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Nureek
07-20-2011, 08:42 AM
*puts on dunce hat*

As someone who is usually very computer literate, I feel a bit of an idiot here...

Is there anyway to convert a recorded drawing/script in ArtRage into a playable video file that someone without ArtRage can view?

Someonesane
07-20-2011, 08:59 AM
I'm not sure about "converting" it, but you could always use something like CamStudio (http://camstudio.org/) to record the Playback (which I did for this video (http://youtu.be/QeTWbR05YNA)).

Nureek
07-20-2011, 09:29 AM
I actually saw you recommending that in another thread and tried it. My results were not as good as yours! It also made the computer very slow so drawing became a bit difficult. What do you put the settings at and what do you have it save it as?

Someonesane
07-20-2011, 10:13 AM
A couple of things you can do to enhance the video is changing codec you use, and changing the Quality option (both on the Video Options panel). What codecs are offered will depend on your computer system. I usually use one called "Microsoft Video 1". I've found that some codecs take great video, but create huge files. Others create small files, but produce a lousy picture quality. In either case, whichever codec you select, will be affected by "Quality" option you set. So you'll have to do some experimenting with them. For the video I linked you to, I used the settings posted in my attached screen shot.

The cool thing about the new Script recording, for cases like this, is that you can record the drawing using the script recorder, then just play that back and record it with camstudio, after the fact. This way, you're not having to draw while recording an actual video, which you said causes your strokes to lag.

Nureek
07-21-2011, 07:44 AM
Thanks! That worked great (recording the recording with the settings).

Still would love to know if there is a way to convert the script, but this works great till then.

screenpainter
07-21-2011, 01:05 PM
Is it true that Camstudio does not work on Windows 7. only XP and vista.?

Someonesane
07-21-2011, 01:24 PM
Is it true that Camstudio does not work on Windows 7. only XP and vista.?


I'm not sure Albert. I don't have a computer with Windows 7 to test it on. However, I have had some good results in getting older programs made to run on XP, run on my Vista system, by changing it's "Compatibility mode". So, if you've already installed it, and tried it, but it didn't work, you could try to change that option. If Windows 7 allows for it, here's what you'll need to do (You'll only need to do it once for any program you need to do it for):
1 - Install the program, if you haven't already (in this case, you'd install Camstudio)

2 - Once installed, locate the shortcut for the program, right click on it, and select "Properties" (assuming W7 still has that option).

3 - The Properties panel should now be opened. Locate and select the "Compatibility" tab.

4 - In the Compatibility section, you should see an area listed "Compatibility Mode", with a menu in it. Check mark the option to enable it, then click on the menu (it should expand, giving you a number of options to choose from). If available, select the newest mode that the program (CamStudio in this case) listed that it was compatible with (probably XP or Vista).

5 - Click "Apply" to set the changes, or just click "Ok" to both apply and exit the Properties Panel.

6 - Test the program to see if it now works correctly.

DaveRage
07-22-2011, 12:21 PM
Thanks! That worked great (recording the recording with the settings).

Still would love to know if there is a way to convert the script, but this works great till then.

There isn't a way to convert ArtRage scripts to video files in ArtRage itself so using a recording utility would be the best way to create video files. While we do understand that people might want to record videos, we'd rather avoid overburdening the application with features that aren't directly related to painting and can be handled better in an external app designed for it.

screenpainter
07-23-2011, 12:26 AM
Thanks Gaeton. I finally did get it to work.
guess what else I had some limited success with...

try recording a script and then turning on camstudio
and playing the script while you are recording.

very cool. :)

p.s. edit:

I had to go with a previous version of camstudio and not the new beta for some reason couldn't get the beta to run.

Someonesane
07-23-2011, 02:40 AM
Thanks Gaeton. I finally did get it to work.

Ah, good to hear.


guess what else I had some limited success with...

try recording a script and then turning on camstudio
and playing the script while you are recording.

Do you mean recording the script playback, or is there something else? My Blue Bird video was created by playing back the .arscript at an accelerated pace, and recording it with Camstudio. Which is quite beneficial, since taking actual video while drawing can eat up system resources.

screenpainter
07-23-2011, 10:55 AM
oh I did not know you had already done this with the bluebird video. I thought I had discovered something ingenious and amazing. well it is, but I guess I didn't discover it. :) I am still experimenting with camstudio.
what size do you use for the camstudio window? is the script recorded full screen. I did my scripts full screen. big files indeed around 25 mb. and for one painting I had 7 scripts.
do most video editing programs read .avi files?


