In Puglia contromano - Il ritorno dei talenti e delle arti
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Those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it. Rene Descartes, Discourse on the Method
Lo so che parlo perche' parlo ma che non persuadero' nessuno; e questa e' disonesta' - ma la rettorica mi costringe a forza a far cio' - o in altre parole "e' pur necessario che se uno ha addentato una perfida sorba la risputi". C. Michelstaedter, La Persuasione e la Rettorica
Under a darkening sky / The night is falling down on me / And I'm thinking that I should / Head on home / Been gone too long / Leave my roaming M. Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, Beachcombing
Render Flam3 Padding XForms is a unique feature that I introduced in the script version 1.3.7 (04 November 2008). It was mainly coded to adjust some quirks related to the Morph animation type so the user can have a better control of the whole morphing process but it can also affect Edge and Sheep ones.
Why I’m talking about it?
I’ve had no feedback about it (I’m not blaming anyone) but the script has some potential that lays underneath the surface and the current preliminary documentation doesn’t help at all (I’ll work on it as soon as possible too).
So I was just guessing: “Had someone tried it at all?”. Who knows…
Four simple video examples can maybe show how Padding XForms changes the animation motion.
I just don’t believe how much fast the time flows; the last release is approaching to a month ago. I’ve got so few spare time to work on the script: the new code was added during the weeks but I was out of testing possibilities due to some main-job urgencies.
Well, there’s not much hurry: no users response at all! … I’m not complaining, it’s the world we live in …
… Any which way, we’re going to need a little luck …
Beta3 is a quite good step forward to me. I’m quite near to the end of the 1.3.x planned-features-table so maybe I’d be better stay silent and go on with the coding. Who knows! :O
The new 1.4.x will have plenty of new small commodities and it’ll be mainly focused on usability. You know I’m still on the case.
Flam3 installation is now checked using Apophysis “Export renderer” path: we’ll no see the annoying request anymore, plus it can be easily changed just in case you need to use some different Flam3 versions.
Flam3 2.8 Bet4 stagger env var is now fully supported, plus I added the ‘oscope’ to ‘oscilloscope’ conversion and dropped redundant and useless (to Flam3) Flame.Angle tag.
The other small adds can be found in the Changelog.
I’m back to this script again after more than one year.
Why? Well, some update needs surfaced out of genetic-design mailing list during the last days.
First of all I’ve had the confirmation that the ‘twintrian’ Variation is currently banned; when a Flame containing this Variation is uploaded then the designer will have a surprise: the result it’ll be different cos the server silently erase it.
I’ve secondly discovered that ES (ElectricSheep) server limits to 5 the number of Variations per Transforms (XForm); I was completely unaware of it or I forgot the limitation when I firstly coded the script (I really don’t remember).
Well, this is the public beta release.
Sorry for the setback about beta1 but I found a couple of quirks that could potentially lead users to some headaches.
The Chaos tag was improperly including the FinalXForm value (always equal to 1); this value is totally redundant and unneeded.
Global Camera Rotation feature (introduced in 1.3.8.3 release) was spinning the Camera in the wrong direction (the opposite one) cos Apophysis uses an inverted Rotation value.
This version supports most of the new Flam3 2.8 Beta2 new features.
I’m finally approaching the last 1.3.x release (better later than nothing).
I’m actually calling it “beta1″ cos I didn’t have much time to deep test it but I’m quite sure that it should not have strange behaviors or quirks in it.
I’ve added complete Flam3 2.8 beta support: new Variations, new env var and new Flame tags.
The Export routine is finally forced to a single code loop and I’ve corrected some small/rare and quite old quirks.
There’s a lot to list but I think it’s faster and better to read below (Changelog) for all the new stuff.
This is an “internal” release.
Download RenderFlam3 1.3.8.6 here (Right Click / Save As): RenderFlam3.zip
I found a misspelling into the .bat file writing routine cos “nthread” parameter should be “nthreads”. Modifying the misspelled “nthread” value has no effects at all on the number of Threads used by Flam3.
Released under GPL License – http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “RenderFlam3″ in commercial production.
RenderFlam3 main purpose is rendering a sequence of Flames using Flam3 to create animations.
