AE Anons - Automated After Effects Announcement Generator

Automated pipeline for generating sports announcements using After Effects templates via Nexrender, with data sourced from Synology Office spreadsheets.

Overview

AE Anons automates the creation of broadcast announcement videos by:

Connecting to Synology NAS to retrieve schedule data from Office spreadsheets (.osheet)
Parsing Excel data containing sports events, teams, channels and timing information
Generating Nexrender jobs with appropriate templates and assets
Monitoring render completion and managing output files

Features

Synology Integration: Seamless authentication and file retrieval from Synology NAS
Office Spreadsheet Export: Automatic conversion of .osheet files to Excel format
Flexible Data Parsing: Dynamic sheet parsing with header detection
Multi-variant Generation: Creates "Today", "Tomorrow" and dated variants for each announcement
Smart Logo Management: Automatic logo resolution and scaling based on team/sport associations
Nexrender Job Orchestration: Automated job submission, monitoring and cleanup
Professional Logging: Structured logging with configurable verbosity levels
Environment-based Configuration: All settings managed via .env file

Prerequisites

Rust 1.70 or higher
Access to Synology NAS with File Station and Office enabled
Nexrender server instance
After Effects templates configured on render nodes

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-org/ae_anons.git
cd ae_anons

2. Build the Project
bash

cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/ae_anons
3. Configure Environment

Create a .env file in the project root:
env

NAS_FQDN=https://your-synology-nas.example.com:5001
NAS_USER=service_account
NAS_PASS=secure_password
NAS_FILE=/Team Folder/Broadcast/Auto_Anons/schedule.osheet
NEXRENDER_API_URL=http://nexrender-server:3000/api/v1/jobs
OUTPUT_FOLDER=//file-server/edit/Auto_Anons
RUST_LOG=info

See Configuration section for detailed options.
Usage
Basic Execution
bash

# Run with default configuration
./target/release/ae_anons

# Run with custom log level
RUST_LOG=debug ./target/release/ae_anons

# Run with specific .env file
dotenv -f /path/to/.env.production run ./target/release/ae_anons

Development Mode
bash

cargo run

Logging Levels

Control output verbosity via RUST_LOG environment variable:

    error - Only critical errors

    warn - Warnings and errors

    info - General operational messages (default)

    debug - Detailed processing information

    trace - Full debugging with API call details

bash

RUST_LOG=debug cargo run

Configuration
Environment Variables
Variable Required Default Description
NAS_FQDN Yes - Synology NAS URL with protocol and port
NAS_USER Yes - Synology account username
NAS_PASS Yes - Synology account password
NAS_FILE Yes - Full path to .osheet file on NAS
NEXRENDER_API_URL 
OUTPUT_FOLDER Network path for rendered videos
RUST_LOG No info Logging verbosity level
Spreadsheet Structure

The input Excel file (converted from .osheet) must contain the following sheets:
Start Sheet

Main data source for announcements generation.
Column Description Example
STATE Processing flag FALSE (active), TRUE (skip)
SPORT Sport category Футбол, Хоккей
LEAGUE League name Премьер-лига
TEAM A Home team Спартак#FC Spartak#150
TEAM B Away team Зенит#FC Zenit#150
CHANEL Broadcast channel Матч ТВ
TIME Event time 19:30
DATA Event date 15.04.2026
SPORT Sheet

Mapping between sports and their video pack templates.
Column Description
SPORT Sport identifier
LINK Path to video pack file
TEAMS Sheet

Team logo registry with sport associations.
Column Description
TEAM Team identifier
SPORT Associated sport
LINK Path to team logo file
CHANELL Sheet

Channel logo mappings.
Column Description
CHANELL Channel name
LINK Path to channel logo file
Team Name Format

Team names can include resolution hints using hash separators:
text

Display Name#Search Key#Target Size

Example: Спартак#FC Spartak#150

    Спартак - Display name in graphics

    FC Spartak - Key for logo lookup

    150 - Target size in pixels for logo scaling

Output Files
JSON Exports

During processing, JSON representations of the workbook are saved:

    {filename}_workbook.json - Complete workbook structure

    {filename}_{SheetName}.json - Individual sheet data

Rendered Videos

Output videos are saved to OUTPUT_FOLDER with naming pattern:
text

YYYYMMDD_Sport_League_TeamA_TeamB_Channel[_Variant].mp4

Examples:

    20260415_Футбол_Премьер-лига_Спартак_Зенит_Матч-ТВ.mp4 (Base version)

    20260415_Футбол_Премьер-лига_Спартак_Зенит_Матч-ТВ_Today.mp4

    20260415_Футбол_Премьер-лига_Спартак_Зенит_Матч-ТВ_Tomorrow.mp4

Workflow

    Authentication: Connects to Synology NAS using provided credentials

    File Retrieval: Locates and exports the specified .osheet file as Excel

    Data Parsing: Reads all sheets and structures the data

    Asset Resolution: Matches sports, teams and channels with their visual assets

    Job Generation: Creates Nexrender jobs for each active row with variants

    Cleanup: Removes completed/failed jobs from previous runs

    Submission: Sends jobs to Nexrender API

    Monitoring: Tracks job progress until completion

    Logout: Terminates Synology session

After Effects Template Requirements

Templates must be pre-configured on render nodes with specific layer names:
Template Types
Template File Use Case
Double Team PackShot_DOUBLE.aepx Matches with two teams
Single Team PackShot_SINGLE.aepx Single team announcements
Required Layers
Layer Name Type Description
DATA Text Date display (auto-adjusted)
TIME / TIME_H / TIME_M Text Time display
LEAGUE Text League name
SPORT Text Sport category
TEAMS Text Combined team names
TEAM_A_LOGO Image Home team logo
TEAM_B_LOGO Image Away team logo
CHANELL Image Channel logo
TOP Video Sport pack overlay
Composition Settings

    Composition name: pack

    Output module: Start_h264

    Output format: mp4

Troubleshooting
Common Issues
Connection to NAS failed

    Verify NAS_FQDN includes protocol and port (e.g., https://nas.example.com:5001)

    Check network connectivity to NAS

    Ensure File Station and Office services are enabled

File not found

    Verify the path in NAS_FILE exactly matches the Synology Drive path

    Path should start with /Team Folder/ for team folders

    Check file permissions for the service account

Nexrender job submission fails

    Confirm Nexrender server is accessible

    Verify NEXRENDER_API_URL is correct

    Check that template files exist on render nodes

Debug Mode

Enable debug logging for detailed troubleshooting:
bash

RUST_LOG=debug ./target/release/ae_anons

This will output:

    API request/response details

    Sheet parsing information

    Job creation details

    Asset resolution process

Performance Considerations

    Large Spreadsheets: Processing limited to 10,000 rows per sheet

    Network Latency: File downloads from NAS may take time for large files

    Concurrent Jobs: Nexrender handles job queuing internally

    Memory Usage: Excel parsing keeps entire workbook in memory

Security Notes

    Store credentials only in .env file (excluded from git)

    Use dedicated service accounts with minimal required permissions

    Synology sessions are properly terminated after execution

    HTTPS recommended for NAS connections in production

Development
Running Tests
bash

cargo test

Code Structure
text

src/
├── main.rs       # Application entry point and orchestration
├── config.rs     # Configuration management
├── nexrender.rs  # Nexrender job generation and structures
└── synology.rs   # Synology API client

Adding New Features

    Extend JobData in nexrender.rs for new data fields

    Update sheet parsing logic if new columns are required

    Add corresponding After Effects layers to templates

    Update to_nexrender_job() method with new asset mappings

Dependencies
Crate Version Purpose
reqwest 0.12 HTTP client for API communication
serde / serde_json 1.0 JSON serialization
calamine 0.26 Excel file parsing
chrono 0.4 Date/time handling
tokio 1.0 Async runtime
dotenv 0.15 Environment configuration
log / env_logger 0.4 Logging infrastructure
thiserror 2.0 Error type definitions
anyhow 1.0 Error handling
License

[Specify your license here]
Support

For issues and feature requests, please contact:

    [Your Team Email]

    [Internal Documentation Link]

Changelog
v0.1.0

    Initial release

    Synology Office integration

    Basic Nexrender job generation

    Excel parsing with dynamic sheet detection

    Multi-variant job creation

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