layers correctly. How can we fix this?”
d) Use Improved ChatGPT Models
For improved results when creating scripts for your video editor, consider using GPT-4o or GPT4. These models often produce more accurate and sophisticated results compared to GPT-3.5. Using the latest ChatGPT version can enhance the quality of the scripts generated.
Prompts to get you started
If you want some prompt ideas to get you started with creating scripts for your video editing software here are some ideas to get you started.
Automating Batch Rendering in After Effects
Prompt: “Act as an experienced After Effects script developer. Write a script to batch render all compositions in the project, saving each with the composition name as the file name.”
Managing Layers Efficiently
Prompt: “Create a script in After Effects to rename all layers based on their content type and add a prefix ‘Layer_’ to each name.”
Automating Text Replacement
Prompt: “Generate a script to find and replace the text ‘OLD_TEXT’ with ‘NEW_TEXT’ in all text layers within the current composition.”
By using such prompts, you can generate useful scripts that handle specific tasks, enhancing your efficiency.
Conclusion
Automating repetitive video editing tasks with scripting using ChatGPT can greatly boost your productivity. While there is a learning curve in writing and implementing scripts, the time saved is well worth it. Experiment with different prompts, refine your scripts and use AI to make your editing process smoother and more efficient.
Helpful Resources
Chatgpt tools for Video editor software Scripting