Kinematic · Render a demo to pictures from the terminal

Kinematic can run any graph with no window at all and write what it makes to files. That is handy for long renders, for a machine with no screen, or for a script that makes many versions.

Steps

Choose Help > Browse Demos..., type twisted in the search box and open Twisted Torus.
Choose File > Save As.... Make a new folder called renders on your desktop and save the graph in it as twisted_torus.kin.
Open a terminal and go to that folder:
terminal
```
cd ~/Desktop/renders
```
On a Mac, the command lives inside the app. Give it a short name for this terminal window:
terminal
```
alias kinematic=/Applications/Kinematic.app/Contents/MacOS/Kinematic
```
On Linux, kinematic is ready to use. On Windows, it is kinematic.exe in the bin folder where you installed Kinematic (C:\Program Files\Kinematic\bin unless you chose another place).

Ask for the plan first. --plan works out the render and prints it without making anything:

terminal

kinematic render twisted_torus.kin --out "frames/torus_{frame:04}.png" --frames 120 --resolution 1080x1080 --plan

It shows what it will record, the size, the frame rate and where the files go:

text

sink       __render_sink (OutputImageFile, added)
producer   render (3DGeoSimpleRenderToImage) port Image
size       1080 x 1080
fps        30
frames     120
format     from the graph
engine     auto
clock      wall
duration   4.00 s
size est   unknown (the sink has no bitrate_kbps)
file       frames/torus_{frame:04}.png

The torus has no file writer of its own, so the render adds one for this run only. Your file is not changed.

Run the same command without --plan. Kinematic plays the graph with no window and makes the frames folder as it goes. Some lines may scroll past; when the prompt comes back, it is done. On a recent laptop that takes a few seconds.
Open the frames folder. It holds torus_0000.png, torus_0001.png and on, one picture for every frame. {frame:04} in the name is the frame number, padded to four digits.
One frame from the folder, at full size.
For the full list of what render can do, run kinematic render --help.

On the canvas

Nothing on the canvas changes. The demo draws its picture with a 3DGeoSimpleRenderToImage called render, and for this run only the command adds an OutputImageFile that saves each frame.

Make it yours

Render wide: --resolution 1920x1080.
Render ten seconds instead of four: --frames 300.
Render your own graph the same way. When the picture you want comes from a 2D node, name it with --render-node and its picture output with --port, for example --render-node toy --port Output_1. The ID in Properties is the name to use.
Always try --plan first: it costs nothing and shows exactly what the render will do.

If it goes wrong

command not found: on a Mac, run the alias line again in the same terminal window.
"this graph has no output-file node and nothing that makes a picture": the graph's picture comes from a 2D node. Add --render-node and --port as in Make it yours.

Render a demo to pictures from the terminal

Steps

On the canvas

Make it yours

If it goes wrong

Free and open. Yours, forever.