A work around is to set the operation mode to convert, but change the command line to montage, so that I have access to the “{image}” variable. But this creates new problems. I'd also like to use a custom expression from the montage operation. However since the operation mode is now set to convert, I don't have access to it anymore.
Even hard-enabling it through the parameter interface, it just doesn't accept the “{overlay_label}” if the operation mode is set to convert.
So, I hope someone could take a look into that. I understand these presets are there to help us, but right now they seem to be useless (since the default command line values lack the operation (convert, montage, etc) in the first place).
Here's what I'm trying to do, just for context.
I have a ROP mantra in TOPs which is rendering a wedged particle simulation. I then want to process all the the frames independently, embed their wedges attributes and other relevant information into their alpha channels as text with a -label command, while converting them to .PNG to keep the file size small (since this is only for viz). Last step would be to partition them all by frame and finally montage them into a final thing, possible even encoding a video from it.
I managed to do that, and the code used for embedding the information to the frames is this:
{imagemagick} montage -background none -label "Attribute `@attribute`" "{image}" -geometry +0+0 "{output_image}"
This will work, but like I said, I have to use it in Convert mode Operation, and I have no access to the overlay_label, which would be very handy for embedding a lot of information at once. This will basically be a temporary step for generating the final montage.
Just for reference, here's the log if you try to run this command line while in montage operation mode:
montage: unable to open image ‘{image}’: No such file or directory @ error/blob.c/OpenBlob/3497.
Any help on this subject would be very appreciated. I'm a beginner in TOPs and IM, so if anyone has a better solution to this situation please let me know. I researched a lot about this but I guess there just not a lot of information out there yet, and the documentation about Houdini's IM implementation is not very detailed. It's been a lot of trial and error!
Thanks in advance!