This chapter describes the new batch rendering features of RenderBoy and how these features can be used together to create simple animations. These capabilities are new with version 2.0. In previous releases it was only possible to create an animation by varying the "Eye View Settings" parameters. Now, you can vary the eye view settings, the locations of objects, or both at the same time.
Drag&Drop Batch Rendering
RenderBoy can now take advantage of the MacOS Finder's drag&drop capability. This is the perfect way to batch render multiple designs while you are asleep or away from your Mac. Simply select two or more RenderBoy design files and drag&drop them onto the RenderBoy application icon. RenderBoy will open each design file one by one, render its contents, then save each rendering as a separate PICT file. The name of each file is the same as the design file but with a "PICT-" prefix added to the name. Each PICT file is saved in the same folder as the original design file.
This new feature has a few restrictions to its use. First, the Mac Finder does not allow drag&drop from more than one folder at the same time. However, a workaround is to create a folder of design file aliases (referring to files in other folders), then drag&drop the aliases onto RenderBoy. The target files (referred to by the aliases) will be rendered and saved as PICT files in the individual design folders (not the alias folder). You can use the Finder's command-option drag feature to create these aliases very easily. Just hold down command&option while dragging a design file from folder-A to folder-B, and the destination will become an alias referring back to the original.
Once RenderBoy is rendering a batch of designs, you cannot drag&drop more designs onto RenderBoy until it is done with the first batch. Also, you cannot have a design file open in RenderBoy while batch rendering. Lastly, if an error occurs (out of memory, out of disk space, etc) while rendering a batch of design files, batch rendering is suspended until you respond to the problem.
Tool Movement Settings
Prior to version 2.0 of RenderBoy, the tools (under the "Tools" menu) were mainly used to manipulate objects or create patterns of objects. Now they can also be used to move objects for animation purposes. This section describes how to make the objects move. Using this capability for animation purposes is described in the remaining sections of this chapter.
Any of the tools which manipulate objects can be "re-applied" by selecting "Tools -> Apply Tool Again". They can also be applied in reverse by selecting "Tools -> Apply Tool Reversed". For example, create an object, select it, then use the tranlation tool to drag it in the front, side, or top view. Then each time you select "Tools -> Apply Tool Again", the selected object will be translated by that same amount. Selecting "Tools -> Apply Tool Reversed" causes it to be translated in the opposite direction.
For the translation, rotation, and orientation tools, you can now also vary the movement's magnitude for each re-application of the tool. The tool movement settings are specified using the menu item "Tools -> Movement Settings...", which will open the dialog box shown below.
 
The movement settings apply to the translation tool, rotation tool, or orientation tool, whichever is currently selected. The top three radio buttons control whether the movement of the tool should increase, decrease, or stay the same (the default) each time you select "Apply Tool Again". For example, set the object movement to "decrease each time the tool is applied", then translate a selected object as described in the previous example. Each time you select re-apply, the movement of the object will be become smaller and smaller. Eventually, this will cause the object to stop moving, then start moving in the reverse direction. In an animation, this looks like the object is decelerating to a stop, then accelerating in the opposite direction. The affect is similar for the rotation and orientation tools, except the object's movement is angular instead of linear.
The four radio buttons at the bottom of the above dialog control the rate at which the object movement changes. Refering again to the previous example, this would control how many times you would need to re-apply the tool before the selected object would stop and change direction.
You should spend some time experimenting with these movement settings with a single object to get a feel for how they work. Once you feel comfortable with this new feature, you can easily use it to control object movement, with simulated affects of acceleration or deceleration.
Batch Settings and Batch Save
The purpose of the new "Batch Save" feature is to save a series of similar design files which can then be batch rendered to create the frames of an animation. With each batch save, RenderBoy can automatically re-apply a rotation, orientation, or tool movement (to selected objects) or vary the eye view settings. These frame-to-frame object/view changes are the basis of the animation. The batch settings are specified using the menu item "File -> Batch Settings...", which will open the dialog box shown below.
