Watch the Placeholder Layers Video

Total running time: 2:45


These are the three types of placeholders that can be rendered with Idomoo's render engine, and the corresponding After Effects layer types:

  • Media placeholder: image layer, video layer, solid layer.
  • Text placeholder: point text layer, paragraph text layer.
  • Audio placeholder: audio layer.

You create placeholder layers just as you would any such layers in AE. You just need to remember they will be used as placeholders in the end, and set them as such using Scene Builder before packaging your scene.
The placeholder layers are rendered in Idomoo's PV cloud and not in After Effects. Because of this you should only use the supported features in the box below.


Placeholder Layers Supported Features

  • Any TTF or OTF fonts as well as Adobe Fonts (previously Adobe Typekit)
  • PNG, JPG, MOV, or MP4 files for media placeholders. You can also simply use a solid layer created in After Effects
  • Highest resolution for media placeholders is 2048 X 2048
  • Transform animations (including opacity)
  • Parenting to any layer
  • Expressions in Transforms
  • 3D transform with camera
  • Motion blur
  • Vector masks
  • Track matte pairs using at least one placeholder
  • Effects under the Idomoo Effects folder
    • IDM Gaussian Blur
    • IDM Corner Pin
    • IDM Layer Styles
  • Blending Modes
  • Text size
  • Text tracking (but not kerning)
  • Text leading
  • Text alignment
  • Text fill color
  • Animated Text


All other features, such as unsupported effects, layer styles, and kerning, are not available for use with placeholder layers at this time.
Remember these limitations only apply to placeholder layers. You can use any feature you like inside static compositions.


Naming Placeholder Layers

  1. The name of a placeholder layer will appear in Scene Viewer and in Storybuilding Suite. Therefor, the name should mean something. Call a layer customer_name instead of Text14.
  2. All layer names for placeholders of the same type (media, text, audio) have to be unique.


Audio Placeholder Layers

Audio is not exported with a scene unless it's a placeholder layer. As you can create as many audio placeholders right inside Storybuilding Suite or through API, the only advantage to exporting audio placeholders with your scene is the ease of placing them on the timeline.


These are the supported features for audio placeholder layers:

  • Timeline location
  • Volume (though no volume animation is allowed)


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