exporting for finishing of in other software?

[hilere]

I have me a little problem here. I just finished an animation for someone who finishes it off in ToonBoom. Now if I export my files as jpg sequences (layer by layer) it exports the frames. Not the actual drawings. There is also no numbering on the drawings, nor an x-sheet with numbers.
When I work on paper I deliver the drawings and an exposure sheet.
Is there a way in TVP to do the same?

[Elodie]

If you want to create an xsheet, you have two solutions :

-take a simple paper sheet and draw yourself the x-sheet, based on your layers and instances (IMO, it would be the fatest solution)
-open a new clip into your project, go in the xsheet tab and... read the manual, lesson 8-7 to 8-18


Just a question : why do you only want to export drawing, and not the complete instances ? It doesn't really make sense to do a xsheet if you drew with the computer, because everything is already timed when you export (contrary if you animate on paper, where you have to mention if the drawing must be seen once, twice or several times)
Why don't you import the Toonboom's animation on TVP ?

[slowtiger]

I don't know about Toonboom, but I know why I export animation from TVP to Anime Studio: much more comfortable workflow to do camera movements, with smaller file sizes. (Sorry to say that ...)

OTOH I also import animation from AS to TVP - I like to combine the best of all worlds.

hilere: You may want to export in PNG format, set to RGBA, and "export background" un-checked. This way you get image files with an alpha channel. This is standard procedure if you want to export from TVP to a separate compositing software.

[ematecki]

NEVER use jpeg as a 'working' file format ! It is LOSSY, at each save/export you'll lose some details from your image !

To get frame numbers, use the Rendering>Time Code Generator FX.

[hilere]

I go jpg because the client specifically asked for it.

Elodie. I am working on a project for someone else. It gets finished off in ToonBoom. (not my choice) When I work on paper there's no problem delivering the material. Working digital gives me this foremntioned problem. My client does not want to receive all the frames, because the amount of images to color booms enormously. It would be a nice option in TVP to have a way to output the drawings only, numbered and an accompanied x-sheet. Not everybody wants to finish off his animation in TVP. In fact it will happen for me more that I work for a client who finishes off in ToonBoom (or others) rather than TVP since those softs are written more for commercial production.

[Paul Fierlinger]

To get the numbers on the drawings use the same method as you used with your drawings on paper.

Or buy Youngmonkey's Marker-Tracker; a fantastic plugin that numbers every original frame in the corner which allows for automatic coloring of instances (if you color only the original frames, the colors will appear on all their instances with a simple click and the colors can be on a separate layer!).

But it does more; it allows you to separate only the original frames from the layers(minus the instances).

Also, when you are done, it automatically erases all the numbers. I (and several others here) have been using this system for years. You would be using it a little differently, but it would serve your purpose well. I think it costs only $ 50 but not sure. You can't loose with this one!

[Elodie]

I go jpg because the client specifically asked for it.

The clients are not alway really aware of what is the best
Follow Eric and Slowtiger's advises and export your sequence in png or tga.

Not everybody wants to finish off his animation in TVP. In fact it will happen for me more that I work for a client who finishes off in ToonBoom (or others) rather than TVP since those softs are written more for commercial production.

Hmmm.... generally, it's the contrary : people wants to start drawing on paper and finish on TVP Animation. Whatever, as I didn't know the context of your work, I tried to suggest you other ways to fix your problem =)

Anyway, you have now three solutions :
-learn to use the xsheet tab => it will take time and you won't be able to export it, so I'm not sure it is the best solution...
-write yourself the xsheet with an Excel or something like this : you will simply have to follow what you have in your screen, because all instances with several exposures have a little number at the end of the instance, in order to inform you how many expo do you have.
-buy Youngmonkey's plugins

If you choose the second solution, before importing and after writing your xsheet, select all the instances in your layers and hit the red button "-1" into the "Animator Panel => Exposures", until you have only instances with 1 exposure.
Then, it will be easier to export your sequence. To be more precise, don't forget to give a name to your exported images that corresponds to what you wrote in your manual xhseet, like "character1_line_001"

[ZigOtto]

I go jpg because the client specifically asked for it.

can't you courteously teach/educate him/her that WIP transferts must be made in a lossless format, (such as uncompressed TGA or PNG) ? I'm working in animation for about 20 years now, and no one ask me a jpeg sequence, as far as I can remember...

