Howto render movie of time dependend mesh given as separated files?

Coding Python Support
#1

Hi,

I’m still quite new to Blender programming but I’m still curious if blender can solve my problem.

I have a series of .off files containing the development of a time-dependend triangle-mesh deformation with consistens connectivity and I want to render a movie of this series of meshes in an automatic way. I have already looked at the shape-keys blender is offering, but didn’t manage to achieve a serialized animation of consecutive meshes using absolute shape keys. Blending between the meshes shouldn’t be a problem as consecutive time steps are very close beneath each other… It would be cool if I could youst specify the files in an python plugin and produce a video of the deformation, no other fancy stuff is required…

Do you have some tips very I should look for an solution? Any help is apprechiated ;D

bye ph03

#2

There are more ways. Fluid simulator uses this type of animation, where it changes the mesh every frame, but that’s internal blender stuff.
There is also a "pointcache"script which i didn’t try but is specifically for these purposes. Search also for the "anisculpt"tutorials in this forum, they show the workflow nicely.
If you’d like to make a script it wouldn’t be so hard through a very simple mehtod. Just import the numbered objects, then add them with a script an Layer ipo - where you make the object all hide to some other layer except their actual frame. I’m not sure how big is your data, so if the memory would become a problem, also the Library package can be used to use external .blends.