I had to go with a previous version of camstudio and not the new beta for some reason couldn't get the beta to run. not sure what I was doing wrong.


.

Someonesane
07-23-2011, 11:57 AM
oh I did not know you had already done this with the bluebird video. I thought I had discovered something ingenious and amazing. well it is, but I guess I didn't discover it. :)


If the idea was new to you at the time, then you did discover something ingenious. Not knowing it was done before, doesn't take any value away from your personal discovery of it.



what size do you use for the camstudio window? is the script recorded full screen. I did my scripts full screen. big files indeed around 25 mb. and for one painting I had 7 scripts.
do most video editing programs read .avi files?

I had to go with a previous version of camstudio and not the new beta for some reason couldn't get the beta to run. not sure what I was doing wrong.


My screen size is 1600 x 870 (well, it's really 1600 x 900, but ArtRage only works up to the toolbar area). When I record videos in Camstudio, I set my canvas to 1280 x 720, and then drag everything (tool panels, etc) into that working space. However, now that we have the scripting to work with, I can record everything at full screen size, with ArtRage. Then, I just play the script back, choose a size when prompted, and record the playback with Camstudio (so far, I've still done this at 1280 x 720).

As far reading .avi files, the two editing programs I've used (Sony Vegas, Windows Movie Maker) both read the .avi files. From what I've read, avi seems to be pretty common. But I'm not a video expert, so I can't tell you for sure...

I'm pretty sure I'm not using the Beta version of Camstudio, either. I tried out the ScreenRecorder henrystaahle mentioned, and found that it's using the same OpenSource programming as Camstudio. Which came first, I cannot say. The differences between the two, from what I can tell, are minimal. Camstudio saves any option changes you may make (recording position, codec, fps, hotkeys, etc, etc), which is a huge plus in my opinion. However, Screen Recorder has found a way to record the sound coming from the computer itself (not just the mic), which may be useful to some people. I'll likely stick with Camstudio though, because having my options remain after closing and opening the program again, throws the balance in favor of Camstudio, for me.

screenpainter
08-22-2011, 05:54 PM
Thanks for the help SOS. Much appreciated.

crgreen
09-06-2011, 08:19 PM
Hi everyone. I just wanted to chime in here and let everyone know about another technique available for 'converting' ARP paintings to movies.
I started experimenting with the scripting features and came up with various ways to tweak existing scripts to my tastes. One of the things I developed was a way to add commands to an existing recorded script to export file sequences.
Here are the important points:


