HowTo:Create animations - Revision history

Jr: change deprecated 'source' tags to 'syntaxhighlight'

2026-06-05T14:18:43Z

change deprecated 'source' tags to 'syntaxhighlight'

Chrisb: Added checklist to intro

2008-06-21T10:24:19Z

Added checklist to intro

Chrisb: /* Animating objects */

2008-06-08T23:14:39Z

Animating objects

Chrisb: /* Animating objects */

2008-06-08T22:43:02Z

Animating objects

Chrisb: /* Animating objects */

2008-06-08T22:41:17Z

Animating objects

Chrisb: /* Animating objects small addition*/

2008-06-08T22:40:24Z

Animating objects small addition

Chrisb: /* Basics */

2008-06-08T22:29:04Z

Basics

Chrisb: Added a little to the intro

2008-06-08T22:05:20Z

Added a little to the intro

Cruxic: added link to the theora tutorial

2008-03-16T14:40:57Z

added link to the theora tutorial

Hymyly: Added section on cyclic animations

2007-12-08T20:44:55Z

Added section on cyclic animations

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 When animating, we use the ini-file (or equivalent command line options) to tell the renderer what frames to render, and what clock values the renderer should use. Our scene file can then use settings such as the clock variable to control the generation of a particular image or 'frame' in the sequence.
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
 +W150
 +H150
@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 Initial_Clock=0
 Final_Clock=1
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 When using the above INI-file, POV-Ray will render 30 frames and the clock variable will run from 0 to 1. The clock setting as defined in the ini-file or on the command line will be available when your scene is parsed at render time as the variable 'clock'. If not specified, the value of the clock variable will pass from 0 to 1 through the animation sequence.  The frame number will be available to your scene file as the variable 'frame_number'. To be of interest something should change during the animation, often with each frame. This change is usually controlled by using the clock variable or the frame_number variable in your scene file.
@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 To animate a ball we could use the clock variable to control its attributes, position, orientation etc. For example:
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
 sphere { <0,clock,0>,1 pigment {rgb 1}}
   or
 sphere { <0,0,0>,1 translate <0,clock,0> pigment {rgb 1}}
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 Both examples move a sphere up the Y-axis by a fixed amount per frame.
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
   sphere { <0,0,0>,0.5*(1+clock) pigment {rgb 1}}
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 Increases the radius of the sphere from 0.5 units to 1 unit as the animation sequence progresses.
@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 The state variables are the core of this method, and you will need to carefully analyse the behavior of the object you are trying to mimic. You the capture these in a simple data structure. You might create something like this:
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
 #declare Blocation = array[max_birds];
 #declare Bvelocity = array[max_birds];
 #declare Bphase = array[max_birds];
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 The amount of detail in the dissemination of the object tends to grow in time, see below for further explanation of the phase-parameter.
@@ Line 67: / Line 67: @@
 To make this work you will need to 'transfer' the state of the objects (birds) from each frame to the next. This can easily be done using macro's to write out, and readback the variables to a file on disk. The following macro's can be easily extended to save and load more complex data-sets.
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
 #macro SaveState()
         #fopen wfile "state.txt" write
@@ Line 87: / Line 87: @@
         #fclose file
 #end
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 ===Drawing the objects===
@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 Now further on you can create a rule to stop birds from stalling:
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
 // Do not stall
 #if (Speed<1)
      #declare Bvelocity[i]=Bvelocity[i]*1.2;
 #end
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 ===Detailed control===
@@ Line 118: / Line 118: @@
 Suppose you want to make an animation that loops, so that after the last frame has been rendered it should hop back to the first frame and play everything again. To make the jump from the last to the first frame seamless, the animation must end with exactly the same scene as it started with, i.e. parsing the file with clock = 0 and clock = 1 must generate the same image. When animating this however, you will find a slight glitch in the animation: since the first and last frame are identical it will look like like the animation stops for a while. You could prevent this simply by deleting the last frame after you have rendered them, or only render a subset of the frames to leave out the last one, but POV-ray offers a much better solution. Simply add
-<source lang="pov">
+<syntaxhighlight lang="pov">
 Cyclic_Animation=On
-</source>
+</syntaxhighlight>
 to the INI-file, or +KC to the command line. POV-ray will now automatically do the following:

← Older revision		Revision as of 10:24, 21 June 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images in order to create an illusion of movement (see [[Wikipedia:Animation]]). POV-Ray can be used to create such a sequence of images. Creating these images in POV-Ray may be very different from using other graphical tools that you are used to. As with other forms of animation, small sequences can be done quite easily, but when animations grow, a little planning and preparation goes a long way.	+	Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images in order to create an illusion of movement (see [[Wikipedia:Animation]]). POV-Ray can be used to create such a sequence of images. Creating these images in POV-Ray may be very different from using other graphical tools that you are used to. As with other forms of animation, small sequences can be done quite easily, but when animations grow, a little planning and preparation goes a long way so:
		+	*Define what it is that interests you (what type of animations do you want to produce)
		+	*Establish which categories of tool you will need
		+	*Identify applications that address those needs, attempting to minimise the number of different applications you'll have to learn
		+	*Join the various communities that use those tools so that you can keep abreast of changes that may impact you
		+

	==Basics==		==Basics==

@@ Line 19: / Line 19: @@
 ==Animating objects==
-To animate a ball we could use the clock variable to control an objects attributes, position, orientation etc. For example:
+To animate a ball we could use the clock variable to control its attributes, position, orientation etc. For example:
 <source lang="pov">

