File specification?

idragosani · Post by **idragosani** » Fri Sep 29, 2006 2:29 pm

Is there a document that details the Moho/Anime Studio Pro file specification? I thought it might be handy to use something like Perl to generate procedural animation effects. I realize there is a lot that can be done with LUA also inside of ASPro, but, like with the Renderman API, being able to generate animations procedurally would be a neat thing to do, so one can use the full facilities of a language.

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 1:47 pm

I've asked for one before, but it likely still doesn't exist. I've figured a lot of it out just studying (and messing with) the files, and you might be able to hack out a little more going through the Photoshop export script. It's a good idea. There aren't too many bits I couldn't figure out, but some just stumped me cold.

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sat Sep 30, 2006 9:50 pm

Well, I just listened to a podcast in which someone told that Google Maps didn't have a API until people started to hack a kind of API for themselves. This forced Google to create an adhoc API.

IOW The more people try to hack around restrictions and bugs in Anime Studio, the sooner an API will be released by e-Frontier, otherwise clever programmers will do it for them.

idragosani · Post by **idragosani** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:11 am

7feet wrote:I've asked for one before, but it likely still doesn't exist. I've figured a lot of it out just studying (and messing with) the files, and you might be able to hack out a little more going through the Photoshop export script. It's a good idea. There aren't too many bits I couldn't figure out, but some just stumped me cold.

Yeah, my first thought was to perhaps write a Perl script to just parse the file and print out specifics of the file, like layers, objects, etc. That in itself is a good way to reverse engineer a fiel format.. then easy enough to write a wrapper API in C++, Perl, etc.

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:23 am

Well so much of the core of what AS (never gonna get used to it, I liked the name Moho- that's my single statement) is in Lua, and except for a few tweaks all the API for that is public....

I'd love to see some of the core code (although I'd probably have to study a bit to understand it properly).

But that isn't the file spec. There might end up being one, I 'spect LM just didn't have the time. Thogh I hope he's going nuts on version 6. Even though I've wanted it, the utility of a complete file description is fairly small. o doubt useful, but not broad.

I didn't know that about the oogle API, but I think I've extended AS beyond it's intended capabilities, and I'll keep on doin' it! Lua is (IMO) just so purty, if it was another language I likely would have gave up.

idragosani · Post by **idragosani** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:32 am

7feet wrote:Well so much of the core of what AS (never gonna get used to it, I liked the name Moho- that's my single statement) is in Lua, and except for a few tweaks all the API for that is public....

I'd love to see some of the core code (although I'd probably have to study a bit to understand it properly).

But that isn't the file spec. There might end up being one, I 'spect LM just didn't have the time. Thogh I hope he's going nuts on version 6. Even though I've wanted it, the utility of a complete file description is fairly small. o doubt useful, but not broad.

I didn't know that about the oogle API, but I think I've extended AS beyond it's intended capabilities, and I'll keep on doin' it! Lua is (IMO) just so purty, if it was another language I likely would have gave up.

Yeah, gotta sit down and learn Lua myself and start writing my own extensions as well. Looks like Crashcode has done a lot of good utilities already.

7feet · Post by **7feet** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:47 am

Yeah, crashcode's got some good stuff, Fazek's stuff is invaluable as well. Lua can read like psuedocode, theres a few particular bits to learn but if you can code, you're hooked up. I've done a lot with it, and I think I'm really a kinda crappy coder. My stuff is often clunky and stupid, but dammit it does the job. I'm learning some slickness, but who cares?

idragosani · Post by **idragosani** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:48 am

7feet wrote:Yeah, crashcode's got some good stuff, Fazek's stuff is invaluable as well. Lua can read like psuedocode, theres a few particular bits to learn but if you can code, you're hooked up. I've done a lot with it, and I think I'm really a kinda crappy coder. My stuff is often clunky and stupid, but dammit it does the job. I'm learning some slickness, but who cares?

I know enough languages it shouldn't take more than an afternoon to figure things out... just gotta fit the time in to do it...

heyvern · Post by **heyvern** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 3:54 am

Good grief!

If I could learn enough LUA as quickly as I did to do what I've done... anyone with an actual brain could run NASA with it!

-vern

jahnocli · Post by **jahnocli** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:22 pm

heyvern wrote:Good grief!

If I could learn enough LUA as quickly as I did to do what I've done... anyone with an actual brain could run NASA with it!

-vern

Don't even joke about it -- apparently modern mobile phones have more memory AND processing power than the original Lunar Module...!

Rasheed · Post by **Rasheed** » Sun Oct 01, 2006 12:37 pm

NASA as in "Never A Straight Answer"?