It’s an Apophysis script which cycles through the flames in the Title Window,
sets their time field,
sets their advanced animation tags,
saves them all off to a single flame file,
and then creates a bat file (to the same output path).
Executing the bat file will launch flam3-animate and render the animation’s frames; Flam3 will interpolate all the flames. RenderFlam3 can create Morph, Sheep or Edge animations.
I’ve been back to the script during the last days and found that before adding more new features I’ll better use the 1.3.8.x releases to add some more maintenance stuff.
There was some more coding left outside during the last releases due to the lack of spare time.
1.User defined JPEG quality and 16bit PNG support let users to fully customize the generated files both in terms of Format and Quality. 2.Flames checking is now selectable: this feature is very important cos the preliminary Flames checking could require various minutes on big Flames files. Users can use this feature to skip it. It’s should be used on Flames you’ve already checked for Flam3 compatibility. 3.Progress display for preliminary Flames checking and Better progress display for Flames saving let users in having a better and more complete feedback of the operations done by the working script. 4.BAT file header reports Flam3 and RenderFlam3 used version and BAT file header reports Generation parameters give users some information about the environment used to generate the Flame-sequence and the BAT file generated parameters. 5.BAT file is better commented give users more explanatory comments into the generated BAT file; it’d be more easy to optimize the whole rendering process now.
The interesting thing about this script is that, taking a look to the Site’s statistics, I’ve found there’s still some quite good interest in it; it’s actually often browsed and downloaded but I rarely have back some comments or usage tracks: I’m quite mature to know that the general Internet rule is “grab what you can“.
Well, I’ve spent some time tracing the users old requests and working to better code them, as far as possible, instead of adding a new bunch of stuff.
Most of the things are now implemented and some more will be added during the next maintenance releases.
Released under GPL License – http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “RenderFlam3″ in commercial production.
Low-quality preview of the Global Camera Rotation feature
RenderFlam3 main purpose is rendering a sequence of Flames using Flam3 to create animations.
It’s an Apophysis script which cycles through the flames in the Title Window,
sets their time field,
sets their advanced animation tags,
saves them all off to a single flame file,
and then creates a bat file (to the same output path).
Executing the bat file will launch flam3-animate and render the animation’s frames; Flam3 will interpolate all the flames. RenderFlam3 can create Morph, Sheep or Edge animations.
Preliminary Docs are included in the new archive.
Read the Docs or below for new features.
Changelog
v 1.3.8.5 – 18 June 2009
User defined JPEG quality added
16bit PNG support added
Flames checking is now selectable
Progress display for preliminary Flames checking
Better progress display for Flames saving
BAT file header reports Flam3 and RenderFlam3 used version
BAT file header reports Generation parameters
BAT file is better commented Read the rest of this entry »
Finally had some limited spare time to update the script!
1. Global Camera Rotation new feature: permit to rotate the Apophysis’s Camera during animations, useful to create spin-around morphs.
2. It now supports disc2, conic and parabola Variations (sorry for the long delay).
3. I’ve finally updated the last Flam3 version checking scheme: Flam3 versions are now properly checked forward!
This is a low-quality preview of the new Global Camera Rotation feature
Released under GPL License – http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “RenderFlam3″ in commercial production.
RenderFlam3 main purpose is rendering a sequence of Flames using Flam3 to create animations.
It’s an Apophysis script which cycles through the flames in the Title Window,
sets their time field,
sets their advanced animation tags,
saves them all off to a single flame file,
and then creates a bat file (to the same output path).
Executing the bat file will launch flam3-animate and render the animation’s frames; Flam3 will interpolate all the flames. RenderFlam3 can create Morph, Sheep or Edge animations.
Changelog
v 1.3.8.3 – 5 June 2009
Added Global Camera Rotation
v 1.3.8.2 – 2 June 2009
Added support for disc2, conic and parabola Variations
Updated/Better Flam3 version checking scheme: Flam3 versions are now properly checked forward!
v 1.3.8 – 08 November 2008
Corrected a couple of bug regarding selectable Padding XForms writing
Implemented writing of No, FinalXForm + PostXForm, PostXForm or FinalXForm only
Default value changed to 0 = No Padding XForms
The archive’s name is RenderFlam3.zip only Read the rest of this entry »
Corrected a couple of bug regarding selectable Padding XForms writing
Implemented writing of No, FinalXForm + PostXForm, PostXForm or FinalXForm only
Default value changed to 0 = No Padding XForms; let Flam3 choose the preferred one.