... It would be a nice option in TVP to have a way to output the drawings only, numbered and an accompanied x-sheet ...

+1 !
and we have already near all needed, XS-layers, with Source-Layers (or Source-Projects) as dependencies,
all we need now is a [Print] button in the XSheet tab, or much better an [Xport] button which basically will export the spreadsheet content, in .ods (or xls, or .txt) format, imo, it wouldn't be a big work to add such XSheet Export command, and would be a big + for some of us, animator-mercenaries and freelances who use to work with other studios as a link of a chain. (or are we insignificant in nb, regarding the whole tvpa users community who mostly work from A to Z all their projects "at home", I mean with tvpaint.)
the ultra-perfect XSheet exporting feature could offer a couple of options :
Xport ... with/without Dependencies,
- " without D. " >> exporting the spreadsheet content only
- " with D." >> exporting the speadsheet, + the source sequence(s) in folder(s) labelised by the name of the column(s),
with optional image format TGA32/PNG32

[D.T. Nethery]

I go jpg because the client specifically asked for it.

can't you courteously teach/educate him/her that WIP transferts must be made in a lossless format, (such as uncompressed TGA or PNG) ? I'm working in animation for about 20 years now, and no one ask me a jpeg sequence, as far as I can remember...

... It would be a nice option in TVP to have a way to output the drawings only, numbered and an accompanied x-sheet ...

+1 !
and we have already near all needed, XS-layers, with Source-Layers (or Source-Projects) as dependencies,
all we need now is a [Print] button in the XSheet tab, or much better an [Xport] button which basically will export the spreadsheet content, in .ods (or xls, or .txt) format, imo, it wouldn't be a big work to add such XSheet Export command, and would be a big + for some of us, animator-mercenaries and freelances who use to work with other studios as a link of a chain. (or are we insignificant in nb, regarding the whole tvpa users community who mostly work from A to Z all their projects "at home", I mean with tvpaint.)
the ultra-perfect XSheet exporting feature could offer a couple of options :
Xport ... with/without Dependencies,
- " without D. " >> exporting the spreadsheet content only
- " with D." >> exporting the speadsheet, + the source sequence(s) in folder(s) labelised by the name of the column(s),
with optional image format TGA32/PNG32

This topic was from 2010.

Now these many years later we have the JSON export script to take our TVPaint scenes over to After Effects. Is it possible to make a similar script to export drawings/layers that can be opened in Harmony ?

I am resurrecting this very old topic because I have a similar situation : animation and clean-up in TVPaint , client wants to finish in Harmony for coloring , because he can get it done cheaper at a digital ink & paint service that is already set up for a Harmony workflow or with freelancers who own Harmony (not as many people own TVPaint and it is more expensive than Harmony. Harmony has a subscription service that can be activated and deactivated by the month)

The problem is as discussed above. If I export my animation from TVPaint as an image sequence (PNGs) it exports all the FRAMES , not only the instances (with exposures intact). What I need is something similar to what happens with the JSON export script for taking the scene into AE with the layers and exposures intact. Is such a thing possible ?

[Thierry]

Hmm, that might be a bit complicated.
The correct way to do it would be to create a script like the After Effects one.

Does ToonBoom have a scripting language or something like that?

[cgmodeler]

We had a similar problem, we basically work everything in 3D and finish it on tvpaint so instead of rendering all the frames on a 120 frames sequence, we solved it by rendering only the poses of each "Animation Cel in 3D" pretty much like Japanese Animation so instead of rendering 120 frames we rendered 10 or 20. THen we developed a software that generates the proper json format based specific software syntax, for example for tvpaint and tvpt json importer in AE we have a preset, so i guess you could develop one specifically for a format that harmony imports. something like the digital exposure sheet that they use now in japan or a .json that is compatible with harmony sintax.

