Tech support asked me about a question that came in from a user, which was whether one could output the current contents of the bezier path frame as a svg file.
The answer is yes, but it's not as straightforward as a simple menu export command. We'll try to add that option in the next release for convenience. But for now, let's run through how you can do it in V5.5.
I'm going to assume you already have a set of bezier curves in the bezier path frame.
Note that you have to be in Bezier operation mode to see the contents of the bezier path frame.
SVG output in Studio Artist is available via the Action :Generate SVG menu commands. When you run any of those commands, either the Vectorizer or the current PASeq plays back, and any vector drawing steps are streamed out to the open svg file stream.
Most of the vector paint effects available in Studio Artist are internally generating all kinds of different vector shapes (derived in some way off of the vector path fed into the effect) that work together to build up a particular vector paint or visual effect. So there is a lot of inherent complexity being generated. But if you just want to output the bezier curves in the bezier path frame, and nothing else, then you need to use the simplest vector paint effect possible. One that just takes the path it is drawing off of, and outputs it only, nothing else. We will construct that below.
To start, you want to initialize the paint synthesizer. To do that, you run the Edit: Paint Synthesizer : QuickEdits : Initialize menu command.
You could also shift click the Init botton at the bottom of the paint synthesizer Editor control panel to do the same thing.
Initialize quickedit resets all of the internal editable parameters in the paint synthesizer to a standard default setting. That default setting is a vey basic raster paint that has a size of 32x32 pixels. So we now need to manually edit the brush size to 1x1, and change the kind of painting from raster to vector (a very default simple vector paint settings that only paints the path, so no region fills).
To change the Brush size, you want to go to the Brush Source control panel.
Note that i changed the Horz and Vert Size to 1.
To make the vector paint edit, you need to goto the Vector Output control panel.
Note that i changed the Main Render Option from Raster to vector (solid color). I'm using the Bezier path option for the Vector Stroke Type. This will only draw the path, so a path stroke without any region fills for the path.
At this point we have constructed our super simple vector paint preset that only draws a path 1 pixel wide.
The paint synthesizer can internally generate all kinds of different automatic path drawing derived off of the source image, or mathematically constructed from some internal generative process. But we want to get our paths from the current contents of the bezier path frame. There is a menu command Path : Paint Paths : Full Layer that lets us do this.
If you turn on Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) recording, and run that menu command, you get the following PaintBezLayer action step recorded in the PASeq.
This is the PASeq you want to use for your SVG output. You might want to export it as a PASeq preset so that it is easy to access in the future if you want to output the bezier path frame as a svg file.
At this point you can run this PASeq using the Action : Generate SVG : with Paint Action Sequence menu command.
This will run the current PASeq, streaming any vector drawing generated in it to the svg file you specify in the standard file dialog that comes up when you run that menu command.
At this point you have your svg file.
You can open the svg file in something like the Chrome browser if you want to look at it to verify it is correct. Or you can open it in Illustrator or whatever program you want that imports svg files if you want to edit it.
Here's a tip that discusses generating SVG files in Studio Artist.
If you are unfamiliar with bezier paths and the bezier path frame, here's a tip that discusses what you can do with them.
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