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Dumyat · 2020-09-09, 15:08

@Karellen
I read a thread fairly recently about new proposals for adding extended artwork in Matrix. If I remember correctly, you had expressed some concerns as you store custom artwork files that you have created in the same folder as your library video files, along with the other regular artwork needed in Kodi.
I'm the same, I create a folder called 'Artwork' in in my library item folders which is where I keep all the master GIMP files for titles that require new artwork (Normally because it doesn't exist). I also use this folder to store other GIMP files and alternative artwork files that are maybe different to the final artwork I'm actually using in Kodi.
This seemed the most logical place to store these files, as they can be located very easily. I've been using Matrix for a few weeks now and I've notice when choosing extended artwork via the Video Info Dialog, I have a folder folder showing up in the results called 'Icon' which I think might be my artwork folder.
I never saw the outcome of your discussion on the original thread I read, but just wanted to make sure I would still be okay to continue using my existing method for storing artwork I create. I would hate to find my artwork folder(s) and all of their contents suddenly gone through any planned update for adding extending artwork in the future on Matrix.
Grateful for any feedback you could give.
Cheers

**Karellen** · 2020-09-09, 22:29

(2020-09-09, 15:08)Dumyat Wrote: I'm the same, I create a folder called 'Artwork' in in my library item folders which is where I keep all the master GIMP files for titles that require new artwork (Normally because it doesn't exist). I also use this folder to store other GIMP files and alternative artwork files that are maybe different to the final artwork I'm actually using in Kodi.

Yes, the original discussion was to have all artwork scanned and cached in an effort to make it easy for new users to have their artwork magically appear. This would have worked well for some users and been disastrous for other users, especially those that create and contribute artwork to fanart.tv and other sites.

But that plan has evolved and moved ahead to give options. Here are the PR's for the music library and video library which will explain the current proposed implementation...
Music... https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/18173
Video... https://github.com/xbmc/xbmc/pull/18072

Dumyat · 2020-09-10, 01:11

Thanks. Great stuff.
I'm going to save this info to my favourites right away before I end up losing it..... Wink

Cheers

manfeed · 2020-10-02, 11:43

@Karellen
Do you know if the new methods for adding extended artwork will work for gif files? I was hoping that in Matrix they would be treated like any other kind of artwork, just naming them animatedposter or animatedfanart... Thanks!

**Karellen** · 2020-10-02, 11:53

(2020-10-02, 11:43)manfeed Wrote:
Do you know if the new methods for adding extended artwork will work for gif files? I was hoping that in Matrix they would be treated like any other kind of artwork, just naming them animatedposter or animatedfanart... Thanks!

Sorry, I have no idea. Maybe you could post the question in the above PR threads.

**Karellen** · 2020-10-02, 12:21

@manfeed I may have misunderstood your question. I took it to mean will the animation issue be fixed. That I have no idea about.

But if you are asking if the artwork types of animatedposter and animatedfanart will be scanned and cached along with other artwork, then yes. And Kodi does that already.

**DaveBlake** · (This post was last modified: 2020-10-02, 15:10 by DaveBlake.)

(2020-10-02, 11:43)manfeed Wrote: Do you know if the new methods for adding extended artwork will work for gif files? I was hoping that in Matrix they would be treated like any other kind of artwork, just naming them animatedposter or animatedfanart... Thanks!

Interesting question @manfeed. I was going to say "no", but the local image files it looks for are those with any of the file ext listed in <pictureextensions> in advancedsettings.xml , so by default yes.

EDIT: Maybe your question wasn't what it seemed. Images in .gif files will be picked up and cached etc., but not sure animation will work. Nothing has been changed with that regard.

manfeed · 2020-10-02, 15:41

AFAIK in Leia you had no problems adding gif images using Artwork Beef addon, you could choose local files or scraping them online and it worked ok. However, there is no version of Artwork Beef for Matrix yet, and at least before this new method, I was unable to make gifs work, even using the advancedsetting.xml option. Only way was adding them one by one manually editing the artwork for each movie. That is the reason I had high hopes in this improvement...

**DaveBlake** · 2020-10-03, 11:21

(2020-10-02, 15:41)manfeed Wrote: I was unable to make gifs work, even using the advancedsetting.xml option. Only way was adding them one by one manually editing the artwork for each movie. That is the reason I had high hopes in this improvement...

Yeap @manfeed, with these PRs included wibble.gif will get picked up as art with art type "wibble".

No more messing with advancedsetting.xml either, GUI settings for artwork. With art level = max (default), all suitably named image files (including .gif) located in the media folder will be picked up, or with art level = custom and matching whitelist entry. Note valid image file names need to be alphanumeric ascii. Enjoy Smile

manfeed · 2020-10-07, 19:03

(2020-10-03, 11:21)DaveBlake Wrote:
(2020-10-02, 15:41)manfeed Wrote: I was unable to make gifs work, even using the advancedsetting.xml option. Only way was adding them one by one manually editing the artwork for each movie. That is the reason I had high hopes in this improvement...
Yeap @manfeed, with these PRs included wibble.gif will get picked up as art with art type "wibble".

