GIG reference manual

appendix C - UNIX utilities

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Section contents

Introduction
gigrs
gig_conv
show
utilities
showtiff
tga2tiff
tiff2tga
tiffzoom
tifflip
flipbook
aniutil
tifmerge
conv_vst
gig2mv
gigbatch giganibatch
gigmerge
gig_omf

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The GIG utilities explained in this section are all command line utilities. A basic knowledge of UNIX is required in order to use these utilities. Some of the utilities explained here can be used to render animation or still files in the background, to merge multiple images into one image, to display images from the command line, and to display flipbook animation on screen.

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GIG utilities

gigrs

GIG Render Server: utility to distribute large render jobs over a network.

Purpose
This utility can be used to distribute a render job over a number of workstations in a local area network. On one machine, usually the workstation where the main modelling is done, the gigrs script is run. This script acts as a dispatcher. From this utility you can start an animation render job, comparable to starting giganibatch.
Instead of rendering all the frames on the local workstation, as giganibatch would do, gigrs distributes the frames among several render servers. A render server is a machine for which a valid render license has been installed. The machine on which gigrs runs can act as a render server as well. Multi-processor computers can have a render server for each CPU.

Preparation
Make sure that your network is set up correctly. This means that the GIG account from which you will start the gigrs:

must be known, through NIS, across the network.
must be mounted, through NFS, on all the render servers (i.e. the computers in your network that are to be used for rendering).
must be able to start remote shells on all the servers without asking for a password.
For example, if your original GIG installation and projects are on system 'droopy', and you want to render on system 'bambi', then the command:
```
	gig (droopy) rsh bambi
```
must return without any message.

Also, you have to make sure that all render servers:

have a valid GIG password installed that allows you to use the the standalone renderer on that machine.
have read & write permissions set for the project directories so that the model files can be read and the images can be written (especially on Linux PCs that have the GIG home directory mounted with NFS, this can mean that all directories in the mount path must have read/write permissions for everybody).
in the case that their architecture differs from the platform on which the dispatcher is run, have the same release of GIG installed (for example 3DGO 3.2). This installation must be under different name (otherwise you would get a NIS conflict).
Actually, you do not need a full GIG installation, the only thing that is needed is a stand alone render executable (bin/gig) for the local architecture.

Using gigrs:
Synopsis
gigrs

Description:
After you start gigrs, you can enter commands to add, remove and check render machines and render jobs.

Commands:

addserver    'hostname'       		Add server
addserver    'hostname' 'gig_path'	Add server with different architecture
delserver    'hostname'       		Delete server
curserver                     		Get info on current servers
addjob       'jobname'        		Add job
deljob       'jobname'        		Delete job
getinfo      'jobname'        		Get info on specified job
listjobs                      		List queued jobs
renderhours  'hostname'       		Specify desired rendering hours on working days
freehours    'hostname'       		No limitations regarding rendering hours
exit or quit

Examples:
In this example, there is a network consisting of 3 workstations: 'droopy' (an SGI Indy), 'thumper' (an SGI challenge with 2 CPUs) and 'bambi' (a Linux PC). The main GIG installation is /droopy/usr/people/gig32 on 'droopy'. An animation 'walking_dog' has been saved in the 'animals' directory:
/droopy/usr/people/gig32/projects/animals_prj/intenv/walking_dog*

On both 'thumper' and 'bambi', user gig32 is known through NIS. Also, the directory /droopy/usr/people/gig32 is mounted with NFS.

There is an additional GIG installation on 'bambi', under the name /bambi/usr/people/gig_linux. The 'thumper' does not require a separate GIG installation, because it can use the render executable from 'droopy'. All three machines have valid GIG passwords installed.

