I am trying to export my cut-out/puppet animation in a SWF format, but when it finished some elements that were “hidden” or masked with the cutter tool appear as if not being “masked” in the finished export.
I also used a auto-patch to blend the lines of the feet and legs and it’s also as if it didn’t work in the swf. You can still see the lines of the legs over the feet. What can I do to have a SWF that “reads” masked parts and auto-patched parts of my puppet?
I uploaded an example of a few poses that were damaged in the export, there’s the screenshot of the animation still open in Harmony and the screenshots of the exported SWF animation in comparison.
Please, I hope this can be resolved.
Thank you!
Hi W.Miranda,
The image you have posted is very blurry and I cannot see much of the differences between the two, although I know what you are talking about.
The SWF format cannot read everything created by Harmony. More information about this can be found in the documentation: http://docs.toonboom.com/help/harmony-14/premium/export/export-swf-movie.html?Highlight=swf%20export#
Could you tell me what you are trying to achieve by exporting to SWF?
Thank you,
Matisse
I uploaded a closer screenshot.
Our compositor/editor prefers to work with SWF files in Adobe After Effects. It’s the format used for most projects in the studio I work in.
So if SWF doesn’t read everything created by Harmony, what format is the best for exporting in Harmony? I also tried to export in a quicktime format, but a line that’s supposed to be invisible between the head shape and the hair shape appears in the resulting video. I like the quality of the image more in the SWF format than .mov.
I also uploaded a screenshot of the .mov export.
Thanks for the reply!
Hi W.Miranda,
Is it required of you to export a video or can you export a sequence of image?
If you can export a sequence of image, you have access to a wider ranger of export formats in the Write node, from which you can pick.
For example, if you need transparency in your exported images, you can pick a variety of our formats that end with “4”, meaning the alpha -as it is the 4th channel-.
Matisse
Hello Matisse,
The reason our compositor prefers to work with SWF is because he can alter the size of the animation while editing a video and not have it’s quality damaged because of the vectors supported in SWF. I asked him about the sequence of image like you are suggesting and he said he can work with it too if the SWF and quicktime formats keep having the same issues. Is the “Layout Image” option in the export menu the one for exporting a sequence of image? I will give it a try.
Thank you so much for the reply!
Hi W.Miranda,
In order to export a sequence of image, you should set-up your Write node to the file format you would like to export to -possibly PDF-, as this also keeps the vector of the drawings. I recommend running a test with that file format, in order to see if the result is appropriate.
To export, go to the top menu: File>Export>Render Write Nodes, pick the desired options and voilà!
If you haven’t changed the location of the export, all your frames should be in the Frames subfolder of your Harmony scene.
Matisse
