Information on effect sharing needed

[MacSa Profile]

Hi,

slowly I seem to getting a bit of a grip on creating my own effects - looks like a lot of room for improvement still, but I guess that´s why the advanced edit options are still hidden by default.

A couple of questions I do have, before I share the effect I created:

1. ) My effect includes "Load image" nodes. Are the images loaded also being shared? Basically I do want to share the background I loaded, but I don´t want to share the initial picture that I loaded

2.) I don´t seem to understand how to use the "Load internet image" node. Whatever URL I enter in the string field it does not seem to load the image. Also it does have an input in addition to the output how does this work? Or does this mean that if I input a image to "Load internet picture" that this picture get´t uploaded to you and is availabel later when sharing the filter?

3.) Can I save an effect locally for testing purpose, while I still develop it? I don´t want to share effects that are not ready yet ...

Thanks for clarification on this - best regards -

MacSass

PS: I think this program really has huge potential - a lot of rought edges yet - but this can really change the way people work on their images in the future ...

[admin]

Hi MacSa,

We're currently re-organising the way that effects can be created from scratch, mainly to make the layout of the nodes work better, but in lots of other respects too. However the basic principals will still be the same so my answers will still be relevant.

1 & 2) If a load image is marked as the 'before' picture (in light blue, by right clicking on it), then it won't be shared. Any other load image nodes must be linked to the rest of the net via a scale node. When you share the effect, the load images plus scale nodes that are not the before picture will be automatically turned into Load Internet Image nodes (which do the scaling too). So you won't need to use load internet image nodes yourself (unless you want to re-use someone else's texture).

3) You can save your effect as a session file and load it in again later, and just try swapping the load image node with other load image nodes to see it on other pictures. If you want to see it in the gallery, you can share it for your use only.

Hope that helps!

Tony

[MacSa Profile]

Hi Admin,

thanks for the reply - I think I slowly get the concept ...

Still I do have a problem with sharing my effect that I created:
I choose to "Share and Upload", get asked to tag the effect with some keywords, which I do and when I select to "share and upload" then all it asks me if I do want to include my pictures as sample.

I do confirm that and then all that happens is that I´m taken back to the main screen. I don´t see any upload happening (monitoring my connection).

When is the upload supposed to be happening? My effects "Cloudy sunset" does not show up in the gallery ...

From my point of view it would make sense if effects first are uploaded to a "review queue" where someone of you does a sanity check, in order to avoid a lot of non working or buggy filters being uploaded (I do see many strange filters in the Gallery with half preview pics. etc.).

Can you shine some light on what I might be doing wrong? And what your plans are?

Thanks - MacSass

[admin]

The effect gets uploaded the next time you conect to the server, which happens automatically at most once per day when you quit the software. When it arrives at the server, it then gets added to the library, but the new library isn't made live until we have checked it. Then you will see the effect appear in the library when you connect to the server next. Rather than us deciding which effects should be removed, the system works on a wisdom of the crowds type model, i.e. if you upload an effect that isn't any good, then no one will use it and it will end up on the last page of the gallery.

We are currently doing an overhall of how users can create effects, so any feedback you have at this point would be greatly appreciated.

Tony