After logging in as user gig32 on 'droopy' and starting gigrs, you can:

command ? addserver droopy
-> allow 'droopy' to render jobs

command ? addserver thumper
-> allow 'thumper' to render jobs

command ? addserver thumper
-> allow the second CPU in 'thumper' to render jobs

command ? addserver bambi /bambi/usr/people/gig_linux/bin/gig
-> allow 'bambi' to render jobs, using its own native executable

command ? renderhours droopy 1900 800
-> tell 'droopy' to render jobs only between 7 pm and 8 am.

command ? curserver

	bambi idle
	droopy idle renderhours 1900 800
	thumper idle
	thumper idle

-> show what all the render servers are doing

command ? addjob -p animals walking_dog 0 200
-> start a render job on all available render servers; 'jobname' is the entire string "-p animals walking_dog 0 200".

command ? listjobs

	-p animals walking_dog 0 200

command ? getinfo -p animals walking_dog 0 200

	getting info on job -p animals walking_dog 0 200
	frame 0 of animation walking_dog in project animals rendered in 119.79 sec on droopy
	frame 1 of animation walking_dog in project animals rendered in 120.69 sec on thumper
	frame 2 of animation walking_dog in project animals rendered in 119.89 sec on bambi
	frame 3 of animation walking_dog in project animals rendered in 117.16 sec on thumper

Comments
After each command, you will have to wait a few seconds until it has been processed.
Renderhours are not taken into account on Saturday and Sunday, when jobs will run continuously.

gigrs replaces the now obsolete RenderManager.

Known bugs
The dispatcher (i.e. the gigrs script itself) might not work properly when run on a multi-processor Linux installation. The render servers (i.e. the stand-alone renderers) work fine.

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GIG utilities

gig_conv

Introduction:
Images created with a computer graphics system are stored in a specific image format. Some computer graphics systems store their images in their own specific image formats, others use a more commonly used format. To export an image from one computer graphics system to another, the image usually has to be converted.

A standard utility provided with the GIG software is gig_conv. The gig_conv utility makes it possible to convert images to and from different image formats. For example, gig_conv can be used to export a GIG image to another system that is not using the same image format as GIG. The reverse is also possible, an image from another system can be converted to the GIG format using gig_conv.

Image formats:
Below are listed the most commonly used image formats on computer graphics systems. Image names usually have an extension. The extensions of the image names may differ from those listed below. The graphics systems list shows the most common systems that are using the image format and is by no means a complete list.

format extension graphics system

alias	Alias
antics	ant	Antics, 2d animation
a60	Abekas video disk
ct2t	Scitex, Quantel Paintbox
Handshake	hnd, hn1, hn2 Scitex, GIG
tiff	tiff	Macintosh
rlb	rlb	Wavefront
tga	tga, vst	Targa Vista, GIG
sdrc
sgi	sgi	Silicon Graphics

Storing and retrieving GIG images:

Rendered images
Images rendered with 3D-GO version 2.4 and older will be stored using the Tiff format. The image names have the extension .tif. Example: test0001.tif Images rendered with an older version will be stored using the Targa 10 format, this is the compressed Targa format.The image names have the extension .vst.

Example: test0001.vst
Images rendered with the GIG render window command are stored in the intdump directory. To directly access the intdump directory you can use the environment variable DD, by entering the following unix command: cd $DD Images rendered as a still or animation are stored in the production directory. To directly access the production directory you can use the environment variable TD, by entering the following unix command: cd $TD All images used by GIG for mapping are stored in a Tiff format, in the intmap directory. To directly access the intmap directory you can use the environment variable md, by entering the following unix command: cd $MD

Preparation:
Accessing gig_conv is directly from unix, so some experience of the unix operating system is required.

To access gig_conv a unix window is necessary for entering the commands. First log in, then exit the GIG user interface from the general menu by selecting either exit or to system. Now access the directory where the GIG images are stored (refer to Storing and retrieving GIG images) and use gig_conv to convert the images.

Using gig_conv:
synopsis:
gig_conv iff off [colconv = color conv] [pixperunit = pixper] [obs =3D block] [ofn = scitexname] < in > out
or:
gig_conv <switch> <option> ...