Released under GPL License – http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “RenderFlam3″ in commercial production.
RenderFlam3 main purpose is rendering a sequence of Flames using Flam3 to create animations.
It’s an Apophysis script which cycles through the flames in the Title Window,
sets their time field,
sets their advanced animation tags,
saves them all off to a single flame file,
and then creates a bat file (to the same output path).
Executing the bat file will launch flam3-animate and render the animation’s frames; Flam3 will interpolate all the flames. RenderFlam3 can create Morph, Sheep or Edge animations.
Changelog
v 1.3.8 – 08 November 2008
+ Corrected a couple of bug regarding selectable Padding XForms wirting
** Implemented writing of No, FinalXForm + PostXForm, PostXForm or FinalXForm only
** Default value changed to 0 = No Padding XForms
+ The archive’s name is RenderFlam3.zip only
v 1.3.7 – 04 November 2008
+ More compact/optimized code
+ Added support for
** Flam3 2.7.15 interpolation types: old and older (linear and log already supported)
** Flam3 2.7.14 new motion blur features: temporal_filter_type, temporal_filter_width and temporal_filter_exp
+ Added support for selectable Padding XForms writing implemented in “Flam3 Advanced Parameters” section
+ Fixed a minor/rare bug regarding FinalXForm handling
+ Updated/Better Flam3 version checking scheme
** it’s now 2.7.xx version-independent both on “plain” and “sub” folder installations
I’ve got finally some spare time, during the last days, to put my hands back on the Script again.
This version adds more support to the latest Flam3 versions.
New motion blur features: temporal_filter_type, temporal_filter_width and temporal_filter_exp
plus
interpolation types: old and older (linear and log already supported)
The padding XForms addition (“Flam3 Advanced Parameters”) is selectable by user.
A rare bug regarding FinalXform handling was corrected.
The code is better optimized and the whole script is more compact than the previous version.
The Flam3 installation scheme is now version-independent for every 2.7.xx version both in “sub” and “plain” folder setups.
Released under GPL License – http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “RenderFlam3″ in commercial production.
RenderFlam3 main purpose is rendering a sequence of Flames using Flam3 to create animations.
It’s an Apophysis script which cycles through the flames in the Title Window,
sets their time field,
sets their advanced animation tags,
saves them all off to a single flame file,
and then creates a bat file (to the same output path).
Executing the bat file will launch flam3-animate and render the animation’s frames; Flam3 will interpolate all the flames. RenderFlam3 can create Morph, Sheep or Edge animations.
Changelog
v 1.3.7 – 04 November 2008
+ More compact/optimized code
+ Added support for
** Flam3 2.7.15 interpolation types: old and older (linear and log already supported)
** Flam3 2.7.14 new motion blur features: temporal_filter_type, temporal_filter_width and temporal_filter_exp
+ Added support for selectable Padding XForms writing implemented in “Flam3 Advanced Parameters” section
+ Fixed a minor/rare bug regarding FinalXForm handling
+ Updated/Better Flam3 version checking scheme
** it’s now 2.7.xx version-independent both on “plain” and “sub” folder installations
v 1.3.6 – 24 April 2008
+ Updated Flam3 version checking scheme
** corrected onr minor Flam3 README file browsing fault
+ Added support for Flam3 Interpolation Space tag
** needs Flam3 2.7.7 or newer
** default value is Log
+ Added support for Flam3 “enable_jpeg_comments” and “enable_png_comments” vars
** the proper var is written into the bat file
** enable_jpeg_comments set to 1 by default
** enable_png_comments set to 1 by default
+ Little changes to the bat file writing routine
+ Some minor code clean-up
I’ve tested RenderFlam3 1.3.6 using the last Flam3 2.7.16 release.
The Script finds the new version correctly when it’s used both in “plain” and “sub” folders installations.
