Hi! I took an actor into composer mode, I needed to take her into photo shop to change her. but when I went to the photoshop symbol, it said do you want to edit everything in bitmap mode. I cant seem to change it back. I have been doing this for quite awhile and has never happened before. can anyone help please?

Hi Vicki

In Cartoon Animator 5 you now have two character types (Bitmap (PSD) and Vector (SVG). So depending on the character type there are now also two ways to export your character for editing.

The first way for older Bitmap characters is to export to PSD (Photoshop etc.) just as you did in CTA4. The second way for SVG characters is to send the character to Illustrator for editing.

However, it seems what you trying to do is send an SVG character to Photoshop which means the SVG character will have to be converted to Bitmap first (which is why you are getting the warning message). If you wish to retain the character as a Vector (SVG) character then you need to choose the SVG export option from Composer mode and send it to Illustrator.

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

hi peter, thankyou very much for explaining these complicated things to me. i don't have illustrator. and i did try to send my actor to photoshop. but now the icons in animator 5.1 have both changed to bitmap and wont send any ready made actors to photoshop. I tried putting my computer back a few days to when it worked properly but that didnt work. does that mean I have to buy illustrator to be able to use animator 5.1? thanks again, regards connie

Hi Connie

To export an SVG character for editing and keep it as an SVG character requires Illustrator.

However, you can still send any SVG character or Bitmap character to Photoshop and edit it there if you wish. Note: SVG character parts will then become Bitmap parts once edited in Photoshop and saved.

So all you need to do is take your character into Composer mode, click the PSD button as highlighted below and then click Yes when the warning message appears below. Your character should then open in Photoshop as normal ready for editing.







                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

thanks again peter, I now understand, but I am afraid it does'nt solve my problem. I am going to try and send you a picture, lets hope you can see it!   I click on psd to send my actor to photo shop, but as you will see in number 3 picture, the actor does'nt go over. It crashes photoshop. I am wondering if i can reverse the update on animator 5.1 and go back to animator 5???. I think I would be much better off without the update. thanks again for your help, don't know how reallusion would manage without you!!

Hi Connie

Thank you for the kind words.

Which version of Photoshop are you using? From the screenshot it looks an older version or possibly even Photoshop Elements.

That said, if everything was working fine before updating to version 5.1 then I would advise contacting Support using the link below. They should be able to give you the version 5.02 download to revert back to until the issue is fixed.

https://www.reallusion.com/CustomerSupport/UserEx/QForm.html

                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com

thankyou again peter, thats a great idea, i did contact them about my problem but as yet they havent answered. so I will suggest to them about animator 5 and see what they say, thanks again regards 

hi peter, well! first I would like to thankyou for your help. But now reallusion has changed to illustrator Im afraid animator 5.1 is no good to me, If I turn it back to animator 5, it still wont work because the edit part has all changed. I found that even on animator 4 the actors wont go into photoshop elements. they all did before reallusion changed it over to illustrator, I dont know why it has affected 4!!!. So I have wasted all my money on the program and all the extras that i have bought over the last ten years. so sad... thankyou again for all your help, hope you have a great day, regards

Hi Connie

The CTA5 > Illustrator pipeline is only for SVG export. The Pipeline for PSD remains the same as in CTA4 so you should still be able to create characters using the PSD Templates and export characters to your chosen image editor.

Unfortunately if you are having problems with even CTA4 now, then the issue seems more likely with Photoshop Elements itself (for example after a recent Adobe update). Have you tried uninstalling Photoshop Elements and performing a clean install to see if that makes a difference? 

Overall though if everything was working previously with CTA4 then it should continue to work because CTA4 hasn't changed in any way or been updated since the release of CTA5. It is only in CTA 5.1 that SVG (Vector) export to Illustrator has been introduced but that is optional. So please do keep in touch with Support about this. Hopefully they can help you get this annoying issue resolved.


                                                                

Peter
Forum Administrator

www.reallusion.com