Xmas-Tree-GIF-Tool - Convert any given animated gif file into an animation in GIFT CSV format

This repo is made to participate in Matt Parker's XmasTree 2021 event.

Convert any given animated gif file into an animation in GIFT CSV format.

Convert a Gif:

• First, run pip3 install -r requirements.txt to install the necessary packages.
• To convert a gif you will need a CSV file with coordinates of the Xmas tree's LED lights; Matt Parker's 2021 coordinates are given in examples/coords_2021.csv.
• Run this command: python3 convert.py
• The output will be a CSV file in GIFT format which animates the given gif file according to the given LED coordinates.
• In order to see the gif as clearly as possible, you need to look directly at the tree head-on from the positive X direction (as was discussed here).
• This conversion also assumes that one frame in the gif corresponds to one frame in the output with no timing information.

Some optional parameters for convert.py:

• -h, --help: display these options and exit.
• -o, --output : Name of the output file. By default, the output file will be named export.csv.
• --width : Dimension along which the width of the gif will be rendered. This is y by default.
• --height : Dimension along which the height of the gif will be rendered. This is z by default.
• --disable_aspect: Do not maintain the aspect ratio of the gif, and instead fit it exactly to the boundaries of the given coordinates.

Previewing a CSV file

This repo also provides the ability to preview a GIFT CSV file.

• pip install requirements if not already
• run: python3 animate.py
• The result should be matplotlib's animated 3D dialog box running the animation.

Optional parameters for animate.py:

• -h, --help: display these options and exit.
• -f, --framerate : Define the framerate (in FPS) at which to playback the animation. Default is 30. Note that will large coordinate datasets, the framerate may be capped by what matplotlib can handle.

Examples

Provided in the examples directory are some gifs and their corresponding GIFT CSV files (generated with coords_2021.csv), which may be previewed as described above.

• bad_apple_full.gif: obviously
• bad_apple_14s.gif: just the first 14 seconds
• amogus.gif: a🅱ogus
• rickroll_7s.gif: rickroll intro
• circle.gif: just a static red circle. Good for finding the right angle from which to look at the tree.