Which programs or versions will open visible, editable EPS, SVG files generated or exported from S.A.?

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Donna Kuhn January 3, 2021 at 1:15pm

i just opened an svg file in sa with no problems at all.
Synthetik November 23, 2020 at 2:01pm

I was kind of surprised to see what you were doing in your description above.

The typical workflow in Studio Artist for processing either a movie file or a folder of frame images is to use the

Action : Process with a Paint Action Sequence : menu.

It lets you set your source and destination.

So on windows, if you had quicktime installed, you could go source to movie (if you had a loaded source movie), or movie to movie (if you want to specify what movie you are using for input when you run the Action menu command).

And if you are working with a folder of frame images, then you could choose the Image to Image option if you want to output a folder of processed frame images.

Since you are experimenting with eps and svg output, you could specify image to eps or image to svg.

All of these options are in the Action : Processing with a Paint Action Sequence : menu.

Action : Animate with a Paint Action Sequence : menu is used for animation output, where there usually isn't a movie or folder of frame images as the source. You could have a loaded source movie, and if you had the appropriate File : Source Option check menu options setup the right way, the source movie would advance with the animation advancing in the PASeq.

Typically a Source Context in a PASeq is used for building keyframe animation. So it gives you the ability to set specific source images at specific keyframe times. So yes, you could put source contexts at every frame in the animation like you did. But it seem pretty round about if you just want to process a folder of frame images. The Process menu gets you there way easier.

Sorry it took me so long to get back to this, super busy.

I'll run some more tests, but everything i tried here worked for me. My copy of Illustrator is old, but it opens svg fine for me (with the caveat that it is possible to make svg files in Studio Artist that have so much data in them that they crash Illustrator). I know the SVG files are correct because i can still render them in Studio Artist (File : Import : Import SVG as New Canvas menu), and i can open them in a web browser. EPS files open in Preview for me fine.

Just out of curiosity, since you seem like a pretty advanced user. Any other vector file formats besides eps or svg we should be looking at supporting? I ask because svg file format internally is ass-backwards for the kinds of things we want to do with it (have a ton of semi-transparent vector shapes and paths piled on top of each other to create very complex vector imagery). We've been thinking about rolling our own file format for this kind of stuff. So you could dump it out at low res working canvases from Studio Artist, and then render it to some arbitrary high res.
- Jeff C > Synthetik December 4, 2020 at 10:03am
  
  Hi John,
  sorry if my 4 remaining questions were a little much, esp. with you understandably busy and having no dedicated support staff\dept.
  
  Q4) "Uber key", although S.A. forums members inquired\requested this i've not seen it resolved or implemented on Google or any search, so i'll assume it impossible to S.A.,
  
  Q7) "Skeleton Edge Scan" From my experiments probably isn't centerline capable but was resolved by CorelDRAWs' "Centerline", bitmap trace function which produces paths equidistant from open or closed path edges.
  
  I'll keep experimenting with Q8)&Q9) since as well theres no doc's or examples released or online, untill confirming S.A. incapable of required roto-bezier edits, or till confirming software that is, and then utilizing S.A. for what it's great at: A.I. Automatic-Rotoscoping!
  Appreciate your excellent work and products,
  wish you best in ALL future endeavours,
  Yet another fan, Jeff
- Synthetik > Jeff C December 4, 2020 at 10:33am
  
  I will chase all of these down for you, but probably not for a week at least. SA V5.5 finishing takes precedence over everything at this point.
  
  I think what you are trying to do is cool, so i want to support it. but it's kind of off in left field from our usual users workflows, which centers around creating artistic visual effects. So i have to drop it a tier as far as things i focus on.
  
  As we move into the V5.5 and V6 eras, sure we can try and offer additional support for the kinds of things you are trying to do (a somewhat different workflow than the typical one our current users are interested in). There are new features coming in V6 that will aid you as far as the 'intelligence' goes for what you want to do. And i'd really like to insure that V6 works as a versatile central hub for mucking with video in many different ways.
  
  A few quick questions for you:
  
  The skeleton stuff is a skeletonization algorithm that works on images as input (not bezier paths). Because of how it works, it's 'dirty' (for lack of a better work to describe it). Very useful artistically, but not quite designed for what you are trying to do.
  