I wanted to write a cross-platform script (I am usually only on OSX) to do a few things, including removing binary data from arscripts, but also (and this is really the main subject here) adding a png export every time an arscript does a StrokeEvent, and at the end of the script. Originally I wanted to use a shell script for this, but had too many problems with the arscript UTF-16 files (and this wouldn't be a cross-platform solution anyway), so I asked my friend for python help (I'm less knowledgeable in python than other languages). He accommodated (he's a hero). Everything I've done since then has been hacked from his original python script.
Let me clarify: I am using python to automate the process of making new 'tweaked' versions of existing arscripts.
If given an export (via arscript) specifying an existing file name, ARP will automatically save a numbered file in sequence, which makes my task much easier (I simply have to use the same export line over and over and ARP does the rest to save out a numbered sequence). Convenient (and surprising).
The python script simply replaces all instances of "<StrokeEvent>" with that line plus an export line before it (using "\r\n" in the string for Windows newlines is important here). In other words:
"<StrokeEvent>\r\n" is replaced with
"Wait: 21.082s EvType: Command CommandID: ExportLayer Idx: -1 Channels: NO Path: \"path/to/my1.png\"\r\n<StrokeEvent>\r\n". It also adds one more export line at the end of the arscript.
Because the exports happen only before each StrokeEvent, full movement of each stroke is NOT reproduced. I'm hoping to find a solution to this problem, but so far I've found that one needs to keep the export command outside of the StrokeEvent block, which is why this is a limitation. Only strokes are reproduced, not movement within strokes.
Still, even with this limitation, the results are pretty nice (depending on the character of the painting), and what's good is that everything is exactly the correct resolution of the original painting (it IS the original painting, split into various slices of time, as it were). I work in After Effects mostly, and I can take the file sequences into AE and alter them nicely, even doing some 'timewarping' to change the rate and do semi-intelligent in-betweening. Quicktime will also allow you to import file sequences then export as a movie.
I'd love to be able to share these scripts with all of you, BUT I just have way too much going on with various jobs/careers/etc., and this makes it tough to take the time to make everything cross-platform, error-free, etc. However, I'd be happy, until I can find that time, to do quick conversions for anyone who asks (that takes about two seconds). The conversions I can do are: removing binary data; making 'overlapping' scripts (scripts that play over the existing painting); and making file sequence-saving scripts. I'd also be happy to answer any questions.
All of this is pretty easy to do with a text editor, as mentioned elsewhere on the forum. The file seq. saving is just a little more complex, but still easy. All you need is a good text editor with a find/replace-all to do the text replacement I mentioned above.
My scripts (which I also have 'wrapped' in file-droppable AppleScript apps) are non-destructive; they never overwrite a script, and I suggest you work the same way, of course.
For those of you perplexed by the "\r\n" stuff above, this is simply the way to make sure a (python) script recognizes the Windows-specific line ending in such a file as an arscript. If working with a text editor in Windows, you should be able to copy the line with the newline and paste into the find/replace fields, but some text editors treat this stuff differently and have special 'grep' or 'regular expressions' features for this kind of thing (or have difficulty entering line returns in find/replace dialogs). As mentioned elsewhere on the forum, I use jEdit (cross-platform, free) and TextWrangler (OSX-only, free).

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little rant. Any suggestions, ideas, etc. are welcome.

ArleyArt
10-25-2011, 04:02 AM
Could you please share a sample file? it sounds interesting, Im using OS X too and I would like to lean.



Hi everyone. I just wanted to chime in here and let everyone know about another technique available for 'converting' ARP paintings to movies.
I started experimenting with the scripting features and came up with various ways to tweak existing scripts to my tastes. One of the things I developed was a way to add commands to an existing recorded script to export file sequences.
Here are the important points:


I wanted to write a cross-platform script (I am usually only on OSX) to do a few things, including removing binary data from arscripts, but also (and this is really the main subject here) adding a png export every time an arscript does a StrokeEvent, and at the end of the script. Originally I wanted to use a shell script for this, but had too many problems with the arscript UTF-16 files (and this wouldn't be a cross-platform solution anyway), so I asked my friend for python help (I'm less knowledgeable in python than other languages). He accommodated (he's a hero). Everything I've done since then has been hacked from his original python script.
Let me clarify: I am using python to automate the process of making new 'tweaked' versions of existing arscripts.
If given an export (via arscript) specifying an existing file name, ARP will automatically save a numbered file in sequence, which makes my task much easier (I simply have to use the same export line over and over and ARP does the rest to save out a numbered sequence). Convenient (and surprising).
The python script simply replaces all instances of "<StrokeEvent>" with that line plus an export line before it (using "\r\n" in the string for Windows newlines is important here). In other words:
"<StrokeEvent>\r\n" is replaced with
"Wait: 21.082s EvType: Command CommandID: ExportLayer Idx: -1 Channels: NO Path: \"path/to/my1.png\"\r\n<StrokeEvent>\r\n". It also adds one more export line at the end of the arscript.
Because the exports happen only before each StrokeEvent, full movement of each stroke is NOT reproduced. I'm hoping to find a solution to this problem, but so far I've found that one needs to keep the export command outside of the StrokeEvent block, which is why this is a limitation. Only strokes are reproduced, not movement within strokes.
Still, even with this limitation, the results are pretty nice (depending on the character of the painting), and what's good is that everything is exactly the correct resolution of the original painting (it IS the original painting, split into various slices of time, as it were). I work in After Effects mostly, and I can take the file sequences into AE and alter them nicely, even doing some 'timewarping' to change the rate and do semi-intelligent in-betweening. Quicktime will also allow you to import file sequences then export as a movie.
I'd love to be able to share these scripts with all of you, BUT I just have way too much going on with various jobs/careers/etc., and this makes it tough to take the time to make everything cross-platform, error-free, etc. However, I'd be happy, until I can find that time, to do quick conversions for anyone who asks (that takes about two seconds). The conversions I can do are: removing binary data; making 'overlapping' scripts (scripts that play over the existing painting); and making file sequence-saving scripts. I'd also be happy to answer any questions.
All of this is pretty easy to do with a text editor, as mentioned elsewhere on the forum. The file seq. saving is just a little more complex, but still easy. All you need is a good text editor with a find/replace-all to do the text replacement I mentioned above.
My scripts (which I also have 'wrapped' in file-droppable AppleScript apps) are non-destructive; they never overwrite a script, and I suggest you work the same way, of course.
For those of you perplexed by the "\r\n" stuff above, this is simply the way to make sure a (python) script recognizes the Windows-specific line ending in such a file as an arscript. If working with a text editor in Windows, you should be able to copy the line with the newline and paste into the find/replace fields, but some text editors treat this stuff differently and have special 'grep' or 'regular expressions' features for this kind of thing (or have difficulty entering line returns in find/replace dialogs). As mentioned elsewhere on the forum, I use jEdit (cross-platform, free) and TextWrangler (OSX-only, free).

