Even though Animation Shop no longer ships with PSP, the ability to export frames from Animation Shop back to PSP is still intact (this capability was temporarily lost with PSP XI, but restored with the first PSP XI patch). To export frames from Animation Shop to PSP, choose File...Export Frames...To Paint Shop Pro (SHIFT + X).
Note: If you have more than one version of PSP open, the frames will be exported to the most recently-used copy of PSP. If you do not have any version of PSP open, the version of PSP that installed Animation Shop will open - on my system, that's PSP 9.
When you have finished working on the frames in PSP, and you want to work on the animation again in Animation Shop, you can do one of two things:
Using the Customize facility (View...Customize), drag the "Update Back to Animation Shop" command (which can be found in the Unused Commands category in Customize) back onto a toolbar, and use it to update the animation in Animation Shop with your changes.
Close the image in PSP - you will be asked if you want to save the changes:
If you click Yes, you will be presented with the Save As dialog, and you can save the image using its original name, or a new name. The changes you made to the animation will NOT be communicated to Animation Shop if you choose this path.
If you click the No button, you will be presented with the "Would you like to update the changes back to Animation Shop?" dialog. If you click Yes in this dialog, the changes are communicated to Animation Shop and the image closes. If you click No, the image closes without updating Animation Shop.
There are still some users who seem to have lost the ability to export frames from Animation Shop to PSP. For those users, it is still possible to work in PSP on frames opened in Animation Shop. Once you've selected the frames you want to work on in PSP, if SHIFT + X does not work, copy the frames (CTRL+C), then go to PSP and paste as a new image (CTRL+SHIFT+V). This will give you a layered image with all frames intact, from bottom to top.
For the users above who cannot directly export frames to PSP, the "Update Back to Animation Shop" command will not work either. The solution is to save the image in PSP once the changes have been made and reopen in Animation Shop.
Note: If you have to use this route to update frames, be sure to select all frames from the Animation (CTRL+A) before copying and pasting into PSP. If you choose only some of the frames, when you re-open the animation in Animation Shop, several frames will be missing!
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