Questions about TVPaint 11.5.3

[JoeMurray]

So I would export each "clip" into a file that can be imported into say final cut to put together as a full movie. Correct?

[JoeMurray]

So I would export each "clip" into a file that can be imported into say final cut to put together as a full movie. Correct?

[D.T. Nethery]

So a clip has nothing to do with layers. You can have one clip with multiple layers on it.

Yes, that's correct. A Clip (scene) can have one layer or five layers, or fifty layers, whatever it may be ... the next Clip can have a different number of layers, and so forth.
A sequential series of Clips in the project -- CLIP_001 , CLIP_002 , CLIP_003 , CLIP_004, CLIP_005, etc. -- will play in continuity when you are in the Project view. OR to view only one clip at a time , select the clip and click on the Clip Timeline view.

Screen Shot 2023-01-07 at 11.39.25 AM.png (20.76 KiB) Viewed 4229 times

Yes, I do have my whole film on one timeline. But I would like to split it up.

You can do that using Split Clip from the Clip Menu. If you split a clip and you realize you split it at the wrong frame , you can just hit CMD+Z (Mac) or CTRL+Z (Windows) to Undo the split. Then advance the cursor to the frame where you want the split to occur and redo Split Clip.

After you have split up the entire movie into separate clips you will still have the entire movie contained in a single TVPaint project file. (but NOT all on the same timeline). To separate each of the individual clips into it's own TVPaint Project, right-click on the selected clip and click on 'Create a New Project from Selected Clip'.

Then in the newly created project go to File Menu > Save Project As > and save it with the appropriate naming convention you use for your files , such as "ANIM_SC_01_01_07_2023.tvpp" . Do that for each clip and soon you will have each scene as separate project file for animation (again, the point is to keep a single TVPaint file containing all the scenes from growing too large and unwieldy. It's easier to work on individual scenes in their own TVPaint file. You can have more than one TVPaint file open at a time , so you can switch back and forth between open files , if you need to check them against one another for contniuity, etc.)

[D.T. Nethery]

So I would export each "clip" into a file that can be imported into say final cut to put together as a full movie. Correct?

Well, the Export options include export Project:Display which will export all the Clips in the project as a continuous .MOV , .MP4 , or .AVI file , or export as a continuous Image Sequence (JPG, PNG, TIF, TGA). OR you can Export from the Clip:Display which will only export a .MOV, .MP4, .AVI , or Image Sequence from the currently selected Clip. Then your .MOV or .MP4 or .AVI or Image Sequence can be imported into your Editing software to cut it together as a finished movie.

See: https://www.tvpaint.com/doc/tvp11/index ... troduction
and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKnFCG2wkGI

Another Export option is to export your clips from the Clip: Layers Structure tab , exporting to JSON file (with associated layers as PNG image sequence) which can then be opened up in After Effects with special import script , preserving the layer ordering and exposure of each image, so it's very easy to move the animation from TVPaint to After Effects, if you prefer to use After Effects for final compositing and camera moves. See here: https://www.tvpaint.com/doc/tvp11/index ... cture-json
and: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YayOsWHXQZo&t=33s

[D.T. Nethery]

It looks like the TVPaint example files (from "Journey Through Creativity") can still be accessed from the Archive.org cache of the older TVPaint.com website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20190401143 ... hp?lang=en

Scroll down to the bottom of that page under Projects of the Movie and right-click on each thumbnail image , select Save Link As ... and download them into a folder on your computer. These example .tvpp files can be quite useful in helping the new user grasp the file and layer structure of TVPaint.


There are some other example files available here: https://web.archive.org/web/20220221133 ... paint.com/

Look under the 'Community' tab.

The example files in addition to 25th Anniversary (Journey Through Creativity) are monofilmo and Tie Fighter by Paul Johnson.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220312172 ... ofilmo.php

https://web.archive.org/web/20220218030 ... ighter.php

[D.T. Nethery]

More about camera moves:

You may find these threads of past discussions about using the Camera tool to be of interest (and how it relates to using the Split Clip function to make it easier to do extended camera moves that move between multiple camera views , like the camera moving from POSITION A - to - POSITION B - to - POSITION C - to - POSITION D - to - POSITION E (including holds between each of these moves)


viewtopic.php?f=10&t=9133


viewtopic.php?p=97916#p97916

[JoeMurray]

So I split the clip at the start of the scene I want to split into it's own project, but how do I cut off the back part of the clip leaving just the one scene. I've been watching tutorials and experimenting but I can't find that function.