Options:

switch: option:
  -i    format in (see description for allowed formats)
  -o    format out (see description for allowed formats)
  -r    file name in
  -w    file name out
  -c    color conversion (see description for possible conversions)
  -C    number of copies (default 1)(only with ps/eps out)
  -S    scale factor (only with ps/eps out)
  -R    no option (rotate 90 deg) (only with ps/eps out)
  -D    no option (increase paper size, p.e. A4 -> A3)(only with ps/eps out)
  -h    no option (show these options)
  -s    scitex name
  -p    pix per unit
  -b    block

Description:

iff is the format of the input file. The following formats are currently supported:

alias Alias
ant	Antics 2d animation system
a60	Abekas video disk
hnd	Scitex Handshake
tiff Macintosh
rlb	Wavefront
tga	Will take Targa2 and Targa10 format
tga2 Will take Targa2 and Targa10 format tga10 Will take Targa2 and Targa10 format sdrc
sgi	Will take sgi verbatim and rle
sgiverb Will take sgi verbatim and rle
sgirle Will take sgi verbatim and rle

off is the format of the output file. The following formats are currently supported:

alias Alias
ant	Antics 2d animation system
a60	Abakas video disk
hnd	Scitex Handshake
ct2t Scitex ct2t
tiff Macintosh
rlb	Wavefront
tga	Will use the Targa10 format
tga2 Targa2
tga10 Targa10
pre	Stork Printer
ps	Postcript
sdrc
sgi	Will use the sgi rle format
sgiverb Will use the sgi verbatim format sgirle Will use the sgi rle format

Note: Targa 2 is the uncompressed Targa format. Targa 10 is the compressed Targa format. sgi verbatim is the uncompressed sgi format. sgi rle is the compressed sgi format.

color conv is the color conversion you may want to use. The following color conversions are currently supported:

rgb_yuv: Will convert to Abekas yuv format.
rgb_cmy_comptab: Converts from rgb to cmy (cyan magenta yellow).
rgb_cmyk_comptab: Converts from rgb to cmyk (cyan magenta yellow black).
rgb_val: Converts from rgb to a single intensity value, defining the monochrome equivalent of the rgb values. Suitable for use as a value map in GIG.
x_rgb: Converts from an arbitrary number of input colors to rgb.
x_rgba: Converts from an arbitrary number of input colors to rgb plus alpha.
val_bump: Converts from an arbitrary number of input colors to 2 colors (red, green), suitable for use as a bump map in GIG.

pixper is the amount of pixels per unit in the output file. The default is 12. This is only used in the Handshake header for print. block is the output block size. The default is 16384. This is only used in the Handshake header. scitexname is the scitex output file name. This is not the name under which the output file is stored on the disk but it is the output file name that is being used inside the Scitex Handshake header. By default - the initial setting - the name is gig. This is only used in the Handshake header. in is the name of the input file (file to be converted). out is the name under which the output (converted) file will be stored.

gig_conv can also output Color PostScript. Use `eps' as output file format.

Examples:
gig_conv tga eps < image.vst > image.eps
In this example the Targa image file `image.vst' will be converted to the Color PostScript image file `image.eps'.

gig_conv -i sgi -o tiff -r snap.rgb -w image.tiff
In this example the SGI image file `snap.rgb' will be converted to the Tiff image file `image.tiff'.

gig_conv -i tga -o tga -c a_rgb -r rgba.vst -w aaa.vst
In this example the 32 bit image 'rgba.vst' is converted to a 24 bit image 'aaa.vst' containing the matte without the image.

gig_conv -i tga -o tga -c x_rgba -r rgba.vst -w rgb.vst
In this example the 32 bit image 'rgba.vst' is converted to a 24 bit image rgb.vst' containing the image without the matte.

Remarks:
This utility was based on the conversion from and to the Targa image format. This format was used in 3D-GO version 2.4 and older. We advise to use the Graphical GIG Converter from the tools menu. This converter also supports the Tiff format for input and output. In fact this is done using the gig_conv utility in combination with the tiff2tga an tga2tiff UNIX utilities. gig_conv has been extended in order to extract the matte stored in the alpha channel of the 32 bit '.vst image which has been rendered with matte active in the render menu.

Tiff input and output has been added to the gig-conv tool. However, not all extensions to the Tiff format are recognized for every type of Tiff input file. More specifically tiled Tiff files will not be recognized correctly (although strip-based Tiff files will).

