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New user here - cannot access the TVP Animation Help from the Help menu- I get this message:

"There was an error opening this document. This file cannot be found."

Is there something I need to install?

Thanks,
Cathy

Cathy,

You need to do this yourself. Select and download the the user manual...
http://www.tvpaint.com/downloads/tvpap/manual.pdf

Once the manual.pdf file is downloaded move it into the TVPaint Animation Pro/Data subfolder. After which, it should pop right up when you click TVPaint Animation Help... under the Help menu.

And as I said elsewhere, once opened, you can toggle between TVPaint and the help file using Alt-Tab and learn by doing the lessons in the manual.

Sven

...or you can have it printed and bound for $ 40 at Kinkos (in B&W -- $200 in color). I still cling to books.

Svengali wrote:... After which, it should pop right up when you click TVPaint Animation Help... under the Help menu.

or (instead of the menu way), simply by hitting the [F1] shortkey .

The manual is already in that folder. It was installed with the software.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:...or you can have it printed and bound for $ 40 at Kinkos (in B&W -- $200 in color). I still cling to books.

Now THERE is a useful idea!!

ZigOtto wrote:

Svengali wrote:... After which, it should pop right up when you click TVPaint Animation Help... under the Help menu.

or (instead of the menu way), simply by hitting the [F1] shortkey .

Pressing the F1 key produces the same error message.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:...or you can have it printed and bound for $ 40 at Kinkos (in B&W -- $200 in color). I still cling to books.

What about being "paper-less?"

I've been thinking about getting a Kindle for a long time now, but the reviews were terrible. Now that the thing has been out for awhile and Amazon can't make them fast enough to fulfill all the orders, my interest has been rekindled.

What I don't like about the pdf format is that it's a bitch to find pages efficiently and too easy to loose your page once you've found it. The technology of drawing paperlesslly is more advanced than reading peperlessly.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:...or you can have it printed and bound for $ 40 at Kinkos (in B&W -- $200 in color). I still cling to books.

whoa! never thought of that one paul... it is much cheaper than wear and tear on printer, ink and paper... and TIME!

regards,
William

Anim8tor Cathy wrote:The manual is already in that folder. It was installed with the software.

Hmm. I think the "manual" installed with the software isn't actually the real manual, but rather a place-holder. Check the file size - the real manual .pdf file should be 40,216 kb (that's the downloaded TVPPro manual in English). But if you're going to have it printed out, I guess it doesn't really matter.

Sven

I've seen this same problem, even after downloading the manual from the site. Don't remember if I ever figured out the issue... I just open the file directly with Acrobat and read it in my second monitor screen.

A paper copy is a good idea, plus you have something you can take into the bathroom with you!

Paul Fierlinger wrote:I've been thinking about getting a Kindle for a long time now, but the reviews were terrible. Now that the thing has been out for awhile and Amazon can't make them fast enough to fulfill all the orders, my interest has been rekindled.

Does the Kindle allow loading your own files? And is it true the only way you can load personal files is via email? For some reason I thought the Kindle only allowed books and magazines that Amazon or affiliated publishers peddled. Years ago I bought one of the first digital book devices - the Rocket Book - which had all sorts of flaws, but at least let you generate or convert your own content (no photos or illustrations though.) Also, techies cracked the encryption pretty quickly which discouraged publishers so that generation of digital books dried up.

Paul Fierlinger wrote:What I don't like about the pdf format is that it's a bitch to find pages efficiently and too easy to loose your page once you've found it. The technology of drawing paperlesslly is more advanced than reading peperlessly.

The Bookmarks tab in Adobe Reader makes it reasonably easy to find TVP topics, but where digital documents really shine is the SEARCH feature. For example, a search for subpixel turns up two occurances both on page 88, where as a search for sub pixel turns up three: two on page 29 and one on page 249.

Sven

You are correct that you can't upload anything from a computer; only by downloading from Amazon through a pssword. But if you would loose everything or the whole book, you can go to Amazon and download once more everything you had ever paid for. No pictures either, I believe.

Svengali wrote:
Hmm. I think the "manual" installed with the software isn't actually the real manual, but rather a place-holder. Check the file size - the real manual .pdf file should be 40,216 kb (that's the downloaded TVPPro manual in English)....

Sven

Interesting info! I will check this out when I get home tonight. - Thanks!