Export name

[Joost]

Hi!

I noticed that the export file name recommendation TVPaint gives you when exporting is getting better with every update.
However, there is this one problem that is always occurring (for years now):

I always export the files in JPG format on my computer (Mac). When I open the same file after a couple of days, and render it again, TVPaint has remembered the export settings and I can just hit the export button to overwrite the exported JPG files (because that is what I want in most cases). But when my intern opens my file on his computer (Mac or windows), does some animation changes (and doesn't export anything) and then saves the file, after I opened the file to export it, the file name recommendation and path has been reset and I have to brows and rename the file in order to export it.
Why doesn't TVPaint remember the last export settings from the file (after it was saved on a different computer?

I would love to have this fixed if that would e possible...


Thanks!

[slowtiger]

Hm, I'm not sure if this should be fiddled with. Everyone has different expectations to this, and everyone has adapted their habits to the way TVP works right now. Changing these would in worst cases lead to loss of data through overwriting.

[Joost]

Hm, I'm not sure if this should be fiddled with. Everyone has different expectations to this, and everyone has adapted their habits to the way TVP works right now. Changing these would in worst cases lead to loss of data through overwriting.

But it's clearly a bug, right? How is it possible that the path is changed when a file is not rendered, but only saved on another computer?

@slowtiger: did this "bug" ever happen to you? Did you ever try opening creating a file, render it, then opening on de different computer and then save it, then open it on your own computer and try to overwrite-render it again? I'm sure you will be surprised how strange it feels that the render path and names are changed.

Having been used to certain things is in my opinion not a reason to not improve things. If the TVP team understands what I mean, I think they will agree that it's definitly something worth checking out.

To be clear: I don't have any problems with the way TVP suggests file names. I only have problems that the path plus name are changed when I open + save a file without even rendering it...

Curious to hear what other people think!

[slowtiger]

I had that problem when I received files from others. Each time I wanted to render those had a pathname completely different from mine. I think this cannot be solved: either you save that pathname within the file, then it will carry it to a different machine. Or you have the pathname remembered in TVPs prefs, so they stay the same on that machine, which is not what I want since I want to save/export files to different locations on my machine. And a list of files with associated preferrd or last used pathnames would become useless quite fat, at least for me, since I rename and re-locate files a lot.

[Joost]

I had that problem when I received files from others. Each time I wanted to render those had a pathname completely different from mine. I think this cannot be solved: either you save that pathname within the file, then it will carry it to a different machine. Or you have the pathname remembered in TVPs prefs, so they stay the same on that machine, which is not what I want since I want to save/export files to different locations on my machine. And a list of files with associated preferrd or last used pathnames would become useless quite fat, at least for me, since I rename and re-locate files a lot.

Well, an option can be that it ONLY changes the path when hitting the export button on a different computer, right? In all other cases it keeps the setting like from the last time it was saved.

I don't know if that would be possible because I don't know anything about programming. But other software can make this work, so probably TVPaint could also make it work (or at least work beter than it does now...)

Can someone from the TVP team maybe shine a light on this? Thanks!

[slowtiger]

In order to do that, a reference to the computer used (or the TVP serial number) needs to be saved within the file, and that's something I definitely DON't want.

[Joost]

In order to do that, a reference to the computer used (or the TVP serial number) needs to be saved within the file, and that's something I definitely DON't want.

Can the TVPaint team confirm this?
I don't see why other software doesn't have this issue, and TVPaint does?... Or am I totally wrong here?

[Joost]

In order to do that, a reference to the computer used (or the TVP serial number) needs to be saved within the file, and that's something I definitely DON't want.

Can you explain why you think a reference to the computer (or serial number) should be added? I asked around in my studio, and nobody sees why this should be done.
Could it not be just possible that TVPaint just remembers the last exported path, unless you hit the export button on a different computer?

[D.T. Nethery]

In order to do that, a reference to the computer used (or the TVP serial number) needs to be saved within the file, and that's something I definitely DON't want.

Can you explain why you think a reference to the computer (or serial number) should be added? I asked around in my studio, and nobody sees why this should be done.

Could it not be just possible that TVPaint just remembers the last exported path, unless you hit the export button on a different computer?

