saving Animata projects and replacing elements???

[Georgie Pinn]

Quick question people,

I have imported a.png image of a character , which I'm playing with in Animata, saving regularly to avoid the lack of Undo mistakes

BUT when I reopen the project the workings are there but the image disappears and I can't keep working on it...

I am importing the image from an externaL hardrive, does the image need to be copied to the root folder of Animata to avoid

this issue?

This is relevant to my other question, which is how to replace quickly the source file for lets say the 'head' or 'torso"?

I've heard this is possible. I want to be able to swap the features  of my character once the bones and joints are done.

I understand that these elements need to have similar parameters...

Ur super brains are most appreciated..

Ta

--

Georgie Pinn

Motion Graphics Director

0488669905

[Maciej Ostaszewski]

On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Georgie Pinn <georg...@gmail.com> wrote:

Quick question people,

I have imported a.png image of a character , which I'm playing with in Animata, saving regularly to avoid the lack of Undo mistakes

BUT when I reopen the project the workings are there but the image disappears and I can't keep working on it...

I am importing the image from an externaL hardrive, does the image need to be copied to the root folder of Animata to avoid

this issue?

Image need to be in the folder where .nmt file is.

This is relevant to my other question, which is how to replace quickly the source file for lets say the 'head' or 'torso"?

I've heard this is possible. I want to be able to swap the features  of my character once the bones and joints are done.

I understand that these elements need to have similar parameters...

There is two ways to do it:

replace PNG/JPG file, or

edit nmt file with text editor. Find name of your image file and replace it with new one.

Old and new image file should have the same dimensions.

maciek

[James Britt]

Georgie Pinn wrote:
> Quick question people,
> I have imported a.png image of a character , which I'm playing with in
> Animata, saving regularly to avoid the lack of Undo mistakes
> BUT when I reopen the project the workings are there but the image
> disappears and I can't keep working on it...
>
> I am importing the image from an externaL hardrive, does the image need
> to be copied to the root folder of Animata to avoid
> this issue?

One way to see what is actually going on is to open up the project's
.mnt file in a text editor.

The contents are XML so all the details are wrapped in "<" and ">". (My
apologies if your are familiar with XML.)

Here's an example from a demo project I have:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<animata version="0.004">
<layer name="layer_0001" x="146.999969" y="9.000000"
z="0.000000" alpha="1.000000" scale="1.000000" vis="1">
<texture location="jgb-doll.png" x="0.000000"
y="0.000000" scale="1.000000" />
<mesh>
<vertices>
<vertex x="138.016800" y="12.075014" u="0.816072"
v="0.021645" selected="0" />
<vertex x="87.740906" y="5.565548" u="0.641072"
v="-0.006493" selected="0" />

<!-- lots more of this stuff -->


The thing to note is that the image is referred to as "texture" and that
the "location" value is just "jgb-doll.png". There is no other path or
folder information so it has to be in the same folder as the .mnt file.

I did an experiment to see if I could use a subfolder to store my
images, and it works kind of but not really. :(

I edited a project's mnt file to load the images from a subfolder, and
move the texture image to that folder. I loaded the project and it ran
fine. However, I tried saving the project and the mnt file then listed
the texture image location *without* any path information. That means
the next time the project is loaded it will expect the image to be in
the same folder as the mnt file. That's pretty disappointing, and it
means you *have* to have all the pictures in the same place as the mnt
file.


James Britt

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