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tom thumb source code and executable
(c) copyright alex evans 2002

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VERSION 2!
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This fixes a small bug in the texture loader that expected files to be in the
c:\art directory - which is why it gave a white sky and white background
in most of the demo. OOPS! well, it's fixed now, hopefully.
-----------------------

hello.

this code and executable is provided without warranty / support of any kind - use at 
your own risk!

since it's a generative film, it was a bit pointless not to release this code, or
at least several versions of the rendered film.

unfortunately I can't do that for several reasons - server space, bandwidth,
room on my home pc to do the render (4 gigs free space needed), and worst of all,
a slight loss of source code from a hard disk crash a while back. (this version of
the source code is about 2 revisions old from the final one, thank god for backups...)

so, here you have it - the source code to a movie. an odd concept really, and I'm
really sorry I couldn't offer more in the way of pre-rendered versions. well, you
live and learn... think of this source code as an amusing curiosity for the other
self styled geek-artists out there...

all the usual caveats apply - it was only intended for my use, not anyone elses. feel 
free to read, laugh, and even, learn a bit (about how not to program...)

I can't provide much help with this program though, especially if it doesn't run on
your machine. I'm very sorry in that case - but it did its job (rendering a few movies
and keeping me occupied for many nights...), and it's buggy and unstable to this day!

you should just be able to run the .exe straight out of the box. or you can delve
into the source code. you need ms vc 6 or better, and stlport (a free stl library)
using the msvc stl code seems to hang in release build on the std::sort line during
tree generation.....

the source code is in the source/ directory.

when compiling, don't forget to have stl port set up, and direct x 8.1 sdk or better.

HOW TO MAKE IT RUN / user manual :)
-----------------

run the exe. type in a tree number - the one in the publically released film is
tree 272, because I like that one :) it takes about 5 minutes for the vines to grow,
so wait. you only have to wait once, because it saves them to disk.

now you can see a tracker like interface - each channel controls a scripted parameter
of the movie. if you load the file "film." you can see the script used to make the
original movie. by moving the cursor around you can preview the movie at different
times. press F1 to toggle the post processing filters on and off. press the burning
fire button on the toolbar to render a version to many, many tga files - you need
lots of gigs free and several hours to kill! you have been warned!

there is no way of quitting the program :) you have to kill it with task manager (or
dev studio). sorry.

by default the exe runs at quarter pal resolution; there is a full res version
(tomthumb_fullres.exe) included. source code people, you can edit the defines
in film.h - if you uncomment the line "#define FINAL" you will get full-res.
but you can see what I'm doing by looking at the code, right ? :) right.

the bottom right part of the window is the camera editor. this is a marvel of
unintuitive, buggy gui design. I can't actually remember how to use it (it
was 6 months ago I made this, remember :)) so I can't tell you... there are
lots of hidden keys, just to make things tastier. in theory, it allows you
to design "fat" camera paths - that is, ones with some random variance in 
each spline point, so that the camera changes path each time. the version here
has this disabled (actually because I lost the finalised source code to that
feature in a hard disk crash this summer) because it's not fully implemented
in the playback. or maybe it is - I'm not sure. so, it might work  after all :)


NOTE
----
this version has had the video overlays and a large sample removed for download
size reasons, so that's another reason it's not COMPLETELY identical to the rendered 
version. 

I hope there haven't been any adverse affects on the rest of the program in so doing,
but you can but hope.

the video is packed with a proprietary packer based on mjpeg - so it uses jpeglib
which is copyright jpeglib chaps.

have fun everybody.

if I were you, I'd just watch the wmv :)

finally thanks/greets to the tpolm people, rune and kaspar and also mr jeremy w 
for their continuing support.... also good luck to the "state of the art" parisians...

cheers all and happy christmas / holiday / whatever you prefer to celebrate
- alex
december 2002