(I hope this post is ok here.. Ill also post to povray.animations)
I have been playing around with Pov/Moray for a while now and
was thinking about animataion. I then set out to write a simple
program. Im only learning C so I haven managed to work it out
(completely) yet.

The idea is the basic idea behind keyframing, but using moray..
What you do is create your static scene, save as scene1 and export to
sc1.pov file.
Move the objects around a bit. (dont create anything "new" as such) and
save as
scene 2 and export to sc2.pov.

The programm (I am still writtng) then scans each file and looks for
"differences".
Every char that is the same in sc1 and sc2 gets piped straight throught
to the output file.
If a "difference" is purely numerical it can be "interpolated" via the
clock variable.
any other differences (non numerical) are found the prog would prob.
have to abort.
(hey that description sucked I know).. heres an eg.

eg. save scene one with an object at <0,0,0>
move object to <10,0,0> save as scene two.

The program would scan the two pov files (since they came from the same
Moray
scane but with different positions of  the object) the only character
difference should end up being
in sc1.pov...        <0,0,0>
in sc2.pov...       <10,0,0>

the program would then generate scene3
out.pov..:        < ( 0 + (10-0)*clock , 0, 0)

I have written my first version of this and it sort of worked..  this
shoould not be hard for any
half competent programmer to whip up. My version keeps "gobbling up"
trailing puctuation
(ie brackets and commas etc). eg <10,10,10> goes to <10,10,10 I have
tried it a few
times and after tweaking my outp;ut file (putting th bloody brakects
back in) it worked..
Fute versions could handle more that 2 files i.e
animation1 = sc1 -> sc2 (-> = interpolate via the program)
animation2 = sc2 -> sc3
animation3 = sc3 -> sc4 etc...
where animation is the pov animation file that you feed clock 0-1 values
to generate animation

Maybe someone really clever (and with the time!) could incorporate
keyframe stuff directly into Moray..
Then who needs 3DMAX or Lightwave.. POV is just as good. (well almost..
better value for money anyway!)

If you made it to the end of my epic post I thank you for your time..
If you can (and am willy to try to) write this _EASY_ programming task
please let us all know how you go.
Thanks agin for your time..keep povin'

Post a reply to this message

Jason Krah wrote:
> 
> (I hope this post is ok here.. Ill also post to povray.animations)
> I have been playing around with Pov/Moray for a while now and
> was thinking about animataion. I then set out to write a simple
> program. Im only learning C so I haven managed to work it out
> (completely) yet.
> 
> The idea is the basic idea behind keyframing, but using moray..
> What you do is create your static scene, save as scene1 and export to
> sc1.pov file.
> Move the objects around a bit. (dont create anything "new" as such) and
> save as
> scene 2 and export to sc2.pov.

I understand your enthusiasm for creating your own keyframing software
but it might interest you to know that someone beat you to it. It might
also prove interesting for you just to experiment with it to see how
someone else went about solving the different operations involved with
decoding the changed portions of the scenefiles. I believe I read where
Ken (the author of the utility - not me) will send the source for his
utility to those who ask for it and you may gain some insight from that
as well.

Take a look at:
http://www.televar.com/~ceckak/keymorph/


-- 
Ken Tyler

mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

Post a reply to this message

Not to forget that Alexander's Animation/Polyray plugin supports keyframing
in the way you describe it directly from inside Moray. Check it out (on
Moray's plugin page).

Johannes.

Ken wrote in message <3716E37E.582B3DBF@pacbell.net>...
>Jason Krah wrote:
>>
>> (I hope this post is ok here.. Ill also post to povray.animations)
>> I have been playing around with Pov/Moray for a while now and
>> was thinking about animataion. I then set out to write a simple
>> program. Im only learning C so I haven managed to work it out
>> (completely) yet.
>>
>> The idea is the basic idea behind keyframing, but using moray..
>> What you do is create your static scene, save as scene1 and export to
>> sc1.pov file.
>> Move the objects around a bit. (dont create anything "new" as such) and
>> save as
>> scene 2 and export to sc2.pov.
>
>I understand your enthusiasm for creating your own keyframing software
>but it might interest you to know that someone beat you to it. It might
>also prove interesting for you just to experiment with it to see how
>someone else went about solving the different operations involved with
>decoding the changed portions of the scenefiles. I believe I read where
>Ken (the author of the utility - not me) will send the source for his
>utility to those who ask for it and you may gain some insight from that
>as well.
>
>Take a look at:
>http://www.televar.com/~ceckak/keymorph/
>
>
>--
>Ken Tyler
>
>mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

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Thanks for the info... but his link times out on me...
Does anyone know the url for the keframe(able) plugin.. and what do people
think about it..
Thnx again..

