Painter script share.......

[rattsang]

hi everyone,

for those of you who don't know scripts are a function in painter to record your painting process. it can then be shared or played back. unfortunately it is quite buggy and doesn't always record properly. here ill be posting some hints on how to avoid bugs to get you guys started. there is a section in the manual on scripts please read it before asking questions, it is only a few pages long and will explain most things better than anyone here.

here are some hints to avoid errors in your scripts.

1. only use default brushes
2. don't use any filters or effects
3. open your ref in another program if you are using one
4. complete the painting in one sitting
5. don't change the dimensions of the canvas after starting
6. do not play back the script straight after painting the image. close painter and make a copy of the image, as the script will save over the original file when it is played back if you made saves in it. sometime this happens and there are errors in the script causing a loss of the work.
7. there are ways to remove errors from scripts and i will talk about that in a later post.
8. as far as i know scripts are not compatible with an older version of painter than the version it was made with, there is a certain amount of backward compatibility, when posting post the version of painter you used also a requirement is to post a pic of the finished image from the script (any scripts posted without images will be removed)

so guys get sharing........

heres one i did last night. done in painter 11... for some reason the paint bucket fill at the start wont play back for me (does it work for you guys?)

i uploaded to this forum so it is a zip file unzip first then:
to load this script open the script window--> open script--> open library
then select the downloaded script and open

and lastly if you have any questions on scripts after reading the manual feel free to ask

[Arshes Nei]

I personally haven't run into problems running the script thus far. Dunno if it was cuz I already had a new document open. Painter is funny like that.

Corel really should work on improving Painter's scripts. The playback is great but there are so many commands in one session - while you can edit them it's really long and messy.

They should also put a timer and percentage on scripts so one can see how long it will run and what percentage the running script is at.

[rattsang]

I personally haven't run into problems running the script thus far. Dunno if it was cuz I already had a new document open. Painter is funny like that.

Corel really should work on improving Painter's scripts. The playback is great but there are so many commands in one session - while you can edit them it's really long and messy.

They should also put a timer and percentage on scripts so one can see how long it will run and what percentage the running script is at.

hey you mean on "my" script there is the blue grey fill at the start or that script in general work for you....

[Arshes Nei]

When your script started, I didn't receive a fill blue grey. I did see a painted box in which you used as the basis to form the head and worked from there. There was some odd part where it told me insufficient disk space and kept on going too. Then it looked like the session jumped positions later on.

Scripts are not easy for sure.

[sandman]

Hi rattsang,

Thank you for posting the script. I did not get the paint bucket fill, but not all commands are recorded/ recordable at present, so without checking further, that is possibly a bug.

One issue I did get is multiple 'save' dialog popups as the script was played back, all of which required canceling in order to continue playback. It was fairly easy to remove these however, so the script would play continuously to the end;

1. In the Scripts palette menu, choose Open script
2. Highlight the script in the Open Script dialog and choose Export.
3. Export the script as a text file to the desktop (the Mac version may require a .txt file extension).
4. Open the above text file in a text editor application and use Find to find each line with a save command.
5. Delete all lines containing the 'save' or 'save as' command and close the lines up.
6. Save the edited script text file.
7. From the Scripts palette menu, choose Open script > Import (navigate to and import the text file).
8. Rename the modified script with a unique name so as not to overwrite the original.
9. Select the new script in the script selector and click the Play button.

David

[rattsang]

i have been doing some testing and so far i find painter 9.5 much more stable for scripts.... anyone else find that?

[sandman]

i have been doing some testing and so far i find painter 9.5 much more stable for scripts.... anyone else find that?

Scripting in Painter has traditionally been a low priority with Corel (not enough artists using the feature and complaining I guess), with new version features sometimes breaking existing script functionality. If I remember correctly, prior to the Painter 11 service pack update, even colors selected from the Colors palette were not recorded in the script.

David

[rattsang]

ive noticed sometimes colors are not selected all the time in painter 11 latest version. for now ill do scripts in 9.

[rattsang]

Hi guys,
a new script to share. another portrait done in painter 11 and took about 1 hour. brushes used are: loaded palette knife. tapered oils, blender bristle and blender palette knife. i use a very simple working procedure exactly the same as i use for painting with real oils (i even measure with a pencil at arms length to the monitor)

enjoy folks!

[sandman]

I hope you don't mind rattsang, but I took the liberty of editing your second Alyssa script so that it played back correctly.

Below is the link to the modified script. When played, the new document opens at 50% on my monitor, but it may be different on larger ones. To view it full size, I double clicked the Magnifier icon in the Toolbox palette just after it started, then maximized the document window while the script was still playing.

[sandman]

I've done a lot of work on editing your first script rattsang (the one originally named working - Copy).

A few problems I came across, which may help;

1. As you already noticed, the Fill command doesn't work in Painter 11 script playback. I found a workaround by editing the script and changing the paper color of the new file.

2. The scripts in Painter record changes. When a variant is selected, it does not record the initial brush size and other settings, only which variant was newly selected. Size change will be recorded, but only if you change it (or indirectly by selecting Restore Default Variant) before making the first stroke. Ideally, it would be best to Restore All Default variants before recording the script (the recipient would have to do the same before playing back), or better still, select Restore Default Variant each time you select one (prior to making the first stroke). That way, the command is recorded, and the recipient doesn't need to Restore All.

3. Try not to switch files during playback (bringing a reference image to the front for example), as this can cause playback to switch to painting in an already open document.

4. With Record Initial State checked in the Script Options, make sure no custom resources are selected/ loaded, as an error message results because Painter cannot find the resources. One big limitation with recording session scripts for sharing is that custom resources cannot be used, unless these are distributed with the script too.

5. When saving and Save As, this can be annoying on playback due to the dialog boxes etc. This is difficult with an application which may crash without warning at any moment. Do we take a chance, or edit out the save commands afterwards

6. Flipping an image during a normal painting session can be very useful for seeing defects, but as there is currently no way to control the playback speed, such actions can spoil the flow of playback (flickering).

Anyway, I have edited the script the best I can, but the visual result does not look exactly as your depicted image. The main issue is with a section of the hair, which is showing the brown underpainting. This may be due to strokes being painted with a variant at non-default settings, where the increased brush size was not recorded in the script. Below is the edited script;