Image File Lists
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Making Image File Lists

There are two methods in general use for specifying a sequence of image files to an application: the "implicit" method and the "explicit" method.

The Implicit Method

The implicit method relies on the image files having names which have an alphanumeric beginning followed by a number (usually with leading zeroes) and an extension, e.g.,

dogs0099.tga

For example, suppose that you have a directory containing 100 image files:

dogs0001.tga

dogs0002.tga

dogs0003.tga

.

.

.

dogs0100.tga

Suppose, further, that you want to use only part of this dogs sequence, from frame number 30 on. You would tell the application to open a sequence of images and to start from dogs0030.tga.

The application would then infer that it should use the images beginning with

dogs0030.tga and ending with the last available image file in the sequence:

dogs0100.tga

Lightwave 3D uses this method exclusively, and it is available in Softimage as well.

The Explicit Method

The explicit method, used by 3D Studio MAX exclusively and available with Softimage, requires that an "image file list" (3D Studio MAX terminology) or a "script" (Softimage terminology) be constructed by the user. This image file list is a text file, each line of which is an image file name. The application will then associate the file specified by the Nth line with the Nth frame of the animation (the application may provide means of extending or adjusting these associations). Note that the explicit method is the more powerful of the two, since it allows you to rearrange or repeat the images in a sequence without copying or renaming them.

If you are working with an application that utilizes the explicit method, we provide a tool, makeIFL, to help you to construct image file lists.

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