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GIG utilities

show

Purpose:
To display one or multiple Tiff or Targa image.

Using show:
synopsis
show [-h] [-i] filename

Description:
filename name of Tiff or Targa image.

Options:
-h to display the help file.
-i to show the header of the image file.
-t to convert multiple Targa files into Tiff files.

Example:
show *.tif
show every tiff file with extension tif in this directory.

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GIG utilities

showtiff

Purpose:
To display and retrieve information of one or multiple Tiff images.

Using show:
synopsis
showtiff [option] filename [ filename ... ]

Description:
filename name of Tiff or Targa image.

Options:

-h to diplay the help info.
-v verbose.
-m show matte.
-t display top to bottom.
-b display bottom to top.
-f flip picture upside down.
-s swap picture left to right.
-w x wait x seconds.
-q quiet, supress error messages.
-T tiff picture test, exits 0 true and 1 false.

Examples:
showtiff -w 3 *.tif
show every tiff file with extension tif in this directory for 3 seconds.

showtiff -v -T .tif
show info about .tif

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GIG utilities

tga2tiff

Purpose:
To convert Targa images to the Tiff format.

Using show:
synopsis
tga2tiff [-n] [-v] [-t tilesize [-w tilewidth]] -i input -o output

Description:
input name of Targa image.
output name of Tiff image.

Options:

-i - read from stdin
-n inhibit compression
-v verbose
-s sec wait sec seconds between outputting lines
-t tilesize
-T use default tilesize
-w tilewidth
-a always create alpha channel
-b always remove alpha channel

Examples:
tga2tiff -i test.vst -o test.tif
Converts the Targa image test.vst to the Tiff image test.tif

tga2tif -t 64 -i test.vst -o test.tif
Converts the Targa image test.vst to the Tiff tile image test.tif. This image can be used for mapping in GIG. The tile size of each tile in the Tiff image is 64 by 64 pixels. This setting is also used as default in the GIG Converter.

tga2tif also accepts Tiff images.

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GIG utilities

tiff2tga

Purpose:
To convert Tiff images to the Targa format.

Using show:
synopsis
tiff2tga -i input -o output

Description:
input name of Tiff image.
output name of Targa image.

Options:
-v verbose.
-o - write to standard stdout.

Example:
tiff2tga -i test.tif -o test.tga

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GIG utilities

tiffzoom

Purpose:
To resize tiff images.

Using show:
synopsis
tiffzoom -i input -o output [-w width] [-h height]

Description:
input name of Tiff input image.
output name of Tiff output image.

Options:
-w newwidth number of pixels for width of output image.
-h newheight number of pixels for height of output image.

Note:
With only one of w and h, aspect-ratio will be maintained.

Example:
tiffzoom -i test.tif -o new.tif -w 512
Will convert the image test.tif to the image new.tif with 512 pixels in width and a number of pixels in height to match the same aspect ratio as the original image.

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GIG utilities

tifflip
flipbook

Purpose:
To display rendered 3d-go animations on a workstation (tifflip for Tiff images and flipbook for Targa images.

Preparation
Render the animation in GIG using a small page size, e.g. ,flipbook page size (page size menu). After rendering, exit from GIG and move to the production directory of the current project.

Example:

cd ~gig/projects/demo_prj/production

This command will move you to the production directory for project 'demo'.

Using tifflip and flipbook:
synopsis:
tifflip -i name -s start -e end -r red -g green -b blue -z zoom -w wait -B
flipbook -i name -s start -e end -r red -g green -b blue -z zoom -w wait

description:

name name of animation (without frame numbers).
start start frame number.
end end frame number.
red, green, blue number of bits for red, green and blue in dithermode, the less the number of bits,the less memory required. See also the comments.
wait wait length between frames
zoom zoom factor from 1-6 to enlarge the display.

The -B option will force a 3 bits per pixel mode. It will therefore resort to dithering, but it will save memory by a factor 3 or better.
During operation, the following keyboard keys can be used when the mouse pointer is inside the animation window:

space bar to toggle between freeze or loop.

