persp3d and rgl.viewpoint for rotating 3D plots

Dear Duncan,

	thanks for your prompt reply. 
I was tempted to use movie3d, but below I copied what I get on my PC. Then, I have ImageMagick installed and, though I set convert equal to FALSE, I was not able to find where the function writes the .png files.
Maybe I lack experience in managing such complex functions, but I must confess that I have quite some hard time to grasp info from help(movie3d). 

Thanks in advance for any help,
Carlo Giovanni

library(rgl)
# set data
f <- function(x,y) { r <- sqrt(x^2+y^2); 10 * sin(r)/r }
x <- seq(-10, 10, length= 30); y <- x
z <- outer(x, y, f)
# set working directory
setwd("U:\\movie")
dir() # check

character(0)

# plot
persp3d(x, y, z)
movie3d(spin3d(), duration=5, convert=TRUE)

Writing movie000.png 
[...]
Writing movie050.png 

Error in movie3d(spin3d(), duration = 5, convert = TRUE) : 
  ImageMagick not found

dir() # check again

character(0)

movie3d(spin3d(), duration=5, convert=FALSE)

Writing movie000.png 
[...]
Writing movie050.png 

dir() # check again ??

character(0)

version

               _                           
platform       i386-pc-mingw32             
arch           i386                        
os             mingw32                     
system         i386, mingw32               
status                                     
major          2                           
minor          8.1                         
year           2008                        
month          12                          
day            22                          
svn rev        47281                       
language       R                           
version.string R version 2.8.1 (2008-12-22)


-----Original Message-----
From: Duncan Murdoch [mailto:murdoch at stats.uwo.ca] 
Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 5:13 PM
To: Camarda, Carlo Giovanni
Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
Subject: Re: [R] persp3d and rgl.viewpoint for rotating 3D plots

On 4/8/2009 11:01 AM, Camarda, Carlo Giovanni wrote:

Dear R-users,

    within the rgl-package, I would have a question about the usage of persp3d in combination of rgl.viewpoint. 
I am not able to figure out how to let a 3D plot rotating around likewise the example in ?rgl.viewpoint. It seems that when I use persp3d(...) I see something on my screen, which is different from what I get when it's rotating. Is there any different behavior between shade3d and persp3d?
Please find below a simple example.

Actually, my final aim is to save each of the rotating graphs for creating a "clip". I commented below what I would use later on, but is there any way to do it better?

Take a look at ?movie3d.  I think it does what you want.

Duncan Murdoch

Thanks a lot for your help,
Carlo Giovanni Camarda


library(rgl)
# simplified version from help(rgl.viewpoint)
shade3d(oh3d())
coo <- 1:360
for(i in 1:length(coo)) {
    rgl.viewpoint(coo[i])
    #filename <- paste("pic", formatC(i,digits=1,flag="00"), ".png", sep="")
    #rgl.snapshot(filename)
}

# simple persp3d adaption
f <- function(x,y) { r <- sqrt(x^2+y^2); 10 * sin(r)/r }
x <- seq(-10, 10, length= 30); y <- x
z <- outer(x, y, f)
persp3d(x, y, z)
coo <- 1:360
for(i in 1:length(coo)) {
    rgl.viewpoint(coo[i])
    #filename <- paste("pic", formatC(i,digits=1,flag="00"), ".png", sep="")
    #rgl.snapshot(filename)
}



-----------------------------------------------------
Dr. Carlo Giovanni Camarda
Research Scientist
Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Laboratory of Statistical Demography
Konrad-Zuse-Stra?e 1
18057 Rostock - Germany
Phone: +49 (0)381 2081 172
Fax: +49 (0)381 2081 472
camarda at demogr.mpg.de
http://www.demogr.mpg.de/en/staff/camarda/default.htm
-----------------------------------------------------


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