I think its been discussed before, but searching through I wasn’t able to find an answer. I’m writing a script that will open up all the max files in a particular directory, preview each of them, and save them in a particular location. I’m trying to do the previews like this:
(this is part of a larger section of code which I left out)
viewport.setType #view_camera
preview_name = "c:/quickpreview" + iString + ".avi"
view_size = getViewSize()
gw.setPos 0 0 800 600
anim_bmp = bitmap 800 600 filename:preview_name
for t = animationrange.start to animationrange.end do
(
sliderTime = t
dib = gw.getViewportDib()
copy dib anim_bmp
save anim_bmp
gc()
)
close anim_bmp
I’ve also tried setting the preview to the viewport size. The code works, but the problems are these:
The files end up being huge. Compression is terrible. I need to figure out how to properly set the resolution and be able to use a decent compression. Ideally, I need to do exactly what Make Preview does, and save it somewhere. I did see that you can use createPreview () but I haven’t tried it yet because I have no idea how you would save the file. I’m not looking for excellent quality, just something decent that doesn’t end up being a gig each.
Thanks
Tania
The createPreview() command makes a preview with the current settings in the create preview dialog. To my knowledge there is no MaxScript access to these vars.
I did something similar, but wrote the frames out to a local temp dir. Then launched a doscommand “cscript” to have quicktime compress the series of frames.
Here’s the quicktime script and a bat file to show how it’s used… The first time it runs it’ll ask for the compression settings and save them to a .xml file. Delete that .xml and it’ll allow you to change the output settings.
Good luck…
I’m sorry, I don’t see the files?
I was going to use createPreview() but I wasn’t sure how to save the files from there.
sorry, uploaded now in a zip.
Sorry, maybe I’m just missing this…
did you use the same method I used to output these files, and then use that to compress it?
Or are you using createPreview()?
Ideally I would need to be able to do this mainly through Max, because I can’t rely on Quicktime being on the system that is running the script. I realize how ridiculous that sounds…lol
Tania
I did find a way to do everything I needed to do, although it is messy since Max isn’t wanting to let me access all the parameters I need.
I am basically using the UI to force previews to do what I need them too. The code is working but messy…
I’m going to shine it up a bit and post it here when I’m done.
you could use createPreview() and then use any of the external file methods to copy _scene.avi to the desired folder. Though, as Keith mentioned, there doesn’t seem to be a way to set range
createPreview()
MaxDefaultPreviewFile = ((getdir #preview) + "\\_scene.avi" )
TargetFolder = "C:\\delete\\"
TargetPreviewFileName = ((getFilenameFile maxfileName) + ".avi" )
copyFile MaxDefaultPreviewFile (TargetFolder + TargetPreviewFileName)
shibu
Thanks, that’s exactly what I did last night… but using DOSCommand rather than the Max Commands.
Pretty sad when your brain defaults back to DOS, eh? I think I’ll switch back over to the external file manipulations in MAX rather than DOS.
One thing that I couldn’t find an option for…
Whenever you complete a preview Max launches Windows Media Player to preview it. I can’t seem to find somewhere to disable that, so I just wrote a kill process into the script to close that window out. Easy Peesy.
How are you setting the preview configuration on the systems? Is there maxScript access to that now? Are you copying the preview.cfg to the box to render it?
Have a small “group” in backburner that can produce previews. With a postopen that executes sets the scene, previews out to frames, doscommands the QT ( which holds the max server open till complete), and clears the scene to render a blank frame so it returns a completed job to backburner. Maybe not the simplest, but it works well and gives me all QT codec options at VBR, 2 pass qaulity. Easy Peesy… as they say in Texas(?)
I don’t think I completely understood what you’re doing with backburner, but it sounds like a good alternative. I’m not very familiar with it (maya girl). I am just using whatever the preview settings in the file are set at. Its a compromise, but its better than the grainy huge file mess I was getting with my earlier code.
( Oh and I’m not sure that anyone else in the world would be caught saying Easy Peesy, lol. But hey, I like to dork it up. It’s how I roll.)