new layers and the power of scripting

June 3, 2007 on 11:45 pm | In site updates | Comments Off on new layers and the power of scripting

Shown here: cove/eastZ 61, February 3, 2007. Piece by OPTIMIST, throwies by TWICK.

Great news on the production line: I’ve learned how to use javascript to control Photoshop, so I can finally automate some of the really repetitive parts of the grafarc process. What this means in the short term is faster, easier updates to the site! Today: 13 new layers on cove/eastZ, and 15 new layers on ghost/house.

As for the long term: I’ve also started using javascript to do some new and different things with the source material. I don’t want to say too much about it just yet, but it’s going to be very cool. More info as things develop…

Meanwhile, the increasing number of layers on certain walls (especially cove/eastZ with 61 of them) is continuing to call attention to new flaws in our Flash interface. This time, the bottleneck is the fact that before you see a single image, your browser has to download a set of outlines and solid shapes, one pair for each layer. It was never a problem initially, because the files are all very small– but it’s a problem now, because there are so many of them! We’ll need to change a few things to get around that, but I’m pretty sure of how to do it. Stay tuned.