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General Category => General Anim8or Forum => Topic started by: lppena on March 13, 2012, 08:57:38 am

Title: Do textures need to be copied manually to where my models are saved?
Post by: lppena on March 13, 2012, 08:57:38 am
Anim8or does not seem to copy the texture along with the model itself. Can export scripts be written to force the program to copy model texxtures to where I save my models? Thanks.
Title: Re: Do textures need to be copied manually to where my models are saved?
Post by: kreator on March 13, 2012, 09:09:00 am
This is a problem encountered with all members that use anim8or it will look for the area that you got them from initially ie:c/ textures/ so if you share a .an8 file with anybody else unless they attach any relevent textures ( which half The time they dont!) then the model will be textureless. especially so if those textures are on another Drive, flash card etc. So long as you keep your textures in one area they should be ok.

 
I have recommended users use the system that Daz, Poser, and Carrara adopt  by using an Anim8or runtime system. for sharing ( carrara has the ability to save all textures internally in a any case )

http://www.anim8or.com/smf/index.php?topic=3851.0

I never did find out what the File section in the textures was, perhaps that was something Steve had in mind, to store textures internally, but, like IK has never been implemented.

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Title: Re: Do textures need to be copied manually to where my models are saved?
Post by: lppena on March 13, 2012, 09:17:18 am
Thanks Kreator. I guess the quick solution would be to just remember to copy the textures manually. Truespace, exports the actual texture along with the geometry when models are exported; it sort of has me spoiled. Leroy.
Title: Re: Do textures need to be copied manually to where my models are saved?
Post by: Raxx on March 13, 2012, 03:00:01 pm
Since the anim8or format is ASCII, storing binary objects such as images in the same file isn't possible unless Steve used a package method that packed all the associated files like a zip file, or changed his file format to binary. This would completely change how his current file system works though.

Personally I prefer the simple ASCII format. It's easy to just dig in to the file if it needs to be repaired, or if you want to copy and paste several objects or scenes, or build simple 3rd party tools in javascript or another scripting language. It would be nice if he supported both binary or ascii versions of the .an8 file, as is the case with a lot of 3D formats.

Generally you can treat a .an8 project the same way you would treat an exported 3ds or obj file that you want to share with someone: just place the textures in the same folder as wherever the .an8 file is located. I just checked this out, but it seems that Anim8or first checks for the texture in the same directory that the .an8 file is located in, and if there isn't one there then it checks the location that you saved for the material. For example, if you load a texture ("image.jpg") from your Pictures directory in Windows, and you save the .an8 file to your Desktop directory, then place another image of the same name ("image.jpg") in the Desktop directory, then it will use the image in the same directory as the .an8 file (the one located in your Desktop). So it's safe to just put a copy of the texture in the same folder of your .an8 file if you ever need to move your project around.
Title: Re: Do textures need to be copied manually to where my models are saved?
Post by: lppena on March 13, 2012, 08:11:50 pm
Raxx, I agree that a simple ACII format is really the best as it can get complicated trying to fix something that's not really broken. I'm slowly getting a feel for Anim8or and love the product as it is. Ironically, I've known about Anim8or for years but at the time I needed a software like Truespace due to it's file exporters. TS, is also pretty easy to learn and make stuff with. I like the 3DS export/import of Anim8or and have begun coverting some of my X and XSI models to 3Ds so I can import and export them in and out of Anim8or. I need to learn to rotate the models though as both X ans XSI use a different configuration then 3DS. TS COB and SCN orientation is also the same as 3DS. I may attempt to write an export script to get models in to Truespace.