Pack project materials fails on modified titles

mpindado

Newbie Joined: Jul 30, 2015 07:11 Messages: 11 Offline

Solved by

Aug 07, 2015 13:47

Hi, I am new to PD and I am doing some basic tests with project management (backup and cloud backup) before I start my projects. I have found a very annoying problem when packaging the project.

This is it:

Create a new project

Add a title from an animated template (e.g Brush_02) to the timeline

Click on the title timeline, open title designer, and just add a new particle (e.g 01_star)

Save and test, OK

Click on File/Pack Project Materials

Close PD. Open packed project (.pds)

The Brush_02 is gone (not the 01_star). Instead, some colored pixels are shown

As I have researched, there seems to be a problem in the .pds generated on packaging. All the pictures are searched in the directory "particleobject\pdrv9_particle_01"(star) instead in "titles\pdr11_title_085" (brush). If I manually copy the latter files to the first directory, it seems to work, but this is kinda tricky I think.

This behaviour also occurs when creating a custom title template this way, uploading to the cloud and downloading again. And also, uploading and packaging the whole project to the cloud.

I was wondering if this is a known issue and happens in other kind of templates. I am thinking in a video with many custom titles and pips that I cannot safely backup.

regards

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online

Aug 07, 2015 16:37

Hi mpindado -

I just replicated your steps and it seems to work fine here.

When I packed the project, I made sure to check...

Of course, because of the SKY background in the particle, I couldn't see the clip behind it! BUT, the packed project opened correctly.

Cheers - Tony
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mpindado

Newbie Joined: Jul 30, 2015 07:11 Messages: 11 Offline

Aug 07, 2015 16:59

Hi, thank you so much for answering.I repeated the steps I described and the result is the same. Here you can see two screenshots taken at 3:20, of the original project and the packaged one. The brush_02 (top&bottom img1) is missing and instead a red pixel is in the middle of the screen.

The packed project structure created, saving unused clips, is as follows:

Version is PD13 windows7-64, latest build

Do you have the same version?

ynotfish

Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online

Aug 07, 2015 19:09

Sorry - I gave you a bum steer about "Including unused clips". It makes no difference whatsoever!

Yes - I'm using the same version - PDR13 - 2907 - but there is something wrong there if packing the project doesn't include the particle & animation files.

As you'll see in the attached screenshot, my packed project doesn't have sub-folders for title & particle. Is that what PDR generated???

Cheers - Tony


Filename	Brush Star.png	Download
Description
Filesize	69 Kbytes
Downloaded:	32 time(s)

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mpindado

Newbie Joined: Jul 30, 2015 07:11 Messages: 11 Offline

Aug 08, 2015 02:21

Hi Tony, thank you so much for replying.

What you say is exact. When I click on "Pack Project Materials", the powerdirector creates that structure itself.

Just to be sure, I create a new project from scratch, delete all media, click on titles/general/brush_02, add this title to the timeline, doubleclick in the title timeline, click insert particle, select 01_star, save, Pack Project Materials with unusedclips.

I don't see any configuration parameter to tune exporting...

It would be nice if someone else could do the test, to check whether this is a bug or a wrong installation.

Best regards

PlaySound

Senior Contributor Joined: Dec 02, 2010 10:26 Messages: 2031 Offline

Aug 08, 2015 13:21

I made 1st test here had exactly the same mistake as his.

Intrigued made 4 more tests and was normal.

Today new test was normal.But was away, open the saved project without doing anything, I saved Package Design and stopped charging 27% AMD-FX 8350 / 8GB DDR3
SSD SUV400S37240G / 2-HD WD 1TB
AMD Radeon R9 270 / AOC M2470SWD
Windows 7-64 / PD16 Ultimate

mpindado

Newbie Joined: Jul 30, 2015 07:11 Messages: 11 Offline

Aug 08, 2015 14:49

Hi, thank you so much for replying.

Just an EDIT, not only with titles, the behaviour is the same for particle objects.

New project (empty)

Particle room/general/01_star => add to the timeline

Double click on the timeline, click on "add new particle object". Some blue stars appear. Save (img1)

Test. OK (img2). Click on "Pack project materials", SAVE TO A NEW FOLDER. CLOSE PD

Browse the packed folder and click on the .pds file

ERROR: The blue stars are gone, red pixels instead (img3)

Conclusions (in my opinion of course):

Pack project materials is buggy.

You cannot rely on pack project materials for backup and restore. Instead, fixed locations should be used. Eg. c:/pdprojects and not c:/windows/users/xxxx. And those folders backed up outside PD (there is a pdtoots management tutorial very similar to this)

You cannot use packed projects for sharing projects. Fixed locations should be used by all collaborators.

You cannot use Pack project materials and upload to cyberlink cloud, or save the template to the cloud, and expect that will work in the future when you download it => PD's integrated Cyberlink cloud is useless!

It is a pity, I think PD is a great program, but for me backup+restore is a must before starting any project of any kind.

Best regards

mpindado

Newbie Joined: Jul 30, 2015 07:11 Messages: 11 Offline

Aug 10, 2015 06:54

For future references, this is what has to be done in order to fix a packed project which problems like these:

PD13 packs the template images for titles&pips in separate folders(titles,particleobjects,...). All images should be moved to a single folder, which can be the root project folder, or another folder

Open the .pds file with a text editor. Search the keys SUBFOLDERPATH="xxx", and change xxx with the name of the folder used, or "" if root folder is used

regards