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I recently discovered the animate package (actually it was here, looking for alternatives I came across this: https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/235180/212085) and I want to generate two different versions of my beamer slides for a course:

  • PDF (with no animation at all if you use free software viewers as I do)
  • SVG (with animations, viewing the slides in a browser)

My problems start when I try to get running the most simple example with \animategraphics in a beamer slide. I am able to get a standalone document working ok, the issue arises when using the beamer document class. I tried several examples I found with \animateinline and they work flawlessly (for example, the svgbeamer.tex file that AlexG provides in https://tex.stackexchange.com/a/235180/212085)... but I can not get it to work with a very simple \animategraphics prototype.

For my first example I'm using this public domain annimated gif (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Simple_raycasting_with_fisheye_correction.gif) and after slice it in the corresponding 40 frames with ImageMagick's convert (I generated PNG and EPS files to try both LaTeX and XeLaTeX).

Using the minimal template provided by the author in the official doc, I wrote this simple beamer example (example.tex):

\documentclass[dvisvgm,aspectratio=169]{beamer}

\usepackage{animate}
%\usepackage{graphicx} % already included by beamer
%\usepackage{tikz}     % already included by beamer

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Simple raycasting animation}
    \animategraphics[controls,loop,autoplay]{16}{tmp/raycasting_frame}{00}{39}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

then

latex example
latex example

... and the DVI file looks Ok (static, but Ok). Then:

dvisvgm --font-format=woff --zoom=-1 -p1,- example

creates the SVG file and provides this feedback:

pre-processing DVI file (format version 2)
processing page 1
  graphic size: 455.24408pt x 256.074799pt (159.999995mm x 89.999998mm)
  output written to example.svg
1 of 1 page converted in 2.84687 seconds

However, the animation seems to be "out" of the viewport in the SVG. Only the title of the slide and the controls are visible when rendering the file in the browser, and opening it with Inkscape shows the picture below the slide. Here you can get both files (DVI and SVG) to know what I mean:

Curiously (or not), if I remove the dvisvgm parameter from the document class the final SVG has the picture in the viewport and perform the whole animation just once (and quite fast), but controls do not work. In this case, the picture does not appear in the previous DVI file :-?

UPDATE:

After the kind answers I have just checked the multi-page PDF approach (I'd rather this alternative than using PNG or EPS images) and I do not detect any change when opening the SVG from browser but I can not see now the picture at all when opening it with Inkscape (so I assume it was not been embedded in the SVG, as the file size corroborates).

These are the new files I have generated using the multi-pdf method:

The process now was:

xelatex -no-pdf example2
xelatex -no-pdf example2
dvisvgm --font-format=woff --zoom=-1 -p1,- example2.xdv

dvisvgm provided this output:

pre-processing DVI file (format version 7)
processing page 1
  graphic size: 455.24408pt x 256.074799pt (159.999995mm x 89.999998mm)
  output written to example2.svg
1 of 1 page converted in 0.283845 seconds

The only change in example.tex (now example2.tex) was the \animategraphics invocation:

\animategraphics[controls,loop,autoplay,width=\linewidth]{16}{tmp/raycasting_frame}{}{}

I have also added the output from dvisvgm in the previous text (when using latex and EPS files instead of xelatex and A multi-page PDF).

By the way, I am using TeXLive-2019 (so dvisvgm 2.9) in a Debian system.

UPDATE2:

I have updated TeXLive from 2019 to 2020 (I have used Debian experimental packages) and I downloaded and compiled dvisvgm 2.9.1 (from https://dvisvgm.de)... and that did the trick! (at least for the EPS files approach)

Now the example.svg file generated from example.tex doing latex example; latex example; dvisvgm --font-format=woff --zoom=-1 -p1,- example runs the animation perfectly.

I am still stuck with the multi-page PDF alternative, though. Following @AlexG advice I have added \usepackage{pdfbase} to the preamble of example3.tex (that is the only difference with example2.tex) and after xelatex -no-pdf example3; xelatex -no-pdf example3; dvisvgm --font-format=woff --zoom=-1 -p1,- example3.xdv I get these files (I am also attaching the log file):

Emilio J. Padrón
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  • Did you try \begin{frame}[fragile]{Simple raycasting animation}? – Toño Apr 08 '20 at 13:04
  • It works for me, although the animation frames are a bit to wide. So I put option width=\linewidth. Which is your dvisvgm version? (dvisvgm --version). Also note that PNG is not inlined into the SVG code, the image files remain separate from the SVG. So it is better to convert the GIF to multipage PDF: convert -coalesce Simple_raycasting_with_fisheye_correction.gif raycasting_frame.pdf – AlexG Apr 08 '20 at 13:26
  • With multipage PDF, the inclusion command is \animategraphics[controls,loop,autoplay,width=\linewidth]{16}{tmp/raycasting_frame}{}{}. – AlexG Apr 08 '20 at 13:32
  • I see from your example.svg that you didn't use the most recent dvisvgm-2.9.1. You are probably still using TeXLive-2019. You will have to wait two days for TeXLive-2020 (to be released on 10th April). Or, if you cannot wait, install the pre-test version: https://www.tug.org/texlive/pretest.html – AlexG Apr 08 '20 at 14:16
  • @Toño I tried within a fragile frame as you suggested but I didn't see any change. Thx anyway!