 
This dialog controls what happens when you select the "File -> Batch Save" menu item. When you do a batch save, you are simply saving the current design under a batch file name. A unique batch file counter is appended to each batch file name. The "Current Batch File Name" button opens a standard file dialog where you can specify the name and location of your batch files. The "Current batch file counter" field specifies the value which will be appended to each file name, and this value increments automatically with each batch save.
For example, if you set the current batch file name to "MyBatch" and the batch file counter to zero, the next five batch saves would create the following files: "MyBatch0000", "MyBatch0001", "MyBatch0002", "MyBatch0003", and "MyBatch0004".
If the "Apply current eye view settings" box is checked, then the "Apply" button in the "Eye View Settings" dialog will be automatically clicked after each batch save. Placing values in the "Move" fields of the eye view settings dialog will cause the eye view settings to change accordingly during the frames of each batch save.
If the "Apply tool again on the selected objects" box is checked, then the "Tools -> Apply Tool Again" menu item will be automatically selected immediately after each batch save. This can be used to create object animations as described in the previous section. The "Tranlation Tool", "Rotation Tool", and "Orientation Tool" radio buttons specify which tool is used for the animation.
If the "Apply tool in the reverse direction" box is checked, then each batch save will "Apply Tool Reversed" instead of "Apply Tool Again". Lastly, if the "Copy the objects instead of move them" box is checked, then each batch save (and tool application) will move a copy of the selected objects, rather than just move the original.
Once again, you should spend some time experimenting with the batch settings and how they work with the eye view settings and tool movement setting to create animation frames. Once you feel comfortable with how these features work together, you can use it to quickly generate some simple batch animations.
Creating Batch Rendered Animations
Generating a batch rendered animation simply requires using the features covered in this chapter and previous chapters. In most cases, you will perform the following steps:
1) Create and save your design in the usual way.
2) Plan out a simple animation by experimenting with the tools, eye view settings, or both.
3) Select "File -> Batch Settings..." and specify your desired settings for the creation of the batch files.
3.1) Specify the batch file name and counter value.
3.2) Specify whether the eye view settings should change with each batch save. If you set them to change, select "Render -> Eye View Settings" to verify the eye view settings will change the way you want.
3.3) Specify whether a tool should be applied (to move objects) with each batch save. If you are applying a tool, be sure the last usage of the tool is correct, since that is the one to be re-applied. Also, select "Tool -> Movement Settings" and verify the tool movement settings are what you want. Lastly, verify that some design objects are actually selected, since they are the ones affected by tools during the batch saves.
4) Create the batch design files by selecting "File -> Batch Save" once for each frame in the animation.
5) Drag&drop the batch design files onto the RenderBoy application icon in order to render them. This can take a long time, but once started, it doesn't require your attention.
6) Convert your movie frames to a Quicktime movie using a utility like "MooVer" by ESP Software. You can also use "PICT-Play" to view the frames directly.
As you may have noticed, individually, these steps are each very simple. However, you will find it takes some practice combining the steps to get the results that you want. Steps 2 and 3 are the trickiest, but easy to redo. Since they are quick, if you make a mistake, you can always trash the batch saved files and just try again.. Creating good animations, like creating good designs, is a skill which requires some practice. The more you do it, the better you will get.
Limitations of Batch Rendered Animations
There are a few limitations to what can be accomplished with batch rendered animations. To save you the frustration of finding them for yourself, they are described here:
1) You can only animate objects with simple linear or angular motion, and only the selected objects can have this motion at any one time.
2) You can only animate object location and eye view settings. It is not yet possible to animate other appearance settings, like dimensions, color, surface properties, textures, etc.
3) Animating objects and eye view settings at the same time can be tricky, and often requires a trial-and-error approach. This is a skill which you will get better at with practice.
4) If an animation doesn't come out like you wanted, you usually have to start over from step #3 in the previous section..
5) There is no way to preview your animation in wireframe. The best you can do is look at the eye view windows of the individual design frames.