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 <source lang="pov">
-sphere { <0,clock,0>,1 }
+sphere { <0,clock,0>,1 pigment {rgb 1}}
   or
-sphere { <0,0,0>,1 translate <0,clock,0> }
+sphere { <0,0,0>,1 translate <0,clock,0> pigment {rgb 1}}
 </source>
@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 <source lang="pov">
-  sphere { <0,0,0>,0.5*(1+clock) }
+  sphere { <0,0,0>,0.5*(1+clock) pigment {rgb 1}}
 </source>

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 <source lang="pov">
- sphere { <0,clock,0>,1 }
+sphere { <0,clock,0>,1 }
   or
- sphere { <0,0,0>,1 translate <0,clock,0> }
+sphere { <0,0,0>,1 translate <0,clock,0> }
 </source>

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 ==Basics==
-POV-Ray provides a number of features to help produce a sequence of individual still images but does not put them together into an animation. You'll therefore need a separate piece of software to assemble the animation. There are lots of application programs available that will do this, including several free and open source products. You'll need to pick one that can generate the animation file format you wish to produce, e.g. AVI, MPEG, FLI/FLC, QuickTime, or animated GIF files (popularly used on Web pages).
+POV-Ray provides a number of features to help produce a sequence of individual still images but does not put them together into an animation. You'll therefore need a separate piece of software to assemble the animation. There are lots of application programs available that will do this, including several free and open source products. You'll need to pick one that can generate the animation file format you wish to produce, e.g. AVI, MPEG, FLI/FLC, QuickTime, or animated GIF files (popularly used on Web pages). Try Googling [http://www.google.com/search?q=animation+utilities animation utilities].
-When animating, we use the ini-file (or equivalent command line options) to tell the renderer what frames to render, and what clock values the renderer should use. Our scene file can then use settings such as the clock variable to control the image generation.
+When animating, we use the ini-file (or equivalent command line options) to tell the renderer what frames to render, and what clock values the renderer should use. Our scene file can then use settings such as the clock variable to control the generation of a particular image or 'frame' in the sequence.
 <source lang="pov">
@@ Line 16: / Line 16: @@
 </source>
-Using the above INI-file will render 30 frames, and the clockvariable will run from 0 to 1. This clock we set in the ini-file wille be avaiable at rendertime as the variable 'clock'. To be of interest every frame should be different according to the clockvalue.
+When using the above INI-file, POV-Ray will render 30 frames and the clock variable will run from 0 to 1. The clock setting as defined in the ini-file or on the command line will be available when your scene is parsed at render time as the variable 'clock'. If not specified, the value of the clock variable will pass from 0 to 1 through the animation sequence.  The frame number will be available to your scene file as the variable 'frame_number'. To be of interest something should change during the animation, often with each frame. This change is usually controlled by using the clock variable or the frame_number variable in your scene file.
 ==Animating objects==

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-Creating animations in POV is nothing like using graphical tools some of us are already used to. Small animations are easily done, but when animations grow, a little planning and preparation goes a long way.
+Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images in order to create an illusion of movement (see [[Wikipedia:Animation]]). POV-Ray can be used to create such a sequence of images. Creating these images in POV-Ray may be very different from using other graphical tools that you are used to. As with other forms of animation, small sequences can be done quite easily, but when animations grow, a little planning and preparation goes a long way.
 ==Basics==
-When animating, we use the ini-file. Here we tell the renderer what frames to render, and what clockvalues the renderer should use.
+POV-Ray provides a number of features to help produce a sequence of individual still images but does not put them together into an animation. You'll therefore need a separate piece of software to assemble the animation. There are lots of application programs available that will do this, including several free and open source products. You'll need to pick one that can generate the animation file format you wish to produce, e.g. AVI, MPEG, FLI/FLC, QuickTime, or animated GIF files (popularly used on Web pages).
 <source lang="pov">

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:40, 16 March 2008
Line 110:		Line 110:
	* but not render the last frame (so you'll still only get 50 images rendered, since the 51st one would be identical to the first)		* but not render the last frame (so you'll still only get 50 images rendered, since the 51st one would be identical to the first)

−	When these images are compiled into a looping animation, you'll get a nice, smooth, and glitch-free animation.	+	When these images are compiled into a looping animation, you'll get a nice, smooth, and glitch-free animation. For example, here's [[HowTo:Encode_animations_as_Ogg_Theora_Video\|how to create an Ogg Theora video file]].

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:44, 8 December 2007
Line 97:		Line 97:
	*You could consider animating things like fish, cars, trees, houses and much more.		*You could consider animating things like fish, cars, trees, houses and much more.
	*Try animating different species with specific interactions.		*Try animating different species with specific interactions.
		+
		+	==Cyclic animations==
		+	Suppose you want to make an animation that loops, so that after the last frame has been rendered it should hop back to the first frame and play everything again. To make the jump from the last to the first frame seamless, the animation must end with exactly the same scene as it started with, i.e. parsing the file with clock = 0 and clock = 1 must generate the same image. When animating this however, you will find a slight glitch in the animation: since the first and last frame are identical it will look like like the animation stops for a while. You could prevent this simply by deleting the last frame after you have rendered them, or only render a subset of the frames to leave out the last one, but POV-ray offers a much better solution. Simply add
		+
		+	<source lang="pov">
		+	Cyclic_Animation=On
		+	</source>
		+
		+	to the INI-file, or +KC to the command line. POV-ray will now automatically do the following:
		+
		+	* Increase the number of frames by one (so if you chose to have 50 frames in the animation, POV-ray will make it 51)
		+	* but not render the last frame (so you'll still only get 50 images rendered, since the 51st one would be identical to the first)
		+
		+	When these images are compiled into a looping animation, you'll get a nice, smooth, and glitch-free animation.