animate(1) (December 12, 1994) animate(1)
NAME
animate - animate a sequence of geomview files
SYNOPSIS
animate [-p] [-b] [-s speed] [-o] [-S script] [-hide] [-f file1 file2 ...]
DESCRIPTION
Animate is an interactive animation tool specifically
designed to be used with Geomview. It provides several
simple animation controls such as looping, bouncing, and
single frame stepping, as well as adjustable speed playing.
The program works by telling geomview to read in a sequence
of geomview files and then telling geomview to display each
frame of the sequence in order.
There are two methods that Animate provides for specifying
which frames one wants to have in the sequence being viewed.
The first method is to enter the name of every frame into
the text input box and press return or click on load. The
name of each frame must correspond with the name of a
geomview file existing in the file system.
EXAMPLES
pict1 pict2 pict3 pict4
pict*
pic??
The second method of loading frames is to first create an
animation script file outside of animate and then load the
script in by typing its name in the input box and clicking
on the script button. The advantage of this method is that
you can more easily specify the exact order in which you
want the frames to be shown. The format of the script file
is a list of frame names each followed by a newline.
Comments prepended by a # sign are allowed.
EXAMPLE SCRIPT FILE
# list of frames for
# my rotating cube movie
cube.02
cube.04
cube.03 # get rid of this frame later
cube.01
.
.
.
cube.90
Loading frames into memory may take a little time,
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animate(1) (December 12, 1994) animate(1)
especially if each frame is a particularly large file. Be
sure the machine you're using has sufficient memory to load
all the frames you desire. Once all frames have been loaded,
an 'animate' object will appear in the geomview object
browser. It is now possible to begin animating.
Scrolling through frames can be accomplished in several
different ways. The first, and most obvious way is by
'playing' the frames. Clicking on the Play button causes
animate to begin playing through the frames in order,
starting with the first frame or whichever frame has been
selected. The corresponding name of each frame being shown
is shown in the pink text-entry box. Click on Stop to cease
playing.
Animation speed depends on the size and complexity of the
object in each frame. Thus different sequences can have
considerably different top playing speeds. Use the Speed
slider to set an upper limit to the animation rate. You can
also play slowly through the frames can also by clicking
repeatedly on either step button.
Press the Bounce button to enter bounce mode. While in
bounce mode, direction of play reverses whenever the first
or last frame is reached. Clicking on either Step button
determines the playing direction.
Clicking on Once puts animate in 'once' mode. While in this
mode, upon reaching the first or last frame (depending on
which direction you are going) of a specified sequence,
animate will stop playing. Normal playing can be resumed by
clicking on Once again to exit this mode.
The Info button will bring up a short menu containing
helpful hints for program usage. Clicking on the exit button
will cause the program to exit.
OPTIONS
-p Start playing through the frames right away upon
startup.
-b Go into bounce mode upon startup.
-s speed
Set the speed of play upon startup. The value of speed
may be an integer between 0 and 100 which roughly
signifies the percentage of top playing speed.
-o Set animation to play through only once upon startup.
-S script
Specify name of script containing filenames for objects
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animate(1) (December 12, 1994) animate(1)
to be read in upon startup. Takes precedence over -f
option if present.
-hide
Makes animate invisible upon startup. *Warning* all
animate commands must be specified on the command line
when this option is used since there is no way to
access the main window.
-f file1 file2 ...
Specify names of files containing objects to be read in
upon startup.
BUGS
When loading sequences one after another, geomview will
often not load a sequence on the first try. This can often
be remedied by telling animate to load the sequence yet
again.
SEE ALSO
geomview(1)oogl(5)
AUTHOR
Daeron Meyer email: daeron@geom.umn.edu
The Geometry Center phone: (612) 626-8304
1300 South Second Street
Minneapolis, MN 55454
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