-		to play backwards (in freeze mode step by step) 

+		to play forwards (in freeze mode step by step) 

v		to display the frame numbers in the animation window

q		to quit

s		to put frame buffer in single buffer mode (default). 

d 		to put frame buffer in double buffer mode (higher quality but slower) 

b		to toggle between normal display or back & forth display. 

>		to increase the frame rate

<		to decrease the frame rate

q		to quit

Examples:
tifflip -i ani -s 1 -e 100 -z 2

In this example frame 1 to frame 100 of the animation 'ani' will be displayed on the workstation. The images will be displayed in full color mode and will be enlarged by factor 2.

tifflip -i ani -s 1 -e 100 -r 3 -g 3 -b 2 -w 1000

In this example frame 1 to frame 100 of the animation 'ani' will be displayed on the workstation. The images will be displayed in dithered mode, using 3 bits for red and green and 2 bits for the blue color. Between each frame there will be a pause of 1000 units, resulting in a slower display of the animation.

Comments
Tifflip and flipbook will load all images into the internal memory. The amount and size of images that can be handled is therefore dependent on the internal memory size of the workstation. When the tifflip/flipbook becomes slow, use less or smaller images. Memory can also be saved by using the dither mode to display the images. When the total number of bits specified for red, green, and blue are less than nine, each pixel will occupy only one byte of storage. If the total number of bits specified is more then eight and less then thirteen, each pixel will occupy two bytes of storage. When using the tifflip/flipbook in full color mode (no bits are specified for red, green, and blue), three bytes of storage are occupied for each pixel.
To save memory, do not run other applications at the same time.
One hundred frames is a typical number of frames that can be rendered in flipbook page size and displayed in full color, and that can be loaded into a workstation with 16 Megabytes internal memory .

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GIG utilities

aniutil

Purpose
A command line utility for renaming or renumbering rendered animations.

Usage
Press 'to system' in the general menu and in the unix-shell type:
aniutil <enter>

1. Renaming an animation.

Enter a unix command with ???? at the place of the normal frame numbers, enter the startframe number and the endframe number, e.g:

mv oldname????.tif newname????.tif <enter> ! <enter> startframe ? 1 <enter> endframe ? 4 <enter>

This results in the following unix commands to be executed:

mv oldname0001.tif newname0001.tif mv oldname0002.tif newname0002.tif mv oldname0003.tif newname0003.tif mv oldname0004.tif newname0004.tif

So the animation is renamed from oldname to newname.

2. Renumbering an animation.

Enter a unix command with ???? at the place of the normal frame numbers and #### at the place of the renumbered frame numbers, enter a startframe, endframe, and the ammount of frames to shift e.g.:

mv oldname????.tif newname####.tif <enter> ! <enter> startframe ? 1 <enter> endframe ? 4 <enter> shift frames for #### ? 20

This results in the following unix commands to be executed:

mv oldname0001.tif newname0021.tif mv oldname0002.tif newname0022.tif mv oldname0003.tif newname0023.tif mv oldname0004.tif newname0024.tif

So the animation is renamed from oldname to newname and is shifted from frame 1 to 21.

This utility might be especially useful when using filemap animations.

Comments
In the unix-shell type:
exit <enter>
to return to GIG.

!!Be sure to use different names for oldname and newname when using the renumber option or else the renumbering of files will overwrite your original files when the startframe number and the ammount to shift is less then the endframe number!!

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GIG utilities

tifmerge

Purpose:
To merge multiple '.tif' images (Tiff format) rendered with GIG to create one final image: e.g., tifmerge can be used to combine an image that has been rendered in two parts.

Using gigmerge
Synopsis:
tifmerge [options] -o outputname [pos] image [[pos] image ...]

description:
outputname name of the output file.
image input images.

Options:

-s XxY Output image size in pixels (if not used, size of first input image will be used as output image size).
-v verbose
-b R:G:B background color in red, green and blue values.
-b R:G:B:A background color + alpha value.
-h Will generate help information on tifmerge.
-m use matte (alpha channel).
-n use matte as if image is not pre-multiplied with alpha channel
-c col use col channel for #filename matting (col = r,g,b,a) -f name read [pos] image ... from named file, - = stdin -I use matte and invert pixel info.
-M invert matte.
-h generate help info.

