"BentLarsen" <nomail@nomail> wrote in message 
news:web.485a7b8752ee3a6c70f2ad620@news.povray.org...
> Hi all,
>
> I would like to animat a height-field, like an erupting surface or water.
> I have managed to get the static height-field.
>
>... snip ...
>
> But I dont know how to tell pov-ray to loop
> over 300 height-fields;
> with every *.png beeing a single frame: heightField_1.png ...
> heightField_300.png
>
>
> Do I have to code a fileName-variable like:
> #while (Count < 300)
>    #declare fileName=concat("heightField_", str(A,1,1), ".png")
>    #declare Count=Count+1;
> but how to tell pov-ray to render automatically and save the frames?
>

To animate you need to specify animation options either on the command-line 
or in an 'ini' file. In the Windows POV-Ray editor you can specify 
command-line options in the input field next to the screen resolution 
pull-down at top-left.

I usually use +kfi1 +kff100 in the command-line input field. These will do 
the same as the 'ini' file options Initial_Frame=1 and Final_Frame=100. The 
POV-Ray scene file will render 100 times and will append the frame number to 
the name of the image file generated. If your scene file is called 'MyScene' 
and you're generating 'bmp' files then, by default, the first image file 
generated will be called 'MyScene001.bmp' etc.

You don't need the #while loop within the scene file.

Within your scene you can then use the frame_number variable to control the 
name of the heightfield input file that you want to use and potentially also 
the texture file as Stephen described. I think you'll probably want 
str(frame_number,-3,0) which would give you 3 digits padded on the left with 
zeros.

Regards,
Chris B.

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