Thank you for all of your help so far!

[JoeMurray]

I know I sound really computer lame, but I'm new to this software, and I've just spent a year animating an 11-minute film, and I am now going back and doing color and backgrounds. I think maybe I dove into it too fast, but I was having fun!

[D.T. Nethery]

So I split the clip at the start of the scene I want to split into it's own project, but how do I cut off the back part of the clip leaving just the one scene. I've been watching tutorials and experimenting but I can't find that function.

I know I sound really computer lame, but I'm new to this software, and I've just spent a year animating an 11-minute film, and I am now going back and doing color and backgrounds. I think maybe I dove into it too fast, but I was having fun!

To review: right now you have a single TVPaint project file of the entire 11-minute film animated , but everything is in a single clip , on the same timeline.
At this point the task is to split up the film into separate Clips, right ? (and then make each Clip into a separate TVPaint project file so the project doesn't get too large as you start to adding color layers and BGs)


Here's how I would proceed if I were doing it:

1.) Go through the entire project as it exists now in one Clip on one Timeline and check to make sure that everything is lined up properly in terms of the layering for each scene , to be sure that no layers from one scene overlap into the next scene and that any rough BG layouts under the animation layers are extended to the correct duration of the animated scene (same for any OL's), so when you split up the single timeline into multiple Clips everything should stay lined up correctly.

2.) Now start at the first scene and advance to the end of the scene , moving the cursor to the first frame of the next scene (remember: the SPLIT CLIP command always splits it on the frame before the frame the cursor is currently on.) For example: if the first scene is from frame 1 to frame 126, you should advance to frame 127 (first frame of the second scene) before you execute the SPLIT CLIP command.

Now click on SPLIT CLIP in the Clip Menu (or make a custom keyboard shortcut for SPLIT CLIP. In the shortcuts list the command is Project: Clip: Split . Assign the keyboard shortcut to whatever available key you prefer).

3.) At this point if you switch to the Project tab you should now have two Clips in your Project. (probably named by default as Clip_001_left and Clip_001_right, because the split clip has been moved to the left of the original clip, which is now Clip_001_right. (This is how it works now in version 11.7.1. If you are still on 11.5.3 then the resulting split clips might be named Untitled_left and Untitled_right , if you did not previously have a name assigned to the Clip. It doesn't matter, you can rename all the Clips later , using the correct Scene numbers, before you seperate them to individual TVP project files)

4.) The Clip_001_left will contain your first scene. Clip_002_right contains all the other scenes. So now return to the Clip:Timeline view and move to the end of your second scene , advancing to one frame after the end of the second scene (i.e. the first frame of the third scene) and repeat the Split Clip. Keep repeating this operation until you have reached the end and only one scene remains, all the others having been split off to their own Clips.

In your 11 minute film I'm not sure how many scenes you have , but for example I'll just assume there are 50 scenes. At this point you should have 50 clips in the Project view. Now starting at the first scene double-click on the title bar at the top of the clip and re-name it SCENE_01. Continue with the other clips naming them in sequential order SCENE_02, SCENE_03, SCENE_04 , SCENE_05 , etc. (or use whatever naming convention you prefer) until you get to the end SCENE_50 . I wish TVPaint would simply name each split clip as Clip_001, Clip_002, Clip_003, Clip_004 , Clip_005 ... all the way through the end to Clip_050 , but it appends this "left" "right" naming convention to each clip every time you split off a new clip , so you'll end up with a mess of clips named like this:

Split clips_default-numbering.png (10.97 KiB) Viewed 4079 times

And this is just for very short project consisting of only 7 clips ! What do you do with clips named in this way: Clip_001_right_right_right-right_right_right_left ??? Bleh! To me this is not a useful naming convention, in fact it's a counterproductive naming convention because I have to rename every clip manually. On a short set of clips it's not a big deal, but if you have a big project to split up (like 50 clips or more) then it is tedious to have to rename them all one at time. (of course , the better way is to set up the project into separate clips from the very beginning , rather having the whole project on a single timeline that has to be split up like this after the fact)

A workaround is to rename your new split clip immediately after each splitting action, to get rid of the "ClipName_right right right right right, right, left ..." accumulation. Rename the clip before going on to perform the next split.


