I am kind of new to animation with pov....
did one last night, rendered it all by hand (250+ frames)
and it took me 4.5 hours.....
to use the clock variable, all that I have to do is put it in the pov
file right?

if someone has an example of a simple, animation sequence, text
spinning, etc. that they would be willing to let me take a look at, I
would be most appreciative.

tec### [at] mindlesscom
"Of all the things that I have lost I miss my mind the most"
--Jimi Hendrix

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The clock variable works just like you would expect.  Here's a sample scene
to spin a box.  If I overlook something, I'm sorry.  I'm just typing it out
here, not testing it.  To render the scene, you have to use command line
parameters or an ini file to tell pov you are rendering an animation, and
how many frames you want.  You can set command line parameters in POV for
Windows by going to the render menu, and Edit Settings/Render.  There is a
box near the bottom labeled Command line options.  If you want to do a 30
frame animation of this scene, type +KFF30 in the box.  Next time you
render, it will do 30 frames, slowly moving the clock from 0 to 1.  Since
this acts like a percentage, multiplying the clock by 360 in the rotation
(see code below) cause the box to go through one full rotation by the end of
the animation.  Play arround with it a little and you should get the hang of
it.  This idea would work with a text object or whatever.

Ken

---begin scene file---
#include "colors.inc"

camera {
  location <0,5,-5>
}

light_source {
  <-10,10-10>
  color White
}

box {
  <-1,-1,-1>
  <1,1,1>
  pigment {Red}
  rotate <0,clock*360,0>
}
--end scene file--


TechnoMage wrote in message <345F90EE.5C1A8FD8@mindless.com>...
>I am kind of new to animation with pov....
>did one last night, rendered it all by hand (250+ frames)
>and it took me 4.5 hours.....
>to use the clock variable, all that I have to do is put it in the pov
>file right?
>
>if someone has an example of a simple, animation sequence, text
>spinning, etc. that they would be willing to let me take a look at, I
>would be most appreciative.
>
>tec### [at] mindlesscom
>"Of all the things that I have lost I miss my mind the most"
>--Jimi Hendrix
>

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THANKS!!!!

reading all the documentation in the world is not as good as having
*one* good example to go by.....

btw, the scene file that you wrote did need a little tweaking....

with your permision I will post the updated code to the 
povray.binaries.scene-files group, maybe it will help someone else...

again thanks...

TechnoMage

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Sure.  Feel free.  As far as examples vs. documentation, that's one thing
that I love about the pov documentation is that it includes lots of example
code, as well as in depth descriptions.  Anyway, go ahead and post.

Ken

wrote in message <346### [at] mindlesscom>...
>THANKS!!!!
>reading all the documentation in the world is not as good as having
>*one* good example to go by.....
>btw, the scene file that you wrote did need a little tweaking....
>with your permision I will post the updated code to the
>povray.binaries.scene-files group, maybe it will help someone else...
>again thanks...
>TechnoMage

Post a reply to this message

Ken Cecka wrote in message <346### [at] aussieorg>...
>The clock variable works just like you would expect.  Here's a sample scene
>to spin a box.  If I overlook something, I'm sorry.  I'm just typing it out
>here, not testing it.  To render the scene, you have to use command line
>parameters or an ini file to tell pov you are rendering an animation, and
>how many frames you want.  You can set command line parameters in POV for
>Windows by going to the render menu, and Edit Settings/Render.  There is a
>box near the bottom labeled Command line options.  If you want to do a 30
>frame animation of this scene, type +KFF30 in the box.  Next time you
>render, it will do 30 frames, slowly moving the clock from 0 to 1.  Since
>this acts like a percentage, multiplying the clock by 360 in the rotation
>(see code below) cause the box to go through one full rotation by the end
of
>the animation.  Play arround with it a little and you should get the hang
of
>it.  This idea would work with a text object or whatever.
>
>Ken


You should also make sure you have the parameter "Cyclic_Animation=on" in
you command line.  This tells POV-Ray to move the clock from 0 to something
slightly less than 1.  That way, if you play the animation with looping it
won't jump when it starts over.

Aaron Plattner

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