  Uber key??? Can you describe please, or point me at the appropriate web page which did not appear in 30 seconds of google searching for it.
- Jeff C > Synthetik December 4, 2020 at 1:29pm
  
  Thanks John, also for supporting my S.A. project goals as cool enough to implement in V5.5 &6 which i really! look forward to, as so many seeing the exciting potential of S.A. in CG pre&post-production and far beyond.
  
  Appreciate your confirmation, i came to similar conclusion regarding Skeletonization, being great artistically but can't be specifically applied or precise, therefore inapplicable to my purpose.
  
  Here's a video link to Mocha Pro's UBER key tutorial:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPlvrGcdHqg
  
  ..and uber key software or service:
  https://flowbox.io/blog/tag/uber-key/
  
  Talk soon as prior precedences allow,
  always looking forward,
  Jeff
- Jeff C > Synthetik November 25, 2020 at 10:24am
  
  Thanks John, for your extremely productive elaborations of Action: Process\Animate with PASeq, esp. "Image to EPS" which worked well when preceded by Vectorizer operation.
  
  Regarding the opening of A.S. EPS files:
  - they WILL open in A.I. as long as their "Open"d Not dragged&dropped into A.I.,
  - they will NOT open as vector files in P.S.CC and are instead rasterized when opened.
  
  [QUESTIONS]:
  4) how to have each bezier edit affect all or select keyframes in Studio Artist?, if it doesn't by default. Like MochaPro "Uber" key,
  7) how to use "Skeleton Edge Scan" to create a path equidistant from 2 paths or at center of closed paths?
  8) how to close all or selected bezier paths?
  
  Prior question 5) (increasing detail &accuracy) i resolved with Vectorizer > Editor > Generation:SmartEdge Threshold adjustments.
  Vectorizer > ..EPS Region Type(s) or Outline Type(s) did not improve Vectorizer source edge accuracy. There is little and no documentation of EPS Region Types and SmartEdge or Path > ..Gen Option.
  
  [QUESTION]:
  9) might you please describe use and\or small tutorial on Vectorizer > ..SmartEdge, EPS Region Types and Join Similar\Join Scan?
  
  For Any other vector file formats Studio Artist should be looking at supporting = .AI (Illustrator), .PSD, .CDR (CorelDRAW), .DXF (AutoCAD), .FBX (Autodesk), .OBJ (Wavefront), .IGES, .XYZ (Opton), .STEP, .STL,
  
  ..thanks again, talk soon,
  Jeff
Synthetik November 16, 2020 at 1:28pm

Is there something inside of your generated svg file? You can open it in a web browser to see what it looks like.

I'm guessing not based on what you are doing in your description above.

A bezier context saves a bezier path frame in a PASeq. But it doesn't do any actual drawing? It's a mechanism to save a bezier path frame in a PASeq.

Here's a tip on PASeq Contexts.

It talks about how it was introduced to replace the old pre-V4 timeline animation features.

Here's a tip on what that is all about if you are interested.

So, the key thing i think you missed in the PASeq Context tip is the following:

Bezier Context – records bezier keyframes. When recorded stores the current layer’s bezier path frame. When played back the current layer’s bezier path frame is replaced with the bezier paths stored in the context.

So, all you are doing is setting the bezier path frame from your PASeq. You aren't doing any actual drawing as far as i can tell in your description above.

Studio Artist layers contain a raster image file that is associated with the layer, as well as a Bezier Path Frame. The bezier path frame is just a buffer for bezier paths associated with the layer.

So we get to your question 2. Yes, SA requires you to draw something appropriate into the canvas to actually output something in svg or eps.

You could use a very simple flat vector paint preset with a brush size of 1.

Here's a tip on working with svg

We've use SA generated svgs in Illustrator. Inkscape would be another option.

I typically open one in a web browser first to see what it looks like to verify it's outputting what i want it to.

Here's a tip on working with eps

You can open eps files inside of Photoshop.

You can use apple's preview application to open eps files generate in Studio Artist.

