Although, Animation Shop 3 is not bundled with Paint Shop Pro X like previous versions of Paint Shop Pro, you can still utilize interoperation features between Animation Shop 3 and Paint Shop Pro X. Animation Shop 3 includes a Export Frames to Paint Shop Pro feature, whereby you can export your animation to PSP, and then update it back in Animation Shop again. These features allow you to utilize the advanced editing power of Paint Shop Pro and the animated file creation features of Animation Shop to create dazzling animated imagery.

Note: The following features have undergone minimal testing with Animation Shop 3.11 and Paint Shop Pro X. It’s likely previous versions of Animation Shop 3 will interoperate with Paint Shop Pro X, but they have not been tested at this time. Interoperation between Animation Shop 3 and Paint Shop Pro X is currently unsupported. 

Export Frames to Paint Shop Pro

Use this feature to export your animation to Paint Shop Pro X for editing. Once you’ve completed the editing process, you’ll want to update your animation back to Animation Shop 3 using the Update Back to Animation Shop feature. See the help file in Animation Shop 3 for more information about these features.

So how do you get this feature to work with Paint Shop Pro X?

-                     Paint Shop Pro X must be open at the time of using this feature. If Paint Shop Pro X is not open, Animation Shop 3 will export the frames to the last launched version of Paint Shop Pro. For example, if you launched Paint Shop Pro X, and then launched Paint Shop Pro 9, and then closed both programs and used the feature, Paint Shop Pro 9 would open.

-          Test the feature by creating or opening an animation in Animation Shop 3. Once you have the file open, select one or more frames in the animation, and then click File | Export Frames to | Paint Shop Pro.

Update Back to Animation Shop

Once you’ve finished editing your animation in Paint Shop Pro X you’ll want to update it back to Animation Shop. There are two methods for updating your file back to Animation Shop. The first method is by simply closing the file. After you close the file you’ll be prompt to update your file back to Animation Shop. Select Yes to this prompt and you should see your updated file back in Animation Shop. The second method involves assigning a script to a button that can be placed on toolbar or menu in Paint Shop Pro X. We've created a script for this named UpdateBackToAS.PspScript. This script is included in the Paint Shop Pro 10.02 update patch. If you have this patch installed, then you have this script available. If you have not updated to 10.02, download the update from this link. NOTE: Update patches must be installed incrementally. If you are using version 10.00, then you must first install the 10.01 update, followed by the 10.02 update.

To assign a script to a menu or toolbar icon

1. Choose View | Customize to display the Customize dialog box.

2. Click the Scripts tab.

3. Choose the script you want to assign to an icon from the drop-list.

4. Choose an icon, and then click Bind.

-                     The icon and its associated script appear in the list in the Bound Scripts group box.

5. From the Bound Script group box, drag the icon or script into a menu or toolbar.

• When you position the cursor over the toolbar’s script icon, you’ll see the path name and file name associated with the script. If you drag the script icon into a menu, the menu displays the script’s name, and the script’s path appears in the status bar.

Known Issues

Launch Paint Shop Pro

The Launch Paint Shop Pro feature is found under the File menu in Animation Shop 3. This command will always launch the version of Paint Shop Pro that came with Animation Shop 3. Using this feature in the standalone version of Animation Shop 3 will launch Paint Shop Pro 9. This command cannot be changed to open Paint Shop Pro X.

Multiple Animation Shop 3 installations

In our testing we found that none of the interoperation features will work in Paint Shop Pro X or Animation Shop 3 if multiple versions of Animation Shop 3 are installed.