Is there any way Export a Switch Data File from AS?

[ddrake]

Hey guys, wondering if anyone knew about this, or has an alternate solution...

I know that you can control a Switch layer by importing, or rather referencing a switch data file that has been created by something like Papagayo. I'm looking for a way to similarly create or export information from a switch later but FROM anime studio.

Maybe I'm on the wrong track and there's another simple way to do this, but here's my issue: I have a bunch of switch layer files that have been synced to audio clips already. (The co-creator of the project I'm working is not an artist or animator, but to lighten my work load, he's taking the audio clips and does the lip-sync with just a switch layer of mouth shapes I created and I later import/place/and adjust them.) He's already done a bunch of the legwork, but I was interested in updating my shapes.

If I'm creating a new switch but have every layer within named the same as my original I could easily swap out, and ta-da! better mouths! Unfortunately, I would have to manually, pull in the new layers for each clip and delete the old ones, which is why it would be ideal to just copy or export the info as a dat file like Papagayo does and select that as the lip-sync source for the new switch layer in Anime Studio.

Is that possible? Or something like that?

[hayasidist]

http://www.mediafire.com/download/re2667x8e4yfqdc

also see http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/animato ... IC_ID=2178 but that's in the VIP section, so until you're a "frequent" contributor , you'll not be able to access the extras ...

[heyvern]

I just quickly created a menu or button script you can install in your Anime Studio application or custom content folder that will export .dat files.

I did this in like 20 minutes, but it's so simple and it worked fine with my testing.

http://hubumedia.com/anime-studio-servi ... h-dat-file

Let me know if it works okay. The instructions for installing are pretty simple and on that link I posted.

[ddrake]

Heyvern! Thanksvern! Nice! I'm pretty sure that works, though I'm having some computer issues that probably are not related. The only thing is that for me it seems to export to a .txt or something and not directly to .dat? I'm pretty sure I can change the extension and get it to load. Anyway, not sure yet, because some other things have gone wonky. But thanks a lot, I appreciate the help.

[heyvern]

When you see the save file window, just make sure you type in the .dat at the end of the name:

Code: Select all

my-switch-keys-file.dat

If could also be an issue with Windows. Windows has this nasty habit of always putting .txt on the end of text type files regardless of the extension already on the file or that you type in. I'm on a mac. Mac handles file extensions differently. It uses the extension to determine the file type.

Yes, you can simply change the extension after saving. That will work. For all I know the switch dat import might work with .txt files as well, never tried it.

p.s. This was the fastest script I wrote that actually worked on the first try.

[ddrake]

Yeah, it's all good. My version of Windows and AS don't want to cooperate to find anything other than a ".dat" to connect to the switch layer. That being said, your script does work fine, just requires proper file naming and such. Thank you very much.

Still on the fence I guess. My current issue is still trying to reconcile "outcome vs. effort" with updating things. It doesn't take long to realize that a very simple mouth switch "dat" looks very different when applied to a different set of "updated" shapes keyframed by someone else.