Pos: +AxB Lower left corner position of input image in output image (if not used, position will
be 0x0). AxB is the lower left corner position of the section in pixels.

Examples:
1) When the rendering of an image has stopped before it is finished, it will be possible to render the last
part of the image separately using gigbatch and then combine the two parts using gigmerge. For
example, when the rendering of the following still stopped at a certain time:
gigbatch -r size:1024x768 test
Use 'showtiff -v -T test.tif'' to check how many lines have been rendered (image height). Let's assume
300 lines have been rendered. Use the following command to render the last 468 lines:
gigbatch -r size:1027x768:0x300+1024x468 -o basename:test1
The two images can now be combined to create one complete image:
tifmerge -s 1024x768 -o testall.tif test.tif +0x300 test1.tif
The complete image will be placed in: 'testall.tif'

2) After rendering an image it is possible to re-render a small part of that image (e.g., to change the color
of that part) and then paste that small part into the original image.
Let's assume a small part of 100x100 pixels of the image testall.tif need to be re-rendered with the
lower left corner postion at 50x50 pixels. To do so, save the corrected still file in GIG with another
name (in this example: 'testsmall') and then use the following command to re-render that part:
gigbatch -r size:1024x768:50x50:100x100 testsmall To paste the re-rendered part (testsmall.vst) into
the original image (testall.tif), use the following command:
tifmerge -o testall2.tif testall.vst +50x50 testsmall.tif
When the size of the ouput image is not specified (as in this example), the output image will have the
same size as the first input image. files with matte generated in GIG that are converted to Tiff.
tifmerge -M -o out.tif test.tif

4) If you have rendered the text LOGO in white with matte information in the file logo.tif, you can put
this text (without the surrounding background) in a rendered image picture.tif using:
tifmerge -m -o test.tif picture.tif +10x10 logo.tif
If you use -I instead of -m the characters would be black (inverted white).

Comments
An output image name should always be specified.
The name of the output image should never be the same as the name of one of the input images.

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GIG utilities

conv_vst

This utility is automatically called after an image is rendered using render still, render ani, gigbatch, or giganibatch. It is a C shell script that can be modified to automatically rename or convert the rendered image.

In order to use it, the user must have a basic knowledge of shell script programming. The file 'conv_vst' can be found in the utils directory and contains some examples.

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GIG utilities

gig2mv

Animations rendered in the .vst format (Targa format) can now automatically be converted to the Silicon Graphics Movieplayer format.

Using gig2mv
Exit from GIG and move to the production directory of the project where the rendered images are stored.

Example:

cd ~gig/projects/demo_prj/production

See following example on how to convert the animation test0001.vst - test0100.vst to the Movieplayer format. Example:

gig2mv test0.vst

After conversion, the movieplayer file 'test.mv' will be placed on disk. To display the animation of the Movieplayer file 'test.mv', type in the following command:

movieplayer test.mv

Comments
gig2mv will convert each '.vst' image to a '.sgi' before converting them to the MoviePlayer format. The '.sgi' images can be removed using: 'rm test0*.vst'. Movieplayer files can also be created by hand, but the images will have to be converted to the SGI image format first (images can be converted to the SGI format automatically during rendering using the conv_vst utility).
The selected images should all have the same page size.

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GIG utilities

gigbatch giganibatch

Purpose:
To render an animation or still stand-alone from GIG by executing it in a UNIX window.

Several options are available with gigbatch and giganibatch which specify:
The page size and the part of the image to be rendered.
The render quality.
The step increment/decrement for animation.
The output path, name, and extension.

Preparation:
Save the animation or still file with save ani or save still, then exit from GIG.
Activate the last selected project in GIG and move to the 'intenv' directory where the ani or still file is stored by typing in the following commands:

source ~/.cshrc
cd $ED

Using gigbatch:
Synopsis:
gigbatch [-r rendercommand] [-o outputcommand] [-v] name1 (name2 name3 ...)

