images get disconnected

[egendron]

hey there,
I swap my entire AS file from one my external HD to a backup cd, then sometimes run the render from the cd.
When i do, all of my images get disconnected. is there a way to reconnect them? and is it in any way efficient ?
-edg

[jahnocli]

You need to have a system. Keep all images and sounds in sub-folders of the main folder containing your AS files. Then, when you move things around, the program will still be able to find them.

[egendron]

should top folder read "anime studio files" ?

If so, is this all that is necessary to enable the software to properly locate all images?

I ask this bc I do have a kind of system already in place but obviously what ive done is not enough.

thank you
-edg

[jahnocli]

My folders usually look something like this:

-- projectName
---- asFiles
------sounds
------bitmaps
------movies
------other

...in "other" would go stuff like vector files (Adobe Illustrator and suchlike), any text, tracing images, model sheets, AS files to import etc.

If you copy all this as a folder structure, AS will be able to locate your imported files. Believe me, I learnt the hard way...

[egendron]

thank you I will.
am only on shot two so it wont even be that big of a change.
-edg

[heyvern]

A really quick way to fix a lot of AS files is to use a text editor and search and replace.

The path that needs to be changed is usually the same for all the files up to the folder where the stuff is.

So if you move your AS files to the root of a project folder and put all the images in an images folder just search for:

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C:reallylongpathnametoimagefiles\where the images were\

And replace the whole thing with the local path:

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images\

Repeat this if needed for other linked items. In my case that whole front part was nearly the same for everything, maybe different names for image folder, sound folder etc.

Do a SAVE AS and open the new file in AS (after moving the files of course). It should open up with everything linked up.

Once you get the system down, you could do a batch replace on a whole folder of AS files (assuming your text editor has batch search and replace). I use jEdit and I even set up a regex search to find the front of the path, and folders that might be different, and did the whole thing in one shot. I only did this once on a big project... I too learned my lesson.

-vern

[heyvern]

Another trick is to do a save as in AS.

Go to the folder where the AS files are. The linked files are somewhere else. What you need to do is to "save as" the AS file to the place where the linked files are or right above that folder.

Don't worry about where this is because you will move the AS file.

Once the AS file is in a location ABOVE or the same directory as the linked files, you can move that duplicated saved AS file to a new location along with the linked files. The save as should have replaced the links with local paths. Moving the new file won't break the links. Once it's all set up you can delete the old AS files.

I like this technique if the files aren't all over the place and there aren't a lot of them. The regex text search is my favorite though, but some people don't like fiddling with AS files in a text editor.

-vern

[egendron]

thank you,
Ill try the second one. im a mac user and unsure if I can even do that function in #1
-edg


PS Ill have to wait until this evening though. stiiiiiiiiiiiilllll rendering.

[heyvern]

I'm on a mac too. I tried to be more "PC".
most people are on windows.

It works on Mac. You just look for a different path string in the AS file.

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file:///harddrive/etcetc/reallylongname/images

Or whatever it is. Something like that.

The second technique works well though. I just like to do things the hard way.

-vern