[Michelle M]

This is the first time I’ve tried using Animation Paper and it’s a fantastic program!

I’m only having one problem that I can’t seem to be able to fix! Somehow my 32 frame .ap file has a file size of 1 GB which is causing the whole program to lag quite horribly with undoing, saving and loading!

I’ve tried reducing the resolution to 720p but that hasn’t brought down the file size sadly.

And earlier version of the .ap file is here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/y82zxko0ajvtxx2/CaptainVepar.ap?dl=0

I’ve a feeling the trouble I’m having is because I’ve been so sketchy with my drawing, lots of overlapping lines etc. Would there be any way to bring down the file size?

The only thing I can think of at this point would be to export the frames as .pngs then import them to a fresh file! But if there’s another way to go about bringing down the size I’m all ears!

[Niels]

Hi Michelle,

It looks like you are using the lasso tool a lot – is that maybe the case?

I tried your ap file (your drawings look great by the way!) – and I get this warning:

 

Did you get this warning at some point? The problem is that every time you use the lasso, your data that is used to rebuild your drawing is multiplying. This is normally not a problem, but if you keep copying with the lasso on the same drawing eventually it will start taking up a lot of memory. This makes it slow when undoing and more lassoing.

There is no need to export/import as you suggest (although this would work) – the better way forward is to trace your drawings on a new layer. I mean, probably all your drawings have the lasso problem, if you keep building the next drawing with a lasso copy of the previous one. So create a new layer (shortcut N) and do a clean up pass, as you often would do anyway. I.e. redraw every drawing without using the lasso, just draw/trace using your rough layer below as reference. Once you are finished, you delete your rough layer and save as a new file. Then you should be down to a small file size and a fully working animation.

For those who like to use the lasso a lot, I know this sounds like a weird problem. There’s many very good reasons why we chose to make Animation Paper like this. Like the ability to change resolution or scale up with the lasso without having the drawing degrading or blurring in any way. But not being able to use the lasso freely seems to be a problem for some people who are used to this way of working. That way of working is of course fine – and we want to create a solution for you. So we plan to do this for one of the next alpha releases.

But for now, it is the redraw/delete method that works best. 😉

Let me know if this makes sense and how it goes!

Best,
Niels

[Michelle M]

Yep I did get that error at one point so that makes quite a bit of sense! I’ll start retracing. I’m looking forward to the alpha release that’ll fix the lasso tool troubles.

Thanks for the quick response,

Michelle

[Niels]

Thanks for letting me know Michelle.