Post a reply to this message

excuse my ignorance I found it..

Jason Krah wrote:

> Thanks for the info... but his link times out on me...
> Does anyone know the url for the keframe(able) plugin.. and what do people
> think about it..
> Thnx again..

Post a reply to this message

I tried keymorph and alas it did not work as I would have hoped..
(I didnt give it a lot of time I have to admit!!!)

It chrashed.. I think for the same reasons I have been having problems.
The main problem (I am having) is that Moray is putting slightly differnt
comment fields in the pov files (not every scene, but now and then),
My prgram ("anim") was freaking out when it found a statement in one file
at the same posittion where there was a comment in the other file.

I have rewritten my app so that it tokenises each file before zeroing in
on differenses. It can then ignore comments. And handles white space better.
My procedure for createing an anim from moray is simmply...

a. Export you two scenes fromMoray (s1.pov, s1.inc, s2.pov, s2.inc)
b. run "anim" (my little app) on the include files.. ->  this interpolates
textures and creates singular include dependency
c. change the ref. in the two pov files to refernce to the new include file
-> otherwise anim  will find differneces and try to interpolate
d. run "anim" utility on the pov files..
e. raytrace however many frames you want

I hope to incorporate the inc file support automatically... (next weekend)
(ie. you just type the name of the pov files.. if inc files are refernced
they
get anim'ed automaitcaly and references updated.. (Shouldnt be TO hard..))

It still occasionally adds extra '>''s at times, but this seems to only
happen to the
inc files..

Also note that if no texture changes are made in the Moray Files, the inc
files dont really
need to be interpolated.. just references get interpolated if they are
differmt in the two povs
eg.
if pov1 has include"pov1.inc" and pov2 has inlcude "pov2.inc" , anim will try
to interpolate number difference to
include "pov (1 + (2-1)*clock).inc" and this would probably fail.
Its still only a dos command prompt type thingy, but Im supprised I got it to
work this far..
Anyone want a copy Ill post exe tomorrow.. Source available (if your that
keen...).



Ken wrote:

> I understand your enthusiasm for creating your own keyframing software
> but it might interest you to know that someone beat you to it. It might
> also prove interesting for you just to experiment with it to see how
> someone else went about solving the different operations involved with
> decoding the changed portions of the scenefiles. I believe I read where
> Ken (the author of the utility - not me) will send the source for his
> utility to those who ask for it and you may gain some insight from that
> as well.
>
> Take a look at:
> http://www.televar.com/~ceckak/keymorph/
>
> --
> Ken Tyler
>
> mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net



>
> I understand your enthusiasm for creating your own keyframing software
> but it might interest you to know that someone beat you to it. It might
> also prove interesting for you just to experiment with it to see how
> someone else went about solving the different operations involved with
> decoding the changed portions of the scenefiles. I believe I read where
> Ken (the author of the utility - not me) will send the source for his
> utility to those who ask for it and you may gain some insight from that
> as well.
>
> Take a look at:
> http://www.televar.com/~ceckak/keymorph/
>
> --
> Ken Tyler
>
> mailto://tylereng@pacbell.net

Post a reply to this message

Heres the exe if anyone remotely  interested..
Its only a command based thingy..

> My procedure for createing an anim from moray is simmply...
>
> a. Export you two scenes fromMoray (s1.pov, s1.inc, s2.pov, s2.inc)
> b. run "panim" (my little pov-anim app) on the include files.. ->  this
> interpolates
> textures and creates singular include dependency
> c. change the ref. in the two pov files to refernce to the new include file
> -> otherwise anim  will find differneces and try to interpolate
> d. run "anim" utility on the pov files..
> e. raytrace however many frames you want

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Attachments:
Download 'panim.zip' (26 KB)