I would rename them like this:

Clips renamed with simple naming convention.png (14.32 KiB) Viewed 4079 times

But you can use whatever naming convention you prefer.

I hope this makes sense.


5.) The screen capture movie below (no voice-over) shows me taking a simple project which consists of 7 scenes on single timeline and splitting them up into separate clips as per the procedure outlined above. (NOTE: the project shown is the Storyboard example in the TVPaint Contents & Examples folder available on the TVPaint website. The original storyboard project was created as separate clips to start with, but for this example I merged them all to a single clip and then showed the process of splitting them up again into 7 separate clips)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbCCHh5wfWo

(click through to YouTube to watch it in Full Screen mode.
Full Screen mode seems to be disabled here on the TVPaint Forum.)


6.) Finally, when your project is split up into separate Clips, you will probably want to make each of those clips into a separate TVPaint project file , so when you are adding Color and Background layers the project doesn't get too heavy and start to lag when you attempt to playback the scenes to watch them. I have occasionally made a short project of about 3 minutes that is all contained in a single TVPaint project file, but even a 2 or 3 minute project can get quite large depending on the pixel resolution of the project (HD 1080p ? or 2K ? or 4K ?) and the number of layers and effects added from the FX Stack (using KeyFramer tool or Multiplane Camera or WarpTool, etc. Some of those FX Stack modes are quite intensive in terms of the amount of processing power and RAM they need to render). I would imagine an 11 minute project will get quite laggy (if it's not already laggy) when you start adding character fill color layers and full-color BG layers to it.

To split off each clip into a separate TVPaint project , right-click on the clip and from the menu select Create a New Project from Selected Clip .

7.) After you have split each clip to it's own TVPaint project file , go to File Menu > Save Project As ... and save the projects to wherever you save your project files on your computer hard drive or external hard drive . Do this with all of them. See screencapture movie -


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C8DlGdcryQ



Now you have every scene saved as it's own project file , so you can import the final full-color BGs and add the fill *coloring to the character layers , add FX and Camera Moves.

(*about Coloring: if you're going to use the traditional Paintbucket fill tool for coloring I highly recommend this video which demonstrates an efficient method of coloring with the Paintbucket - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5GBwEE6jgE -- otherwise if you're going to use CTG layers for coloring there are other tutorials you can look up for that method by searching YouTube for 'Coloring in TVPaint CTG Layers': https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ ... ctg+layers , and see the User Guide section on using CTG layers: https://www.tvpaint.com/doc/tvp11/index ... l-concepts . )

[JoeMurray]

Thank you so much. It makes a lot of sense. I will try it out. I appreciate your patience. Yes, it's already lagging a bit. I don't use paint bucket. I have a rough pencil line for the animation, so I have a layer directly beneath where I use a charcoal tool to color, to keep the pencil line. I know it's much more labor-intensive but I like the look.

[D.T. Nethery]

Thank you so much. It makes a lot of sense. I will try it out. I appreciate your patience. Yes, it's already lagging a bit.

I don't use paint bucket. I have a rough pencil line for the animation, so I have a layer directly beneath where I use a charcoal tool to color, to keep the pencil line. I know it's much more labor-intensive but I like the look.

That sounds great! I'm actually kind of surprised more people don't use TVPaint for exactly that kind of approach to coloring because TVPaint has the drawing tools that are suited for that style.
I imagine what Frédéric Back (Crac! , The Man Who Planted Trees, etc.) would have done with TVPaint.

[JoeMurray]

I'm very familiar with Frederic Back's work. I know. So beautiful.

[JoeMurray]

It's a method I'm also used to since I first started making films with cels and painting the back. Its the way I've been working.

[JoeMurray]

Okay, so this is very obnoxious. I'm using TVpaint 11 pro, and I've split all of the scenes into clips successfully. The problem now is, I can't get to the menu you have to change the clip into a TVpaint project. I've tried all of the right-clicking I could do, and the menu is not coming up. Do I have a different version than you?

[JoeMurray]

How can I get around this?