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animate.1
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1993-10-31
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animate(1) Geomview Module animate(1)
NAME
animate - animate a sequence of geomview files
SYNOPSIS
animate [-w posx posy] [-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 play-
ing. 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. Animate runs
only on Silicon Graphics machines.
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. Com-
ments 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,
July 10, 1992 1
animate(1) Geomview Module 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 will
cause 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 outlined in red. Clicking on stop will
cause animate to stop playing the frames.
The speed at which frames are animated depends on the size
and complexity of the object in each frame. Thus different
sequences can have considerably different top playing
speeds. If the sequence is playing too quickly, the speed
of play can be adjusted to be slower using the speed
slider. Playing slowly through the frames can also be
accomplished by holding one of the two step buttons down.
Also, clicking on either step button will cause future
playing to go in the same direction as that step.
To provide further control on direction and sequence of
play, the bounce and loop features may be used. To enter
bounce mode, click on the bounce button. While animate is
in bounce mode, whenever the first or last frame is
reached direction of play automatically reverses. This
allows bouncing back and forth between the frames at each
end of the sequence.
Clicking on loop puts animate in looping mode. In looping
mode animate only shows frames from a certain subset of
all frames in the sequence. To specify which frames you
want included in this subset, you outline each frame by
clicking on it or dragging across it. Being in both loop-
ing and bouncing mode simultaneously will cause animate to
bounce back and forth between the first and last frames in
the subset of frames.
Clicking on 'once' puts animate in 'once' mode where a
sequence of frames is played through only one time. Upon
reaching the first or last frame (depending on which
direction you are going) of a specified sequence, while in
this mode, animate will stop playing. Normal playing can
be resumed by clicking on 'once' again and exiting this
mode.
The info button will bring up a short menu containing
helpful hints for program usage. Clicking on the exit but-
ton will cause the program to exit.
July 10, 1992 2
animate(1) Geomview Module animate(1)
OPTIONS
-w posx posy
Set the initial position of the animate window
where posx and posy are distances in pixels from
the lower left hand corner of the screen to the
lower left hand corner of the animate window.
-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 to be read in upon startup. Takes prece-
dence 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) 626-8307
1300 South Second Street
Minneapolis, MN 55454
July 10, 1992 3