Well, I hope you've enjoyed my little rant. Any suggestions, ideas, etc. are welcome.

fstopdigital
09-11-2014, 10:11 AM
I would love to be able to output scripts to file sequences, that would be a huge feature request. Here is my current problem:

I have 4k artrage files but I can't screen capture more than the resolution of my monitors, so any camtasia recording would be reduced in quality. Simple snapshots during script playback wouldn't be too hard to do - we don't need full video codec support or anything!

damasocl
09-21-2014, 02:01 AM
*puts on dunce hat*

As someone who is usually very computer literate, I feel a bit of an idiot here...

Is there anyway to convert a recorded drawing/script in ArtRage into a playable video file that someone without ArtRage can view?

Dear friend:
Here is the link to download a free program that records the screen of your PC while working on AR.

http://www.video2down.com/smrecorder.php

Courtney
03-26-2023, 05:43 AM
There isn't a way to convert ArtRage scripts so using a recording utility would be the best way to create video files. While we do understand that people might want to record videos, we'd rather avoid overburdening the application with features that aren't directly related to painting and can be handled better in an external app designed for it.

Hi,
As an artist and fan of artrage I have to say in the days of social media and sharing creation ideas for me its a huge missing tool. I don't see it as being overburdensome I see it as essential.
Not only keeping for reference but to share, which would also share artrage! Why encourage uses to look outside and the hassle of signing up for another piece of software when you could be the one stop shop.

Ive been looking at another software competitor who offer a very easy to use screen capture video and its soooo tempting. I don't want to switch. I really like artrage but feel you are really missing the point that artist create to share! And with video being one if not the preferred option, Instagram and tick tock for example surly its worth revisiting.
How can we convince you! Have a great day.

nekomata
03-29-2023, 10:33 PM
Hi,
As an artist and fan of artrage I have to say in the days of social media and sharing creation ideas for me its a huge missing tool. I don't see it as being overburdensome I see it as essential.
Not only keeping for reference but to share, which would also share artrage! Why encourage uses to look outside and the hassle of signing up for another piece of software when you could be the one stop shop.

Ive been looking at another software competitor who offer a very easy to use screen capture video and its soooo tempting. I don't want to switch. I really like artrage but feel you are really missing the point that artist create to share! And with video being one if not the preferred option, Instagram and tick tock for example surly its worth revisiting.
How can we convince you! Have a great day.

Courtney,

ArtRage offers a way to hide UI during script playback session. any video capture tool, set to document size, will record a script for you with barely any inconvenience on your part.

on mac, I use quicktime, which is free and comes with the OS, to record videos (which is a part of being on social media which I hate with a power of a supernova explosion.)

if you like artrage painting tools, you'll find a way around; I don't think that shitty social media algorithms are an excuse to waste development time on something there're already enough freeware tools for.

if tiktok teens are your primary audience, you'll probably have to switch anyway, because artrage is not a hot, trendy or crazy popular tool in the first place. it's made for painters and fine artists, and it comes from a different era. it's more expensive than what teen artists are ready to pay for (they won't pay $20 for a competing app-that-I-wont-name-here, but oddly it has a video timelapse creator built in.)