SVG will be generated by anything in Studio Artist that is a vector effect.

EPS is more restrictive. EPS does not support partial transparency, SVG does.

Be Aware:

1: Studio Artist does both raster painting as well as vector painting. So if you are using raster paint effects in a PASeq, no vector drawing is occurring, so no svg output.

Some paint effects might be hybrid raster/vector

If you read through the entire eps tip, it talks about the old options there for generating eps from the raster paint path. There is one that is just the bezier path.

2: It's possible to generate super huge svg files inside of Studio Artist that can crash Illustrator since they have so much data in them. SA V5 introduced a lot of additional vector paint and Vectorizer vector render options that can look very much like natural media, but are generating huge amounts of vector information.

Note that files that open in a browser like Safari might still crash Illustrator if they are huge (have a ton of internal vector information in them).
- Jeff C > Synthetik November 16, 2020 at 8:10pm
  
  thanks John, also for honor of creator support &confirmations in comprehending Studio Artist.
  1)
  My "Primal", source session, EPS files were! empty in web browser, so in "Dancer w\white Bkgrd" session,.
  i added Vectorizer Pathgen(Gen.Paths > from Vectorizer)
  after a Vectorizer operation using BlackOutlineThin2 preset,
  then Generate EPS > with Vectorizer
  (see screenshot: 5.png)
  ..producing an EPS bezier of the Dancer which opened in Illustrator, Thanks again.
  Although the BlackOutlineThin2 preset:EPS Outline Size=1, the Illustrator EPS had a thicker variable stroke width than in S.A.
  (see screenshot: 6.png)
  
  2)
  (see screenshot: A.png)
  after using Record Context > ..Source, to load the "Primal" image sequence,
  then Record Context > ..Content
  and Generate Paths > from Source Edges
  then Animate w/Paint Action Sequence > to EPS,
  ..the editable beziers were generated on screen(re:screenshot) for each of 100 frames in the image sequence, so i though they'd likewise be stored in each EPS file.
  
  (could not attach 4th: AFlatPaintPreset.png) If i've the right Flat Paint Presets there's "EPS Outline Size" in editors but no "brush size". Is there a particular flat vector paint preset you recommend?
  
  3) (see screenshot: A.png) would a Vectorizer operation with BlackOutlineThin2 preset&EPS Outline Size=1, added after SourceEdgeToPath also paint the beziers produced by Animate w/P.A.Seq. > to EPS?
  
  Appreciate the great work,
  excited to talk soon,
  Jeff
  
  5.png
  
  6.png
  
  A.jpg
- Synthetik > Jeff C November 17, 2020 at 9:22am
  
  I'll think about adding a new feature in the future that lets one do directly what you want to do, dump the bezier layer out as eps or svg directly from a PASeq that might be processing a movie file or image frame folder. I guess i can see it's utility for some tasks.
  
  I'm super busy right now, i'll try and get back to some of the more specific questions you asked later today.
- Jeff C > Synthetik November 17, 2020 at 4:09pm
  
  Thanks John, look forward to later or thereafter, your time permitting.
  
  F) Had to recall the hard way .eps files must be "Open"d in A.I.CC\Adobe? so that paths will load as groups rather than empty "<Linked File>" proxy\reference via drag&drop. Now last EPS sessions beziers, will load in Adobe, from StudioArtists':"..fully armed and operational! battle station,."
  G) A.I.CC: SVG loads blank when opened or drag-drop,
  H) P.S.CC: EPS is rasterized when opened, and File > Import > Video Frames to Layers = "Could not complete..command..file could not be opened"
  
  ..so now onto frames into layers into mattes &compositing, into non-linear post &pre-production perpetuus.
  
  These have built up as emerged, please take time if you've to spare:
  Question 4) how to have each bezier edit affect all or select keyframes in Studio Artist?, if it doesn't by default. Like MochaPro "Uber" key
  Q5) how to increase\or-select bezier Details captured from Source Edges vectorization?
  Q6) how to make all PASeq timeline operator frames into (red)Keyframes?
  
  ..thanks for your:"..skills, that truly pay the bills."
  looking forward,
  Jeff

General Technical Discussion

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