    @AlexG Thank you very much for pointing me out the multi-pdf approach. I'd rather this method for my use case (slides in both PDF and SVG). Anyway, I am still not obtaining the animation in the slide... :-?.

    So... do you think the new dvisvgm in TeXLive-2020 will solve my issue?

    Regarding the width=\linewidth, I was actually using it before writing the example to paste here.

    Thank you very much for your help! (and for your great LaTeX package!)

     – Emilio J. Padrón Apr 09 '20 at 07:44
  • @EmilioJ.Padrón You also need pdfbase.sty, as of 2020/03/25, which is part of pkg media9, version 1.10. There was an issue with this package that lead to the symptoms you describe. However, the fixed version needs dvisvgm-2.9.1, which is only in TeXLive-2020 and in the current MiKTeX. – AlexG Apr 09 '20 at 09:29
  • @AlexG Updating to dvisvgm-2.9.1 and TeXLive-2020 did the trick for the DVI with EPS files -> SVG approach!

    I would like to be able to get the multi-PDF alternative working as well. I have tried adding \usepackage{pdfbase} but apparently it did not change anything. I am using TeXLive 2020.20200329 (Debian experimental packages) and media9.sty says version is 1.10.

     – Emilio J. Padrón Apr 09 '20 at 12:21
  • @EmilioJ.Padrón would you please share the current DVI/XDV file? – AlexG Apr 09 '20 at 12:25
  • And perhaps, try adding option type=pdf to ensure \animategraphics indeed uses tmp/raycasting_frame.pdf. – AlexG Apr 09 '20 at 12:28
  • @AlexG Ok Alex, I am attaching the XDV resulting from my last try using \usepackage{pdfbase} (and also the log file from XeLaTeX). I am now using the parameter type=pdfbut I have not noticed any difference, so I assume it is actually using the PDF file. Thanks! – Emilio J. Padrón Apr 09 '20 at 16:41
  • @EmilioJ.Padrón You are right. There is something wrong with the xelatex + dvisvgm route. Standard latex+dvisvgm works. I will have to investigate. (For now, could you use latex or dvilualatex instead of xelatex?) – AlexG Apr 09 '20 at 18:52
  • @AlexG Sure, I can arrange it with standard latex for the time being. Thank you very much for your help and for your great work with those packages! – Emilio J. Padrón Apr 09 '20 at 20:06
  • I found the error. xcolor, also loaded by beamer, loads the wrong driver file. I am about writing an answer with solution. Just a minute. – AlexG Apr 09 '20 at 20:08

1 Answers1

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Package xcolor (slurped in by beamer) loads the wrong driver file xetex.def for graphics and color, although dvisvgm is passed as a global option to the beamer document class. xcolor doesn't know about dvisvgm and uses xetex.def as default.

In order to be able to process the input with xelatex --no-pdf for the dvisvgm back-end, we enforce dvips.def to be used by xcolor. dvips.def uses the same definitions for colour as dvisvgm.def. We can do so by loading xcolor with the correct driver option before the document class. On the long run, pkg xcolor should be updated to be aware of dvisvgm.

Then, our multipage PDF raycasting_frame.pdf with the animation frames is embedded using the correct low-level commands (\specials).

Example code to be compiled with xelatex --no-pdf (or another DVI/XDV-making engine) + dvisvgm --zoom=-1 --font-formt=woff2 --page=- --bbox=papersize

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
% Force graphicx/color driver `dvips.def'
\RequirePackage[dvips]{xcolor}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\documentclass[dvisvgm,aspectratio=169]{beamer}

\usepackage{animate}
%\usepackage{graphicx} % already included by beamer
%\usepackage{tikz}     % already included by beamer

\graphicspath{{tmp/}}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}{Simple raycasting animation}
    \animategraphics[controls,loop,autoplay,width=\linewidth]{16}{raycasting_frame}{}{}
\end{frame}

\end{document}

Get raycasting_frame.pdf from Simple_raycasting_with_fisheye_correction.gif with:

convert -coalesce Simple_raycasting_with_fisheye_correction.gif raycasting_frame.pdf
AlexG
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