No more messing with advancedsetting.xml either, GUI settings for artwork. With art level = max (default), all suitably named image files (including .gif) located in the media folder will be picked up, or with art level = custom and matching whitelist entry. Note valid image file names need to be alphanumeric ascii. Enjoy

Thank you! I have just tested Alpha 2 and it works very well, all the gif files are shown now. Thanks again to all the ones involved for your hard work!

HeresJohnny · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-14, 01:36 by HeresJohnny.)

Today I have noticed that scrapers - or at least the Universal Movie scraper - doesn't seem to save artwort to the movie folders. So I tried to export artwork with .nfo files wth the "don't overwrite" option. Unfortunately, this led to Kodi exporting artwort with basemoviename+artworkname, i.e. thematrix-poster.jpg - which really sucks. Now I have duplicated artwork because I had and want it all just to be poster.jpg, fanart.jpg etc. in each folder.

I think in Leia I set that through Artwork Beef - where can I set that in Matrix?

**Karellen** · 2021-01-14, 02:15

(2021-01-14, 01:35)HeresJohnny Wrote: that scrapers - or at least the Universal Movie scraper - doesn't seem to save artwort to the movie folders.

They never have. It is something I have been pushing for for a while though.

Artwork Beef is what has been downloading the artwork in the background for you.

There is no Artwork Beef for v19. You will need to use the new and majorly cut back version of Artwork Beef, which is now known as Artwork Dump. Check the Artwork Beef thread for posts and links.

Dumyat · 2021-01-14, 02:50

(2021-01-14, 01:35)HeresJohnny Wrote: Now I have duplicated artwork because I had and want it all just to be poster.jpg, fanart.jpg etc. in each folder.

I spent a good 7/8 months cleaning up all of my library folders to remove any traces of artwork files that included the basemoviename which I completed about 3 weeks ago. I then upgraded to Matrix and started using the python scrapers which I thought I had a good understanding of, only to discover in the last day or so that all of my movie folders appear to have been populated with these artwork type of files again, ie basemoviename+artworkname. Good to know that I'm not the only one to have seen this.....I was starting to wonder if I was imaging it.
Is there an easy way to remove these artwork file types, as I too only want to see standard artwork types in my movie folders, ie Poster, Fanart, Clearlogo, Landscape, etc.
I've also noticed that the artwork added for my most recent movies added to Kodi using the TMDB scraper is not adding the local artwork I placed into the movie folder, even though I configured the whitelist settings to fetch these artwork types. My understanding was local artwork should always take precedence when using these python scrapers for Matrix, but what seems to be happening is online artwork is being added (including the extended artwork stuff).
So it would seem that I'm either not configuring things correctly or there is potential problem if I have have configured things correctly? I did read the original PR links posted earlier in this thread, but neither seemed to explain how to configure these new scrapers for Matrix as far as I can remember. I did take a quick peep at the Wiki pages, but couldn't find anything at the time. This might well have been updated by now though I guess, or I missed it when originally looking.
I've also exported my library several times since upgrading to Matrix again, but I always opt not to export artwork, as I just want to keep my local artwork files in place.

**Karellen** · (This post was last modified: 2021-01-14, 04:09 by Karellen.)

(2021-01-14, 02:50)Dumyat Wrote: My understanding was local artwork should always take precedence when using these python scrapers for Matrix, but what seems to be happening is online artwork is being added (including the extended artwork stuff).

The default naming of movie artwork, in all cases, is the long format of <videofilename>-<artworktype>.ext eg... Blade Runner (1984)-poster.jpg
The default naming of movie NFO Files, in all cases, is <videofilename>.nfo eg... Blade Runner (1984).nfo

Short movie artwork names (eg... poster, fanart, etc), and the use of movie.nfo can be used and are scanned only when the following conditions are met...

Movie Folders (wiki) are used
Movies are in separate folders that match the movie title must be Enabled in the Set Content Screen. (wiki)
No corresponding artwork with long format names are present in that movie folder, as these take priority.
movie.nfo has priority but still uses the standard NFO (wiki) naming of <videofilename>.nfo as a fallback.

If you have not met these conditions, Kodi does not see artwork named in the short format.

(2021-01-14, 02:50)Dumyat Wrote: but I always opt not to export artwork, as I just want to keep my local artwork files in place.

Yes, wise decision. Otherwise you will end up with the modified cached artwork.

HeresJohnny · 2021-01-14, 10:09

Thank you for the info. All prerequisites are met in my case for short movie names.

I notice that you don't comment my findings from post #11 concerning the exported artwork. I consider it a bug that long filenames are used by exported artwork if all prerequites were met for short artwork as layed out above - if not a bug at least an oversight to not present an option to switch between the two models in export. Since all the artwork is now handeled by core this should be added under MEDIA-LIBRARY, IMHO.