    
                          POVANI ANIMATION FOR POVRAY
    
    
                                Version 1.0
    
                             Luis G Galvez 1995-1996
    
           This software is provided 'as is' without express or implied warranty
    
         INCLUDED FILES :
    
           POVANI.EXE   = Executable, has to be installed in directory where POVRAY.EXE is.
           PVANIEDT.EXE  = Executable, used to edit POV or INC files, could be replaced
                   with any pov-editor program. if used, should be in povray
                   directory.
           POVFIL.BAT   = Will be created at run time to launch povray2 from DOS.
           VARIABLE.INC = Will be created at run time and will hold all variables used for
                   animation
           POVANI.PRF   = Will be created at run time and will hold configuration values.
           POVANI.VAR   = Will be created at run time, will keep povray settings and
                   povani settings to repeat animation if you want so. Save this file
                   with pov  and inc files if you want to render the same animation later.
           POVANI.TXT   = This file
           CMDIALOG.VBX  = Needed to run Povani, in Windows/System Directory
           COMMDLG.DLL  = Needed to run Povani, in Windows/System Directory
           REGISTER.INF  = Information file on how to Register
           REGISTER.TXT  = Registration form
      
         WHAT DO YOU NEED TO CREATE A COMPLETE ANIMATION PACKAGE 
    
           1.- MODELER such as "MIDNIGHT MODELLER" OR "POVCAD" OR "MORAY" to    
                create POV      files
           2.- TEXT EDITOR such as "NOTEPAD.EXE" or "WORDPAD.EXE" or any other            
                non-formatted text editor
               (Povani comes with a convenient small text editor called "Pvaniedt,exe" that can be        
                launched from the Main form  "Edit"               
                button. This text editor will add the variables
                needed to create the animation 
           3.- POVANI.EXE To make a series of TGA files (while You sleep or away from your        
                desk)
           3.- POVRAY.exe  version 2 or 3, now freeware (Rendering Engine).
           4.- Tga to Flc Animation converter such as "DTA.EXE" Dave's Targa Animator to             
                convert all the TGA files created by Povani into an fli or flc animation.
           5.- FLC Animation Viewer such as "AAWIN.EXE" or "AAplay.exe" from Autodesk.inc    
                (freeware)All this additional programs can be obtained from : "Go Graphdew"
                Compuserve or "Povray.org"at WWW or "The Pov-Ray Official CD-ROM" from 
                "Walnut Creek CDROM". Some of them are Shareware and some are Freeware, 
                and with a modest spent amount You can  have a complete Animation Package 
                that will compete with the ones costing 10 to 20 times more. 
           
         HOW DOES POVANI WORK?
    
           Povani at runtime will create an include file that will change values on
           each frame according to certain values set by functions such as pulse
           sine, random, linear, bounce, etc. for example:
    
           The 'lin' variable (linear) will contain : 0.2 on the first frame, 0.4 on 
           the second frame, 0.6 on the third frame, 0.8 on the fourth frame and 1.0
           on the fifth frame, that is for a 5 frames animation.
           In other words, values will change linearly from 0 to 1 and the specific
           value will depend on the number of frames.
           The 'sin'  function will  contain values that will change following the
           sine wave from 0 to +1 or -1.
           The Povani variables will be placed in the POV file or any INC. files as
           long as they are included after the 'Variable.inc'., which 
           should be the first included file in the pov file as an example:
            
            #include "variable.inc"
            #include "colors.inc"
            #include "textures.inc"
            #include "shapes.inc"
                  In this way you can use the variables not only in POV files but in 
           'colors.inc', 'textures.inc', 'shapes.inc', etc. and this will bring an
           endless possibilities of animation.
           For additional information look under variables menu in edit screen.
    
           How  to place  Povani variables in POV or any declare files?
    
            Just replace a pov variable for a povani variable  for example:
    
            camera {
              location <150,  -3,  -350>
           rotate<0,0,lin*360>
              direction <0, 0, 5.5>
              look_at <0, -3, 0>
            }
    
           light_source {<-500, 500, -1500> color rgb<255,255,150+100*sin00}
    
          Will rotate the camera 360 degrees around 'z' axis, if we make 360 frames
          animation, each frame will rotate 1 degree around 'z' axis.
          The light source will change from yellow to white through the animation continuously.
    
          It can be used two or more combination of variables to produce the desired effect
          for example:
          translate <100*lin*sin,0,0>
    
                    POVANI VARIABLES
                    
        lin :
          Linear variation with constant step increases through the animation
          from 0.0 to 1.0. use (1-lin) to decrease from 1 to 0.
          
        sinxx:
          Sinusoidal variation from +1 to -1 where xx is the phase shift in
          degrees, from 0 to 360 degrees in 10 degrees steps
          for example: sin90 : sine with 90 degrees shift ( will start from
          1.00 then decrease to -1 and then back again to 1.00.
        sinwxnn:
          Sinusoidal with higher angular frequency set by Hi Frequency Settings
          (in advanced settings);input number will indicate # of swings through
          animation, for example if you input '4' values will swing from -1 to
          1 four times through animation, 'nn' will be phase shift, same as sin,
          but will be added to the phase shift value in Hi Frequency Settings.
          sinwx30 with Hi Frequency Settings Phase shift of 30 degrees will be 
          the same as: sinwx60.
          The phase shift in Hi Frequency Settings could be set to any value
          between 0 and 360 degrees such as 15.33 or 1.00 ,in that way you can
          shift the phase to any degree. 
          Hi Frequency settings will work only with sinwxnn, but both variables
          can be used simultaneously for example:
          if we set Hi Frequency Settings to 2 
          translate< 3+sin00,2+sinwx00,2+sin90> 
          will generate a 3D Lissajous path.
        quad:
          Quadratic Variation from 0.0 to 1.0 , it can be used for any parabolic 
          movement, such as projectiles or bouncing ball.
        cubik:
          Cubic Variation from 0.0 to 1.0, excellent for cameras positioning to 
          pan to details.
        pulse:
          Used mainly to turn on lights or start movements in the middle of 
          animation.It is set by Events Trigger Settings in Advanced settings.
          Will generate pulses ("1") starting from preset frame set by "Events
          Start at:" will stay "1" a number of frames set by "Frames on" ,
          then will stay "0.0" a number of frames set by "Frames off",  will
          repeat the cycle a number of times set by "# of Times" or until 
          the animation is done whichever is smaller.
          For example if we set
          Events Start at: 50
                Frames on: 5
               Frames off:10
               # of Times: 2
          and # of frames in this animation is set to 100, pulse variable will be:
    
          =0 from 0 to 49
          =1 from 50 to 54
          =0 from 55 to 64
          =1 from 65 to 69
          =0 from 70 to 79
          =0 from 80 to 100.
          As an example,  We can use pulse combined with lin to start another event 
          in the middle of our animation:
          # of animation frames=360
          event trigger settings:
          event start: 180
          frames on  : 180
          frames off : 180
          # of times : 1
    
          Povani variable will be set to:
          rotate< 0,0,pulse*720*lin>
          will make the object to be steady for 180 frames then will rotate
          one complete turn around 'z' axis for the rest of frames.
        rndm:
          Generate random numbers from 0 to 1
        addrand:
          Will start with any number between 0 and 10 and will increase or decrease
          in small changes, always limited by 0 and 10.
          Register version will include additional functions.
        bounce1:
          Will generate values between 1 and 0 to produce vertical steps needed for a complet         
          bounce starting from the highest point where gravitational acceleration equals zero.
    
        Additional  Notes :
          - You should no use any variable that at some point reaches "0" in the denominator such
          as:
          translate<100/sin00,3,2>, this will stop animation rendering with" divide by zero error"
          - To stop rendering, wait until Povani window shows and then press "stop" or alt"x".
          - If you want to continue with the animation, replace variables with values taken from
          variable.inc and include new variables that will start to change values from that frame.
          An alternative to this will be to create an script using  Autodesk aaplay script player
          or Dave's script player. 
          - Don't forget to include the following line in your POV file:
          #include "variable.inc"
          - All povani variables are written in lower case or "float factor expected, but                        
          undeclared "Xxxx"found instead" will stop animation rendering.
          - Povani doesn't have error handling routines while is in DOS mode, and any error will       
          stop rendering process, If it doesn't start, go to povray directory under DOS           
          mode and type "povfil"and press return.

          MAKING THE ANIMATION:
          Povani will generate a number of TGA frames set by Ending frames minus
          starting frames with the  same name as the POV file but ending in 001,002,  etc.
          if input file was "test.pov"
          output files will be:
          test001.tga
          test002.tga
          test003.tga
          etc.

          Please be sure not to use more than five letters as POV input file or output file
          will be cut and "file already exist" will show.
          Once you have all TGA still frames, use Dave Targa Animator or Any flic to animation
          program to convert to Autodesk fli or flc animation.
          To view animation under windows  use aawin.exe or aaplay.exe for DOS environment. 
    
    
     
                                           - oo0oo-
            
    