batches for all

My latest cloud batch got me thinking there should be an easier way.
I'm almost there...

http://sjeiti.com/ffbatch/

For now this grabs an ffxml already on my server.
Reads it...
Then generates a bat file, an xml file (with all the tasks) and a new ffxml file with an x-amount of presets, and packs the three files in a zip file.

You should already be able to render this example.
Just be sure to fill out the destination and the renderer correctly.

All that is left to do is create an upload field where you can upload any ffxml file you want.
Plus add some more control fields, I've got the SliderControl, IntSliderControl and AngleControl covered. I'll also do the ColorControl later on but that requires a bit more work.
I think I'll leave out the CheckboxControl because that would hardly be worth animating.

Got to go now... but I'll try to fix the upload this weekend.

-edit-

ok, fixed the upload
please test

Be sure to put in two presets: the default is used for initial values, and the second is used as a template for the generated presets. I will change that later (I was more keen on getting it to work than figuring out how to rename xml nodes).

Added an animation here: http://www.sjeiti.com/?page_id=336

ok, i've been looking at the app a bit. i uploaded one of my filters and submitted it and i get to the page with the controls laid out. that's cool. but, if i set the destination to c:\my documents\test , is it going to send this to your computer or mine?

this is very cool. it appears that you're writing the front end or gui for the batch rendering of FF! very cool!

ok, i tried a test run. i got several errors.

Quote

Warning: DOMDocument::loadXML() [domdocument.loadxml]: attributes construct error in Entity, line: 1 in /nfs/vsp/dds.nl/s/sjeiti/public_html/ffbatch/getzip.php on line 37 --!> Warning: DOMDocument::loadXML() [domdocument.loadxml]: Couldn't find end of Start Tag Information line 1 in Entity, line: 1 in /nfs/vsp/dds.nl/s/sjeiti/public_html/ffbatch/getzip.php on line 37 --!> Warning: DOMDocument::loadXML() [domdocument.loadxml]: EntityRef: expecting ';' in Entity, line: 1 in /nfs/vsp/dds.nl/s/sjeiti/public_html/ffbatch/getzip.php on line 37 --!> Fatal error: Call to a member function cloneNode() on a non-object in /nfs/vsp/dds.nl/s/sjeiti/public_html/ffbatch/getzip.php on line 46 --!>

i altered the destination to c:\my documents\test. i dont know if that's what caused the problems or not. i did move some of the start and end parameter sliders.

i'll leave it go for now, but this could definitely be cool.

Great stuff Sjeiti..Closest thing to a Gui interface
I did a quick batch animation using your app with a one control filter...It seen the name of the control and I made the filter real simple for quick rendering...
I will have to try some other filters (more difficult ones) when I get a chance..

cool stuff, CF.

ok, i got past the error stuff, sjeiti. and, i got the zip file downloaded. but after that i'm kind of lost. i tried running the .bat file but nothing happens. i'm guessing my paths are wrong for where i saved the file. do they have to be in the 'my filters' folder or what? and what is going to be output if i ever get it to work? does it start up FF and render new presets to the filter or what? sorry, but i'm a newb on this sort of thing.

and nice animations on yours, too, sjeiti

This is fantastic Sjeiti!

Keep up the good work, if I may, I'd like to suggest an idea for an alternate version: Batch render all available maps for each preset and name them accordingly: (filtername1_diffuse, filtername1_bump, filtername1_normal, filtername2_diffuse, etc) (With an options to rename the map suffixes)

What you've done already is super impressive, It's very intuitive and the batch files make things very straightforward!

Thanks!

CFandM, I'm guessing the problem you're having comes from the fact the files are named 1, 2, 3, then 10, 11, etc. I've noticed that some programs will take it in a wierd order (I usually see: 0,10,1,11,12...18,19,20,2,21... ). You could manually check the output files in windows- it sorts them properly on my machine at least, I might be mistaken.

Sjeiti, you might want to simply add a trailing zero (or two if batching in the hundreds) to remedy this.

This turned out awful, (my fault not yours) but still put a big smile on my face:

My poor computer... It will never again go another night without 100% CPU usage.

I've updated it... but not tested fully.
All possible variables are now implemented with the exception of the BitmapFormatOptions.

The only test I ran is with an Effect filter and an input image, which seems to run just fine.

I also prepended zero's in the image names

Gonna quit for now.... also have real work to do.

Well it's all web based so it could be tricky making it standalone. I do know there are applications out there that work as a standalone webserver. I'll look into it.

noice!

Yeah that would be very handy
It should probably not be too much work. I'm very busy this week so I'm not making any promises but I'll try.

ok, i found why, at least one reason, that this app wasnt working for me. you've hardwired the filter forge location as C: ... mine is in D: . so, i had to change the .bat file.

doing that finally got the render to start but then immediately failed. it said "control value 0 is out of control range [1, 100] in control 'intslidercontrol 02.'" i assume this is an intslider i set to a different range than 1 to 100. it's probably 1 to 300 since i often change intsliders to that for the 'scale' parameter. so, still havent gotten this working completely yet.

i do see you've added some stuff. cool!

thanks, sjeiti. and yes, i figured out the 'hardwired' part after i posted. so, that's fine. now you see why i'm a fairly decent beta tester... i can screw up anything

Cool thingy -- proves that our choice of an XML format for filters and everything was a good idea!

Sjeiti, let us know if you want us to change the thread title to something more catchy, like "OMG, animation in Filter Forge!"

Yo. Just checking in to politely nag you for those few extras on your to-do list.

It works...
There's now an extra button at the bottom that reads 'return render map files'.
This will output all types for that type of filter for each preset ("off","diffuse map","bump map","normal map","specular strength map","specular exponent map","metallic map","alpha map"... and for non-surface: "off","alpha map"). Filenames will look like: Beetle_collection_XXVIII_preset_01_diffuse_map.tif ...etc

It probably would be handy to supply some tickboxes somewhere so we can choose which files to render. And I think I've got the preset order reversed. But it's ok for now

Sjeiti--- You are awesome man!! Thank you thank you thank you!

*bump*

this one shld not fall off page one! in fact, it shld be stickied! and in fact even more, i'd suggest FF, inc. beg, buy or steal this from sjeiti and put it on the FF pages or at least mirror it or something.

Is there any chance at all of a executable windows version of this nifty little thing? It'd be useful for larger projects....

seriously, sjeiti, you could market this as a stand-alone add-on executable and folks would buy it.

hehe. yes, hopefully that will be in v2

gmm, include the batch stuff in the gui, or the controls for such, anyways. since i've always touted a tabbed gui, the batch stuff might be something like sjeiti's batch rendering pages but within the FF gui. the more visual it can be, the better. sjeiti's batch thing i've at least tried. i can understand it. the one in FF i've never even tried to understand, being command line and such. it's like the difference between using FF to make filters and using Filter Meister to make filters. FF is visual where FM is code.