On 02.01.21 12:35, Revar Desmera wrote: > I would just like a way to configure animation from the > command-line, and have it dump a bunch of animation > frame PNG files. See https://github.com/openscad/openscad/pull/3280 ciao, Torsten.

It's a fairly trivial shell script to write, though it doesn't seem to be possible without an additional time (or frame number) variable in the code (assuming you're doing more than just incrementing one of the existing variables). I've started writing mine to render every fourth frame, so that I can have four copies of the script running in parallel, to make use of all of my processor cores. Simplifying this would be a welcome addition, though. On Jan 2, 2021, 03:36 -0800, Revar Desmera <revarbat@gmail.com>, wrote: > I would just like a way to configure animation from the command-line, and have it dump a bunch of animation frame PNG files. That way I can generate animations for my documentation generation scripts in a far less time consuming manner. I currently have to generate each frame with a separate OpenSCAD run. > > -Revar > > > > On Jan 1, 2021, at 9:06 PM, Hans L <thehans@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > As far as usage, I often use Animation to test/verirfy how a WIP module behaves over a wide range of parametric values, or even for a finished module as a demo of how it works and what different parameter values look like.  In some cases the thing I'm working on is 2D-only or requires no boolean CSG operations, in which case 60FPS is not an unreasonable target to set. > > > > The other big use for me is dumping pictures for making into an animated GIF.  This might be to showcase a design from different angles or with moving parts, exploding/assembling animations, illustrating some abstract geometry problem, or even just for fun/artsy GIFs. > > I do end up using GIMP to create the final GIF, so a way to export to GIF directly from OpenSCAD would be great (or even better Animated PNG) > > > > Here's my ideas for improvement: > > > >   - A pause/play toggle button is probably the most sorely missed feature, add a button to the toolbar + assign a keyboard shortcut for it.  The one weird trick I've been using is to keep my text cursor in the FPS box, and append a `-` character to the end of the value, which makes it invalid and pauses the animation, then backspace to resume. > > > >   - Instead of having some default presets of FPS and Steps or tucking the default away into the Preferences menu, I feel like it would be enough to just automatically save and restore those values from their last usage. > > > >   - For more mouse-friendliness, make the FPS and step boxes into spinboxes with up and down arrows, much like the customizer. > > > >   - An interactive timeline slider would also be great, and could possibly replace the "Time" input text box. > > > >   - I could be wrong, but I think that last time I looked at the code, the FPS setting does something like a simple delay of (1000 / FPS) ms, and doesn't subtract the time taken to render the previous frame.  It should be more like delay(max(0, 1000/FPS - time_elapsed_since_last_frame)), that way if your animation can't keep up to target frame rate, at least it won't waste any time sleeping.  Sometimes I set FPS to an absurdly high number like 1e9 to make any added delay negligible, but doing that also can make the view flicker (I think the GLView may be getting cleared and repainted at the start of each frame's preview; would be best to just repaint only when the next frame is ready and don't clear it beforehand). > > > >   - On that note, I've also kinda wanted to be able to see some feedback on the actual effective FPS vs the target FPS, which could possibly be displayed in the bottom status bar next to viewport settings. > > > > > > Hans > > > > > > > > On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 3:20 PM Jordan Brown <openscad@jordan.maileater.net> wrote: > > > I've used it for three basic things: > > >  • Exploding an assembly into its print form and back again.  (But I think nophead's idea of showing assembled form for $preview and print form for !$preview may be better.) > > >  • Flythrough. > > >  • Seeing how moving parts interact.  (I was just animating shed doors opening and closing to make sure I had the hinge geometry right.) > > > I usually set 10 FPS and maybe a hundred frames. > > > A keyboard shortcut, mostly shrug.  Once I turn the UI on, it tends to stay on. > > > Defaults would be nice, though I kind of doubt any one set of defaults would make everybody happy.  Or maybe defaults could be configurable? > > > A pause button would be nice.  Step forward/back too, but less so. > > > It would be *really* nice if it cached the results so that the second time through the loop could run at full speed.  But that's probably not compatible with being able to change the view while the animation runs. > > > It would be nice if it directly generated a video file, rather than a set of stills.  That doesn't need to be a built-in capability; it could operate by invoking an external program like ImageMagick or ffmpeg that you have to install separately.  I've only done video files a couple of times, and I've had to go research how to do it each time. > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > OpenSCAD mailing list > > > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > > > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org > > _______________________________________________ > > OpenSCAD mailing list > > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org > _______________________________________________ > OpenSCAD mailing list > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org