Description:

name1			name of still files (as saved with save still).

Using giganibatch:
Synopsis:
giganibatch [-r rendercommand] [-o outputcommand] [-i intercolfile] [-v] name start end

Description:

name			name of animation file (as saved with save ani).

start			start frame number. 

end			end frame number (rendering backwards is possible by selecting

                        a higher frame number for 'start').

Options for gigbatch and giganibatch:

The rendercommand options are:

-r size:XxY Renders the image at XxY pixels (page size).
-r size:XxY:AxB+CxD A section of a still or ani file can be rendered using the
following parameters:
XxY is the size of the complete image.
CxD is the size of the section to be rendered.
AxB is the lower left corner position in pixels of the section to
be rendered in the complete image.
-r alias:A,B Sets the render quality using the numbers along the render
quality matrix displayed below (this is the same matrix as in
the render menu of 3DGO). Use the following parameters:
A determines rays per pixels.
B determines anti-aliasing.
Examples: '-r alias:2,-2' is video quality, '-r alias:3,0' is default quality.
-r framestep:X To set the frame step increment (decrement when rendering
backwards). Only for giganibatch.
-p project To specify the project name where the still/animation file is
stored.

The outputcommand options are:

-o path:X Output file (rendered image) is put in directory X.
-o basename:X Output filename is X instead of name of still or ani file. In case
of animations, the frame number will be appended to the base name.
-o extension:X Extension filename is X instead of 'tif'.
-o format:2 To render in Targa format instead of Tiff format.
-v To render verbose, showing extra information while rendering.

Render quality matrix:

                
             --- --- --- ---

            |   |   |   | H | 0

         --- --- --- --- ---

        |   |   |   |   |   | 1

     --- --- --- --- --- ---	      Rays per pixels

    |   |   |   |   | V |   | 2

 --- --- --- --- --- --- ---

| L |   |   | D |   |   |   | 3	      L = low

 --- --- --- --- --- --- ---	      D = default

  3   2   1   0  -1  -2  -3	      V = video

			              H = high

Anti-aliasing		              L = low

Examples: giganibatch -r size:150x100 -r alias:2,-2 -r framestep:2 test 1 100

In this example, every second frame of the animation file 'test' will be rendered from frame 1 to 100 (frame 0001, 0003, 0005 ...). The images will be rendered in video quality but with a page size of 150 by 100 pixels.

gigbatch -r size:1024x768:200x200+400x400 -r alias:1,-2
-o path:/usr/tmp -o basename:new -o extension:tga test

The above example should be executed as one line.
In this example a section of 400x400 pixels will be rendered of the still file 'test'. The lower left corner will start at 200x200 in an image of 1024x768 pixels. The quality will be one step above video. The name of the output file will be new.tga and will be placed in the '/usr/tmp' directory.

Comments
You will have to be logged in as GIG and execute giganibatch from a UNIX window.
See gigmerge on how to merge several parts of an image into one final image.

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GIG utilities

gigmerge

Purpose:
Same as tifmerge but then for Targa images. Out of use for files rendered with GIG version 2.4 or older.
See tifmerge on how to use it.
The options that work with mattes does not work with gigmerge.

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GIG utilities

gig_omf

Animations rendered with GIG can now be converted to AVID's 'Open Media Framework' format (OMF).

Preparation
Select to system or exit from GIG and move to the directory where the images are stored.

Using gig_omf:
Synopsis
gig_omf [-v] [-r editrate] [-o omfname] images

Description:
images are the names of the '.vst' images. Example: 'test*.vst', will select all '.vst' images starting with test. Using '*.tif' is also possible.

Options:

-v Verbose, showing extra information while converting.
-r Editrate, number of frames per second, default 25.
-o Outputname, default 'gig_omf.omf'.

Comments
All selected images must have the same size in pixels (page size)

Example:
gig_omf -r 30 -o test.omf test*.vst
Will convert all Targa images starting with test to the OMF file test.omf.

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GIG reference manual

appendix C - UNIX utilities

Other appendixes: