Export as Psd with layers & removing empty layers

[Sewie]

Hello TVPainters,

When working on storyboards I often need to export the entire project as a sequence of layered psd's (in addition to jpegs and/or pdf's). I usually create my board panels on a timeline in a single clip. So it often happen that not every instance of that clip will have artwork on all the layers.

My question is, is there way to export an entire clip as layered psd frames AND have the empty layers removed from the exported psd? Sometimes editorial is asking for this to keep the psd files clean and manageable. I haven't seen a setting like that in the export settings panel but perhaps there's a script available?

[Xavier]

Well ... have you tried this ? https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/th ... sec16.html

[Sewie]

I have found a few psd scripts like this but I don't have a Photoshop licence anymore. I quit Adobe when they switched to the subscription model. (The last version I owned was CS2, I believe, and it doesn't play well with my system. Too outdated by now.)

It is a last option, though, to get a Photoshop licence for the duration of the job but I first wanted to check if there's a way of doing this within TVPaint.

[Xavier]

Trying to understand ... what do you mean by "layered psd frames" ? is it the "Clip: Layer structure" tab ? Do you export a clip structure as a sequence of psd files, like this ?

Capture d’écran_2021-08-11_15-45-01.png (20.01 KiB) Viewed 8352 times

Indeed the JSON format has this option to export only visible layers, whereas the PSD format hasn't the option. I'd need to discuss it with the team.

[Sewie]

Yes, that's the tab I'm using. And I'm exporting the structure as psd files (like you have in your screengrab).

[NathanOtano]

Just seen you post, it's a bit unrelated but in my storyboard tools you have an export script to export the whole project as layered psds (and not just current clip) : viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10376
I added the option to add a white background layer, I don't feel the need to remove empty layers but if somebody creates a small script to check all layers and delete the empty ones I for sure can add this easily to my export tool

[Sewie]

Thanks for the link Nathan.
Those are some great tools in your custom panel! (For a many of them I'll have to figure out what they do, though.)

[NathanOtano]

yeah, it's a mess for now i'l do a proper update one day maybe

[Sewie]

I wish I had your scripting talent, though. There is some amazing stuff in there!

[NathanOtano]

thanks!