




     
                               ANIM8 Utility
                                     
                                 AU_RENAME
                                     
                               User's Guide
                                     
                           (c) 1995 Mark Willis
                                     
                                     
                             Wire Frame Studio
                             113 Bascomb Drive
                           Woodstock, GA  30189
                                     
                           maw01@mindspring.com
                           CompuServe 72357,556
                                     
     
     
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     beginning to advanced computer artists.  Drop by and register for 
     our FREE Computer Art Print GiveAway!    We  have  lot's  of  fun
     things to do.  
     
                         Set your Web Browser to:
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     WHAT IS AU_RENAME?  
     
     AU_RENAME  allows  ANIM8 to generate a series of raytracer source
     files which can be rendered later outside of ANIM8. This is  very
     useful  for those with access to high powered machines other than
     PCs  which    can  run  portable  raytracers  like  POVRAY.  With
     AU_RENAME, these users can still develop and test animations on a 
     PC,  then transfer a series of source files to the faster machine
     for the final render.  
     
     
     How to use AU_RENAME 
     
     AU_RENAME is a tiny PC executable  program  which  accepts  three
     command line arguments: 
     
     AU_RENAME delay old_name new_name 
     
     The delay argument tell AU_RENAME how many seconds to wait before 
     exiting.   ANIM8  interprets  rapid  returns  from  rendering  to
     indicate the raytracer  failed.    Although  this  is  usually  a
     resonable  assumption,  it causes problems here unless a delay of
     at least 3 seconds is forced after each rename.  

     ANIM8.DOC                     - 1 -                 Ver 1.0 11/95

     ANIM8 Utility --AU_RENAME




     
     The old_name argument should be TMP_RNDR.POV for POVRAY users  or
     TMP_RNDR.V for Vivid users.  
     
     The  new  name  argument  should be the name for the saved render
     source file such as RNDR0001.POV, RNDR0002.POV, etc.  
     
     
     Configuring AU_RENAME 
     
     After you have developed your animation and you are ready to port 
     your   source  files  to  another  machine,  change  your  normal
     raytracer  configuration  to  look  like  this:  (save  your  old
     settings first!) 
     
     au_rename 3 tmp_rndr.pov rndr%m%.pov 
     
     Notice the macro %m% is used here instead of %f%. The  %f%  macro
     would  cause  all the output files to be renamed to a single file
     name.  
     
     Now run your final render.  Instead of a series of  image  files,
     the  render will produce a series of sequential source files like
     this: 
     
          RNDR0001 POV         1,202 12/09/95   3:58p
          RNDR0002 POV         1,202 12/09/95   3:58p
          RNDR0003 POV         1,202 12/09/95   3:58p
          RNDR0004 POV         1,203 12/09/95   3:58p
          RNDR0005 POV         1,203 12/09/95   3:58p
     
     Use ftp or whatever is appropriate to move the  source  files  to
     the new  machine.    On  the new machine you will probably want a
     script to render the files.  With a UNIX machine,  a  Korn  shell
     script such as 
     
          ls RNDR*.POV | while read SOURCE 
          do 
              FRAME=$(echo $SOURCE | cut -c5-8) 
              mypov -i$SOURCE -oAA$FRAME.tga 
          done 
     
     could  be  used  to  generate  a  series  of  TARGA image frames,
     AA0001.tga, AA0002.tga, etc.  (assuming you have a script 'mypov' 
     to set the resolution and other parameters.) 
     
     
     
     If you have any tips or helpful tricks  for  other  ANIM8  users,
     send it to Mark Willis at maw01@mindspring.com.  
     


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