I agree with you , this would be much simpler. I hope that could be possible , so TVPaint can simply "remember" the last export path used.

[Thierry]

Can you explain why you think a reference to the computer (or serial number) should be added? I asked around in my studio, and nobody sees why this should be done.
Could it not be just possible that TVPaint just remembers the last exported path, unless you hit the export button on a different computer?

If TVPaint just need to remember the last exported path unless you hit the export on a different computer, then TVPaint has to know that you are doing it on a different computer.
It would need to compare your current computer with another one. And there's only one way to know that: by storing that info in the project file.

What kind of info you ask? Well, one thing we can easily gather is the computer's name (like "Thierry-laptop", "David's iMac", "Joost-Desktop" for example).
We gather and use this info, but only for licensing purpose, when registering the license (you know, the "Organization" field on the Registration panel), and the only "personal" info stored in the TVPP files is the Author name (the "Username" field on the Registration panel, which also appears on the Storyboard tab).

We could very easily save the computer's name in the TVPP file, but this is something I'm not sure I want to ask the devs to do.
In Europe, compared to the US for example, we are limited in which data we can save and use due to the RGPD/GDPR rules and we have to be careful.
Saving a computer name into a project file is personal data that I do not think is relevant for the software to run (whereas it's necessary for licensing).


As for the initial issue, I honestly don't think it's a bug: TVPaint does remember the last path used to export. If that path is changed, then the newest path will be the one stored.
Although I can definitely agree that this can be a bit confusing when having computers with different operating systems.

[Joost]

Can you explain why you think a reference to the computer (or serial number) should be added? I asked around in my studio, and nobody sees why this should be done.
Could it not be just possible that TVPaint just remembers the last exported path, unless you hit the export button on a different computer?

If TVPaint just need to remember the last exported path unless you hit the export on a different computer, then TVPaint has to know that you are doing it on a different computer.
It would need to compare your current computer with another one. And there's only one way to know that: by storing that info in the project file.

I don't understand why it needs to know if you are on a different computer. Why can it not just by default use the exact path that was used the last time it exported?
So ONLY if you are exporting on a different computer, this other computer doesn't know the path, and is asked where it would like to export it to (and it would probably be best if TVP still would suggest the SAME name as the previous export, now it all of a sudden suggest a totally different "clip_001" kind of file name).

To be clear: I don't want TVPAint to behave that it only changes the path if you hit the export button. I just would like TVPaint to remember the name of the export if I hit the export button. I don't understand why it is changed...

The strange thing is:
Sometimes I get a file back from my intern, that HAS remembered the right path and name when I hit the export button! So sometimes TVPaint knows how to handle it. But other times, it is using the default "Clip-001" export name. But I can't find out why it sometimes works exactly how I like it to work, and other times just switches the export name...

Any help would be more than welcome! Thanks in advance

[Joost]

So, this morning I opened a file again that my intern worked on yesterday.
I had rendered it from my computer before, then my intern worked on the file, saved it under a next version.
And when I opened it this morning, I wanted to render it and: I had the right name! Exactly the last name I used to render last time. so it was easy to overwrite the rendered file without any trouble.


But how is it possible that sometimes it remembers the right name and sometimes it doesn't? It drives me crazy that I can't figure out how I would always be able to overwrite my renders without having to click trough a couple of folders...

Anyone that has an idea why TVPaint sometimes remembers the path and sometimes it creates a whole new path and name?..

thanks

[Joost]

So I opened three files that my intern has worked on yesterday.
Two of them keep the render path I used the last time. (In my render/finals folder), the other one suggests to render it in the same folder as the project is.
Al three files have been rendered before. And I want to overwrite the rendered files.

Why does it choose a different path and name with this one file?

[Joost]

hmmm, and now I had the same issue with a file that has only been opened on my own computer.
I tried to export it, and the export path plus file name were changed all of a sudden. What makes TVPaint change the path sometimes, and sometimes not?...

This is really strange to me.

[Joost]

No one that can explain these differences in behaviour?
It would be really helpful to know when TVP switches to the different name, so I can try to avoid it... Thanks!