Hmmmm, you know what? I didn't realize that tutorial suggests using the
povray.ini file for your animation setup. I hadn't seen it in so long, and I
don't know if I ever read it word for word before, so I was curious how it
went about teaching that.

So, John, you might want to go about creating your own INI file for putting
all the animation keywords in. That way it's a simple matter of opening that
file for animations and no need to do commenting out of things listed in
your "master" povray.ini.

Since I'm replying here I might as well throw in the fastest possible way to
get a 10 frame animation of stacking boxes. Put the following into the
command-line (if Windows there anyway):

+kfi1 +kff10

Then for the box stacking, put this into your scene (pov) file:

#declare Count=0;

#while (Count<5*clock) // stack 5 boxes

box {
    -1,1
    pigment {
            rgb <1-Count/5,0,Count/5>*9 // luminous color
            }
    translate <0,2*Count,20>
}

#declare Count=Count+1;

#end

The command-line switches are frames 1 to 10, clock 0 to 1 is implied by
default so it isn't needed.
The example scene will render as is, no camera or light needed. You could
also add a rotate 360*clock*y so the boxes turn as they stack. Maybe this
will be a very quick way for you to see how it works, with the #while loop
acting to keep the previous boxes in place instead of just moving a single
box upward.
It can take time to learn all the keywords and how they can be used to
manipulate animations, so check out that clock tutorial; also read the Help
in POV concerning "animation output" using all those possible switches and
keywords.

Bob Hughes

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