How do I access commands in Photoshop that aren't in the docs?

!!Noob alert!! I have programming experience but I’m very new to AppleScript.

So, I’ve tried to explore the Photoshop CS4 AppleScript documentation as much as I can, but I’m stumped as to how to execute commands that aren’t in their documentation.

The goal of my script: To take a series of images and make a 30fps video of them.

What I’m trying to do with PS:


set animationDocRef to make new document with properties {width:originalDocumentWidth, height:originalDocumentHeight, initial fill:transparent}

--load PNGs and add them to a new file as layers
repeat with currentPNG in listOfPNGs
	make new art layer at beginning of animationDocRef
	open {file currentPNG}
	select all of current document
	activate
	copy selection of current document
	close current document
	paste
end repeat
--remove the blank layer
if (count layers of animationDocRef) > 1 then
	delete last layer of animationDocRef
end if

--make frames from layers

--delete the first frame (it's a duplicate)
	
--render video and output MOV

The commands I’m trying to access:
http://screencast.com/t/mNqbytg5T2Oo
http://screencast.com/t/dL99Kkca

I’ve looked in to trying something like this:


tell application "Adobe Photoshop CS4"
	activate
	tell application "System Events"
		pick menu item "Render Video..." of menu "Export" of menu item "Export" of menu "File" of menu bar item "File" of menu bar 1 of process "Adobe Photoshop CS4"
	end tell
end tell

Which will work for the “Render Video…” command, but I can’t seem to find out how to access the “Animation Panel” drop down.

Does anyone have experience with this?

I don’t think you can do this with AppleScript, possibly with javascript or with script listener you can pull the commands out. You could create an action to accomplish this though and call that action with a script.

Fantastic, I’ll try to go down that route.

I hadn’t heard of Script Listener. As soon as I googled it, I got this site: http://www.kirupa.com/motiongraphics/scripting5.htm

I’ll let you know if that helps.

Thanks Jerome!

Have you considered using Quicktime?

Martin Michel also posted an AppleScript / Python script to make a movie
out of stills. Maybe these are worth exploring.

http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=25547

Cheers,

Craig

you may also want to look at maybe using a photoshop batch or action so something along that lines I can’t guarantee that it will work but maybe that’s another way to get the results you want

mike

I’m now using Martin Michel’s QT script. It’s working very well. Thanks for all the help!

-Chris