Someone else had this question last year but there was no answer.

I would like to process frames of an animation, open, trace bitmap, save file, for a whole folder of images.
Is there a way to do this?

Is anyone using Inkscape in making animations?

Thanks!

People use Inkscape for animation, as much as possible. Of course, Inkscape has no native animation ability. This page on the Inkscape website gives an overview of animation and Inkscape: https://inkscape.org/en/learn/animation/

One thing that's missing from that page, is probably more like what you're looking for, is this Inkscape extension: https://mccormick.cx/news/entries/inkscape-animation. I've never used it, so I can't offer any comments about it.

However, it doesn't use the workflow you outlined. To do a timed, frame by frame type of animation, it's best to use GIF images. So converting to vector won't be necessary at all. Just converting to GIF, if they aren't already GIFs.

If you specifically want to use vector images, you might want to look at Synfig Studio http://www.synfig.org/cms/ or maybe Tupi http://www.maefloresta.com/portal/. I haven't used either one, so can't offer any comments about them. Just that my understanding is that they can utilize vector images.

Edit
For the batch tracing question, you'd have to write some kind of script, to automate that process. There's no internal batch raster trace feature.

I'd look into using the command line methods:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... dLine.html

Inkscape's built-in tracing feature cannot be fully automated - it will always require interaction (even if the bitmap trace dialog can be opened via verb on the command line, there's nothing built-in to automate setting the trace options and initiating the actual tracing).

Related topic here in the forum

• [SOLVED] How do I replicate Inkscape's bitmap tracer?

(Solution there: an external standalone tracing script - written in python, relying on other external tools. Current status unknown (the original version was known to fail))

~suv wrote:Related topic here in the forum

• [SOLVED] How do I replicate Inkscape's bitmap tracer?

(Solution there: an external standalone tracing script - written in python, relying on other external tools. Current status unknown (the original version was known to fail))

But iirc, produced good results (pretty old topic).