In that way we keep the image number to a minimum

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[D.T. Nethery]

Hmm, that might be a bit complicated.
The correct way to do it would be to create a script like the After Effects one.

Does ToonBoom have a scripting language or something like that?

https://docs.toonboom.com/help/harmony- ... pting.html

https://docs.toonboom.com/help/harmony- ... rence.html

"The Harmony Scripting guide contains information to help you use Qt Script, the scripting language used by Toon Boom Harmony Premium.

Qt Script provides access to many of the functions supported in the Harmony interface. With Qt Script, you can automate a number of Harmony functions to speed up the completion of various repetitive tasks."


Here is what the script editor looks like (I have no idea how this works , this is just a list of preset scripts) .

The one shown is for "Import Flash Scene . Description: Import a export.json file generated by the Export to Harmony and recreate the hierarchy of pegs and read."

https://docs.toonboom.com/help/harmony- ... mport.html




.

[D.T. Nethery]

The Rough Animator app also has this function, to export from Rough Animator to Harmony. It's just a script you can download . Then it transfers all drawings and layers from Rough Animator to Harmony.

https://roughanimator.com/toharmony/

[D.T. Nethery]

Revisiting this topic.

The correct way to do it would be to create a script like the After Effects one.

So, how would one even get started to create something like that?

Does ToonBoom have a scripting language or something like that?

Yes, ToonBoom has a scripting language , see my post above with links.

Also notice the link I had posted to the app Rough Animator. Rough Animator has scripts to export/import to both Harmony and After Effects. Rough Animator is not made by a big software company, it's just one guy who wrote the main program and wrote the scripts.

Here is a description of how it works:

https://roughanimator.com/toharmony/

I've tried it and it's very easy to use, it perfectly exports the layers from Rough Animator (with all the exposure of the instances intact, on 1's , or on 2's , or held ) to Harmony .
This is what the script looks like :

Of course, to me this is an unintelligible alien language , I don't know scripting at all, I'm only a cartoonist. But this sort of script would be very handy to have, to allow animators to take advantage of TVPaint's user friendly interface and great drawing tools for animation and clean-up , then if the show I'm working for wants to finish up in Harmony for coloring with vector layers (which many do) , I could still use TVPaint to do my work and then deliver it to them as a Harmony file for coloring the drawings. If it was up to me I'd do it all in TVPaint , but as was written by Hilere at the start of this topic many years ago:

"I am working on a project for someone else. It gets finished off in ToonBoom. (not my choice) My client does not want to receive all the frames, because the amount of images to color booms enormously. It would be a nice option in TVP to have a way to output the drawings only, numbered and an accompanied x-sheet. Not everybody wants to finish off his animation in TVP. In fact it will happen for me more that I work for a client who finishes off in ToonBoom (or others) rather than TVP since those softs are written more for commercial production."

I've talked with other animators and they agree: they would prefer to work in TVPaint all the time , but are often forced to work in Harmony (which tends to be more widely used in the industry, at least here in North America) , but if there were an easy way to automatically transfer all the layers and drawings (only talking about LINE art , no color , no FX) to Harmony , then as the line art is vectorized coming into Harmony , the production can send it on through their pipeline to have the coloring done in Harmony. This would have the same usefulness as the After Effects JSON script which allows animation to be done in TVPaint , but then complicated camera moves and compositing can be done in AE, which is better suited to it.

[cgmodeler]

I'm thinking for those into ToonBoom they could have a programmer to script the parser for either json or xdts


(Json) as being the format that tvpaint exports, we created a program to export from 3dsmax /maya animation information to Tvpaint's json then we use a script to import that information onto a tvpaint scene.

I've seen wit studio using xdts to do the same so if there's anyone with knowledge of toonBoom, could have a programmer to write script that imports from an xdts or a .json directly onto toonboom.


xdts btw is the toei animation digital exposure sheet, its basically an xsheet software (what a godsend!)

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