Whosawhatsis, I get the timeline & clicking around, but what is 'scrub'? _____ From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.openscad.org] On Behalf Of Whosawhatsis Sent: Fri, 1 Jan 2021 07:11 To: discuss@lists.openscad.org; OpenSCAD general discussion Subject: Re: [OpenSCAD] Animation: What is your typical use. A timeline running the full width of the preview window would be nice to have. You wouldn't be able to scrub, but at least being able to click around in it would be nice. Of course, it would be great if the caching WAS good enough to allow you to scrub, even if it was only over the range of frames that have already been rendered. Of course, if you don't rotate the view (or if you're controlling the view with the variables like $vpr and $vpt), the frames could be cached as images, which should make scrubbing easy. If you're NOT using those variables, of course, the cached frames would be invalidated as soon as you make any changes to the viewport. They would also be invalidated if you make any functional changes to the code (though edits only to comments and whitespace wouldn't need to invalidate them). On Dec 31, 2020, 01:06 -0800, Troberg <troberg.anders@gmail.com>, wrote: I use animation a lot to present "fly-around" views of an object, and to show moving parts in motion. My thoughts on it: I never use it "live", my renderings are way too slow for that, so I generate files and put them together to a GIF. This means that, for me, the FPS is useless, I just want it all rendered as fast as possible. Instead of having to use FPS to start/stop animation, I'd like to have a simple play/pause button. A slider to set frame would also be nice, so you can arrange the viewport in the "largest" frame. A progress bar or text when exporting. It would be nice to know how many frames are done when you have a two hour animation rendering. -- Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/ _______________________________________________ OpenSCAD mailing list Discuss@lists.openscad.org http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org -- This email has been checked for viruses by AVG. https://www.avg.com

Its and audio/video editing term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrubbing_(audio) Basically dragging a cursor forwards or backwards along the timeline and seeing the frames immediately as you move over them. It's not practical for us since preview of a single frame could take several seconds or more. I would say that if such a timeline slider is made, it should be draggable, but only "commit" the new time value and update the view when the slider is released (on mouse button up event). On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 8:27 PM MichaelAtOz <oz.at.michael@gmail.com> wrote: > Whosawhatsis, I get the timeline & clicking around, but what is 'scrub'? > > > ------------------------------ > > *From:* Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.openscad.org] *On Behalf Of > *Whosawhatsis > *Sent:* Fri, 1 Jan 2021 07:11 > *To:* discuss@lists.openscad.org; OpenSCAD general discussion > *Subject:* Re: [OpenSCAD] Animation: What is your typical use. > > > > A timeline running the full width of the preview window would be nice to > have. You wouldn't be able to scrub, but at least being able to click > around in it would be nice. Of course, it would be great if the caching WAS > good enough to allow you to scrub, even if it was only over the range of > frames that have already been rendered. Of course, if you don't rotate the > view (or if you're controlling the view with the variables like $vpr and > $vpt), the frames could be cached as images, which should make scrubbing > easy. If you're NOT using those variables, of course, the cached frames > would be invalidated as soon as you make any changes to the viewport. They > would also be invalidated if you make any functional changes to the code > (though edits only to comments and whitespace wouldn't need to invalidate > them). > > On Dec 31, 2020, 01:06 -0800, Troberg <troberg.anders@gmail.com>, wrote: > > I use animation a lot to present "fly-around" views of an object, and to > show > moving parts in motion. > > My thoughts on it: > > I never use it "live", my renderings are way too slow for that, so I > generate files and put them together to a GIF. This means that, for me, the > FPS is useless, I just want it all rendered as fast as possible. > > Instead of having to use FPS to start/stop animation, I'd like to have a > simple play/pause button. A slider to set frame would also be nice, so you > can arrange the viewport in the "largest" frame. > > A progress bar or text when exporting. It would be nice to know how many > frames are done when you have a two hour animation rendering. > > > > -- > Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > OpenSCAD mailing list > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org > > > <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient> Virus-free. > www.avg.com > <http://www.avg.com/email-signature?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campaign=sig-email&utm_content=emailclient> > <#m_-3962621286559834135_DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> > _______________________________________________ > OpenSCAD mailing list > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org >

