introduction

This script will help you render short animation cycles from the point of view of a non-cyclic camera

The images are rendered as a serquence of numbered image files

The script has some facilities to help you convert these images into a video file

If you created a 1 second long animation of a character dancing

and you created a 10 second long animation of a camera, moving around the location of the dancer

Using this script you could render the 10 second long video,

and the script would take care of presenting the 1 second long animation cycle to your camera

also

This script lets you change the frame rate at which your cycling animation runs

and the frame rate at which your non-cycling camera is rendered

and the frame rate of the output video

History

December 31st 2013 released

January 2nd 2014 - Added progress bar which allows interrupy Hardware renders and a button to interrupt FFMpeg

Installation

The zip package is found at the bottom of this page

unzip it in your daz content folder, typically

C:\Program Files\DAZ\Studio\content\

or

C:\Program Files (x86)\DAZ\Studio\content\

once installed, it will appear in your content library, under Studio / Scripts / mcasual

or

C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library\

once installed, it will appear in your content library, under My DAZ 3D Library / Scripts / mcasual

Use

Set your render camera as the current Daz Studio's camera

In Daz Studio's Render Settings menu set your render preferences

For example, set the renderer as 3Delight and the image size at 1280x720

Launch the script.\n"

Specify the range of frames containing the cyclical animation\n"

For example : from frame 0 to 29

Specify the range of frames to render from the camera's point of view

For example : from frame 0 to 299

Specify the location and base file-name for the rendered images

For example : C:/Users/Public/Pictures/test.jpg

Click on the 'Render as numbered images' button

The script will now direct Daz Studio to render the animation

In our example, the 30 frames cycling animation will be rendered 10 times

but from the point of view of the render camera which is not cyclical

Having a non-cyclical camera moving about a cyclical world

is why i thought a name like etherCam was appropriate

You could use almost any video editor to convert your rendered images into a video

But if you are brave and slightly nerdy ... it can be done with the free utility ffmpeg

Download and install it from http://www.ffmpeg.org/

In the ''FFMpeg paraneters'' section, Specify the location of ffmpeg.exe

For example c:\ffmpeg-20131231-git-d52882f-win32-static\ffmpeg.exe

Specify the video codec to use. This can only be a very specific

name taken from the list of installed codecs. Example : libx264

( refer to the FFmpeg documentation )

Specify the location, file-name and file-type of the video

Example: C:/Users/Public/Videos/test.avi

note that FFmpeg can handle .mp4, .avi, .mov, .flv files and much more.

Steps and Frame Rates

With our example of a 30 frames animation loop, and a 300 frames camera animation

if we change the "Step" value of the section titled "Range of grames where the animation takes place"

from it's default value of 1 to the value of 0.5

then the cyclic animation will show 2 times as slow as the original

if we change the "Step" value of the section titled "Range of frames to render"

from it's default value of 1 to the value of 0.5

then the rendered animation will have 2 times more frames

In the FFmpeg parameters section you can also change the frame rate of the video file

lots of options are open to you!

codecs and file formats

i obtained the list of codec names installed on my computer by running the following batch file which was in the same folder as ffmpeg.exe

ffmpeg -codecs >codecs.txt

and i obtained the list of file formats using the following batch file which was in the same folder as ffmpeg.exe

ffmpeg -formats >formats.txt

codecs.txt and formats.txt are attached at the bottom of this web page

License

//===================================================================

// by mCasual/Jacques

//===================================================================

// ( MIT License )

// Copyright (c) <2013> <mCasual/Jacques>

// Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person

// obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation

// files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without

// restriction, including without limitation the rights to use,

// copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell

// copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the

// Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following

// conditions:

//

// The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be

// included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

//

// THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,

// EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES

// OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND

// NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT

// HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,

// WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING

// FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR

// OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

//===================================================================