The script works perfectly in conjunction with the latest Flam3 versions but it supports all the features up to 2.7.11 one.
I don’t have updated the whole thing, during the last months, due to lack of spare time and no users demand but the Apophysis-Flam3 combo is still viable using the script.
This version has some important code updates.
* Major code update/optimization regarding FinalXForm handling
* Resolved a rare/minor bug regarding FinalXForm handling
* Support for unnamed flames
* Smaller and more compact script code
This script Export the current selected flame to file compatible for ES (ElectricSheep) server submission.
ExportSheep has a very simple usage: it exports the currently selected flame to a new file that is compatible to ES server submission.
Using ExportSheep you don’t have to modify the flame you want upload to by hand anymore; simply upload the generated file.
The script deals with the whole creation process by its own; it also checks for proper Variations and “kills” the unsupported ones.
It displays the preview of the generated file so you can check the current selected flame against the generated one.
It’s available in two versions:
Export Sheep s2.6 for the current server
and
Export Sheep s2.7 for the upcoming 2.7 server
The 2.7 version uses three parameters located end of the main comment: render width, height and quality. They’re value is equal to the actual beta server one but they can be changed when the server will switch to the final stage.
Credits or donations are not mandatory but very appreciated especially when using “Export Sheep” in commercial production. Contact me via email.
Changelog
v 1.0 – 19 June 2008
Major code update/optimization regarding FinalXForm handling
Resolved a rare/minor bug regarding FinalXForm handling
Support for unnamed flames
Smaller and more compact script code
v 0.7 – 17 June 2008
Blazing faster when used on big flame-packs
v 0.6 – 15 June 2008
Minor code clean up
v 0.5 – 14 June 2008
Resolved a couple of minor bugs
v 0.4 – 13 June 2008
Resolved a minor bug regarding FinalXForm handling
Minor code optimization and clean up
v 0.3 – 12 June 2008
Faster browsing for big Flame files
Code clean up
v 0.2 – 11 June 2008
Code optimization
v 0.1 – 10 June 2008
First internal implementation adapting RenderFlam3 script
Useless code removed
A couple of minor code updates make the new version blazing faster when used on big flame-packs.
This script Export the current selected flame to file compatible for ES (ElectricSheep) server submission.
ExportSheep has a very simple usage: it exports the currently selected flame to a new file that is compatible to ES server submission.
Using ExportSheep you don’t have to modify the flame you want upload to by hand anymore; simply upload the generated file.
The script deals with the whole creation process by its own; it also checks for proper Variations and “kills” the unsupported ones.
It displays the preview of the generated file so you can check the current selected flame against the generated one.
It’s available in two versions:
Export Sheep s2.6 for the current server
and
Export Sheep s2.7 for the upcoming 2.7 server
The 2.7 version uses three parameters located end of the main comment: render width, height and quality. They’re value is equal to the actual beta server one but they can be changed when the server will switch to the final stage.
The script is actually in testing-stage; it works ok, as far as I can see, but there’d still be some minor faults in it. Use it at your own risk.
ExportSheep has a very simple usage: it exports the currently selected flame to a new file that is compatible to ES server submission.
Using ExportSheep you don’t have to modify the flame you want upload to by hand anymore; simply upload the generated file.
The script deals with the whole creation process by its own; it also checks for proper Variations and “kills” the unsupported ones.
It displays the preview of the generated file so you can check the current selected flame against the generated one.
It’s available in two versions:
Export Sheep s2.6 for the current server
and
Export Sheep s2.7 for the upcoming 2.7 server
The 2.7 version uses three parameters located end of the main comment: render width, height and quality. They’re value is equal to the actual beta server one but they can be changed when the server will switch to the final stage.
The script is actually in testing-stage; it works ok, as far as I can see, but there’d still be some minor faults in it. Use it at your own risk.
I’ve tested RenderFlam3 1.3.6 using the last Flam3 2.7.12 release.
The Script finds the new version correctly when it used in the “plain directory” installation.
I’ve got to address more about the “sub directory” mode but I think I’ll completely remove it during the 1.4 development cycle.
There’ll be some utilities script to configure the whole thing removing the main problem about Flam3 installation and keeping the general usage a lot simpler.