I mainly use it to produce frame sequences showing movement cycles and pseudo 3D impressions of designs based on camera movements. Instead of the latter I would prefer a 3D PDF format allowing to communicate designs that are not easily to grasp in 2D images. However it would be a great progress, to be able to choose a more convenient output format like *.gif or *.mp4 for animations. I wrote a Matlab script that composes all pngs in a selectable folder into a gif (and deletes the pngs). The results are prefect, but, obviously this process is a bit clumsy and I'd prefer a native solution in OpenSCAD. -- Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/

Unless the frames are being cached (as images), in which case scrubbing should be possible, and would be useful, for example, to check the frames before exporting them as a video/gif. On Jan 2, 2021, 19:44 -0800, Hans L <thehans@gmail.com>, wrote: > Its and audio/video editing term: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrubbing_(audio) > > Basically dragging a cursor forwards or backwards along the timeline and seeing the frames immediately as you move over them.  It's not practical for us since preview of a single frame could take several seconds or more. > I would say that if such a timeline slider is made, it should be draggable, but only "commit" the new time value and update the view when the slider is released (on mouse button up event). > > > > On Sat, Jan 2, 2021 at 8:27 PM MichaelAtOz <oz.at.michael@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Whosawhatsis, I get the timeline & clicking around, but what is 'scrub'? > > > > > > From: Discuss [mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.openscad.org] On Behalf Of Whosawhatsis > > > Sent: Fri, 1 Jan 2021 07:11 > > > To: discuss@lists.openscad.org; OpenSCAD general discussion > > > Subject: Re: [OpenSCAD] Animation: What is your typical use. > > > > > > A timeline running the full width of the preview window would be nice to have. You wouldn't be able to scrub, but at least being able to click around in it would be nice. Of course, it would be great if the caching WAS good enough to allow you to scrub, even if it was only over the range of frames that have already been rendered. Of course, if you don't rotate the view (or if you're controlling the view with the variables like $vpr and $vpt), the frames could be cached as images, which should make scrubbing easy. If you're NOT using those variables, of course, the cached frames would be invalidated as soon as you make any changes to the viewport. They would also be invalidated if you make any functional changes to the code (though edits only to comments and whitespace wouldn't need to invalidate them). > > > On Dec 31, 2020, 01:06 -0800, Troberg <troberg.anders@gmail.com>, wrote: > > > > > > I use animation a lot to present "fly-around" views of an object, and to show > > > moving parts in motion. > > > > > > My thoughts on it: > > > > > > I never use it "live", my renderings are way too slow for that, so I > > > generate files and put them together to a GIF. This means that, for me, the > > > FPS is useless, I just want it all rendered as fast as possible. > > > > > > Instead of having to use FPS to start/stop animation, I'd like to have a > > > simple play/pause button. A slider to set frame would also be nice, so you > > > can arrange the viewport in the "largest" frame. > > > > > > A progress bar or text when exporting. It would be nice to know how many > > > frames are done when you have a two hour animation rendering. > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > Sent from: http://forum.openscad.org/ > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > OpenSCAD mailing list > > > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > > > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org > > > > > > Virus-free. www.avg.com > > > _______________________________________________ > > > OpenSCAD mailing list > > > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > > > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org > _______________________________________________ > OpenSCAD mailing list > Discuss@lists.openscad.org > http://lists.openscad.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss_lists.openscad.org