Re: Eternal flipbook

[Andy Jones <andy(at)thefront.com>]

Hey,

Here's a little script that I cobbled together a while ago to make 
flipbooking sequences a little easier.  Basically, I found that if you 
circumvent the browser entirely by constructing a flipbook command line, 
it's much faster.  Of course, this means you don't get to pick all the 
options that normally come up in the dialog. 

There's two files -- a batch file and a vbscript file.  The vbscript 
file should work directly if you drag an image file on it (should be 
fine to use any one image file from a sequence).  And the batch file is 
there so you can set up frames to open with this script by default if 
you want -- it appears maybe you can't open files with a vbscript file 
directly in Windows.  You'll note the scripts are pretty hacked 
together, and you'll probably have to fix the paths so that they work 
with your particular situation.  I haven't done any serious testing 
either, so the whole thing might just break for no good reason.

Also, if your network has slow file browsing for some reason, I'm sure 
this script will still be slow to start...


Anyway, in a file called "LaunchFlip.bat" put the following text and 
replace C:\util\ with the path to where you actually want the vbs file 
to be stored:

cscript C:\util\LaunchFlip.vbs %1


And in a file called "LaunchFlip.vbs", put the following:

Dim filename
Dim mkBatchCmd
Dim sequence
Dim seqStart, seqEnd
Dim baseName
Dim extension
Dim dotOnePos
Dim dotTwoPos
Dim padSize

Set objArgs = WScript.Arguments

if (WScript.Arguments.Count > 0) Then

   filename = objArgs(0)
   dotOnePos = InStrRev(filename, ".")
   dotTwoPos = InStrRev(Left(filename, dotOnePos - 1), ".")
   sequence = Left(filename, dotTwoPos)
   extension = Right(filename, Len(filename) - dotOnePos)
   folderName = Left(filename, InStrRev(filename, "\"))
   filename = Right(sequence, Len(sequence) - Len(folderName))
   Dim oShell
   Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
   Set oFSO = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

   Set oFolder = oFSO.GetFolder(folderName)

   Set oFiles = oFolder.Files

   padSize = dotOnePos - dotTwoPos - 1
  
   dim oFile
  
   seqStart = 1000000
   seqEnd = -1000000
  
   Dim mFilename
   Dim num

   'WScript.Echo filename
   Dim i
   i = 0
  
   For Each oFile In oFiles
      
           mFilename = oFile.Name
           num = GetFrameNumber(mFilename, Left(filename, Len(filename) 
- 1))
           If num <> "Error" Then
               num = CInt(num)
               'WScript.Echo mFilename
               If seqStart > num Then
                   seqStart = num
               End If
              
               If seqEnd < num Then
                   seqEnd = num
               End If
           End If
   Next
  
   set oFile = oFSO.CreateTextFile("c:\TempBatch.bat", true)
   oFile.WriteLine("call c:\Softimage\XSI_4.2\Application\bin\setenv.bat")
   oFile.WriteLine("flip " & sequence & extension & " " & seqStart & " 
" & seqEnd & " -p " & BuildPad(padSize))
   oFile.Close

   oShell.Run "C:\TempBatch.bat", true

End If

Function GetFrameNumber(pFilename, pBasename)
  
   Dim mDotOne
   Dim mDotTwo

   mDotOne = InStrRev(pFilename, ".")
   mDotTwo = InStrRev(Left(pFilename, mDotOne - 1), ".")
  
   Dim mBasename
   mBasename = Left(pFilename, mDotTwo - 1)
  
   GetFrameNumber = "Error"
  
   'WScript.Echo mBasename & " " & pBasename
  
   If mBasename = pBasename Then
       frameNumber = Left(pFilename, mDotOne - 1)
       frameNumber = Right(frameNumber, Len(frameNumber) - 
InStr(frameNumber, "."))
       GetFrameNumber = frameNumber
   End If
  
End Function

Function BuildPad(size)
   Dim mPad, i
   mPad = "(fn)."
  
   For i = 1 To size
       mPad = mPad & "#"
   Next

   mPad = mPad & "(ext)"
   BuildPad = mPad
End Function



Bruce MacDougall wrote:

> We've got framecycler here (Standard 2.52 - no longer available) - 
> hitting F5 while browsing a linux NAS over Gigabit Ethernet usually 
> gets a refresh within 10 seconds. Lots of other reasons to recommend 
> it as well, like quick compositing, audio support and ability to 
> create, save and open sequence playlists. The nice thing about 
> flipbook, however, is the price.
>  
> Bruce MacDougall
> Northwest Imaging & FX
>  
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Bernard Lebel <mailto:3dbernard(at)gmail.com>
>     *To:* XSI(at)Softimage.COM <mailto:XSI(at)Softimage.COM>
>     *Sent:* Thursday, September 01, 2005 8:09 AM
>     *Subject:* Re: Eternal flipbook
>
>     I'm considering FrameCycler for this reason.
>
>     Bernard
>
>
>     On 9/1/05, guillaume laforge <guillaume.laforge.3d(at)gmail.com
>     <mailto:guillaume.laforge.3d(at)gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     >  I also noticed that Digital Fusion is faster than Flipbook to
>     browse and
>     > load file, so it's not only a windows pb ?
>
>     ---
>     Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM
>     <mailto:Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM> with the following text in body:
>     unsubscribe xsi

---
Unsubscribe? Mail Majordomo(at)Softimage.COM with the following text in body:
unsubscribe xsi