I am trying to set up some nodes to do some processing on images that I render during an animation. During this animation, I save images of each frame rather than a video file. I want the tool do do this:
Render the image of the current frame
Run the result of that render through the node system to tweak the colors as I see fit
Save the image to the file name that was determined by the output tab that it would have saved the image to before
This should be easy, I thought. But I am such a nodes noob and I can’t get it to actually do the node composite thing during the animation.
I do have nodes enabled. I do have “Do composite” enabled. Here is an image of my nodes setup:
Uh oh… I think I see the problem… I am using YafRay. Does this just completely not work with YafRay? Usually the RendLayer window doesn’t change. But I ran a test where I switched to BI and then it started working. Hrmmm… perhaps I can use the nodes to post process my images but I’ll have to start with a finished image? I can’t automate it when using yafRay?
OK. Not ideal, but workable. There’s no easy way to automate the naming of the output either right? Like, tell it to take the current name and append something? You have to actually type a name for the file to be created. Then change that name before putting in the next input image, right?
You can work with image sequences in the compositor e.g. image001.png … image999.png, loading them all at once into an image input node. Take a look at the Wiki page / User Manual on Composite nodes for more info / examples. For the File output node, it will also append the frame number to fhe filename. Btw, a File output node is not necessary for a simple node setup that you’re using. You can just use the F10 Scenes output tab to set the file name.
Just curious, I don’t use Yafray, what does it do that B.I. doesn’t ?. I’ve done some simple tests with it, and for very basic renders it seems to be slower than B.I.
For one thing, it creates light sources with the glow option. So, you don’t only see the effects of the light, you see a bright spot that is th source of the light as well. A lot of people use it for global illumination and HDR lighting as well. I may end up back with BI once I get the hang of nodes.
Man, I have been reading the Wiki pages and trying this thing all evening and I still cannot get it to dump a series of images. It only dumps one image despite the fact that I am trying to input 4 and output 4. Here is my setup. If anyone can help with this, I’d appreciate it. I don’t know why it only dumps one post processed image.
first, you have to toggle the little car icon in the bottom right corner of the image node- that "auto"matically changes the image with a frame change.
I couldn’t tell if you also did the following, so if I am being captain obvious here, sorry…
Then you have to change your start and end frames in the scene->animation tab. Finally, you have to hit the animation button not render to get a sequence ot images done.
That at least works if you do like Mile_S said and just use a composite node… never used the file output node so not sure it works with that…
I think that only affects the image displayed in the actual node. I had it turned off and the sequence rendered correctly.
The important things are, as you mentioned 1) setting the animation frame range (as with any rendered animation (composited or not) and pressing the ANIM button …(not the RENDER) button.
Oh man, I am so close, I can taste it. After these helpful hints, I am now dumping a series of images. the only problem: They are all completely black.
Very interesting… I just clicked on the frame advance buttons where you can set the current frame and it essentially worked. I cannot get anything but black out of the ANIM button. But when I manually advance through the frames, one by one, it works. The only caveat I noticed was that my file name had to be relatively short. If it was too long, the tool did not catch the number of the frame on the end.
Well, this is not an ideal solution, but it is certainly one I can live with. After my renders complete, I point the tool to the first image and then click the frame advance button many times unti I’ve processed all of the images.
This would totally suck if I were doing a full animation with hundreds of frames. But since I am only processing 10 images, it’s not too bad for me. I’d love to improve it. I wish I could just point it to the images and have it do them all at once… so if anyone has any new leads based on this info I just provided, feel free to share it with me.
