VULCA Layers (Export)

VULCA Layers (Export) is the "output the pieces" half of the pack's layer toolchain. You hand it an artwork directory with a manifest.json (the same structure VULCA Layers (Composite) reads), and it exports the layers as separate files - PNG by default - plus the manifest, so the layers are usable outside the pipeline. Think of it as the step that turns a decomposed image into something you could hand to a designer or drop into another tool.

It's the natural partner to VULCA Layers (Analyze). The README's layer example strings them together: load an image, analyze it, export - and you end up with a PNG directory plus manifest.json documenting the layer structure. If your goal is to edit individual elements in a real image editor, this is the node that gets the layers onto disk.

How it works

The node calls into the SDK's layer export function with the directory and a format string, defaulting to png. As with the composite node, there's a fallback: if the SDK's exporter isn't importable, it just creates an export_<format> directory and returns that path - which means the node "succeeds" while producing nothing real. A nearly-empty export directory is the tell that you hit the fallback.

Inputs and output

• artwork_dir (required) - the directory containing manifest.json and the layer files.
• format (required, default png) - the export format.

One output: export_path, the directory the exported layers land in.

Install

Same as every node in this pack:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes/
git clone https://github.com/vulca-org/comfyui-vulca
pip install "vulca>=0.12.0"

Restart, or install via ComfyUI Manager (search "VULCA"). No API key required - export is local file work.

Honest take: this is a thin utility node and a slightly fiddly one, because it depends on the SDK's exporter being installed and on the manifest directory being well-formed. If your export comes back as an empty folder, that's the fallback path - check that the SDK is fully installed and that artwork_dir actually contains a valid manifest. If you never need layers off the disk, this node is skippable; Analyze plus Composite covers the round-trip.