How to make \animategraphics happy with a file name with spaces?

Question

% this filename is main.tex
% compile it with "pdflatex -shell-escape main" (without the quotes)

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{filecontents}

% Create a PDF file that consist of some pages
\begin{filecontents*}{"heart animation.tex"}
\documentclass[border=12pt,pstricks]{standalone}
\usepackage{pst-plot}
\usepackage[nomessages]{fp}
\FPeval\Delta{round(2*pi/30:2)}

\def\x(#1){sin(#1)^3}
\def\y(#1){(13*cos(t)-5*cos(2*t)-2*cos(3*t)-cos(4*t))/16}

\psset{algebraic,plotpoints=300}

\begin{document}
\multido{\n=0.00+\Delta}{31}{%
\begin{pspicture}[showgrid=false](-2,-2)(2,2)
    \psparametricplot[origin={0,0.15},linecolor=red]{0}{\n}{\x(t)|\y(t)}
\end{pspicture}}

\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}

\immediate\write18{latex "heart animation.tex"}
\immediate\write18{dvips "heart animation.dvi"}
\immediate\write18{ps2pdf "heart animation.ps"}
% sometimes you need to disable auto rotate in ps2pdf. Please follow up if you really need it!
% delete auxiliary files generated by the 3 commands above.
\makeatletter
\@for\x:={tex,dvi,ps,log,aux,out,toc,nav,snm}\do{\immediate\write18{cmd /c if exist "heart animation.\x" del "heart animation.\x"}}
\makeatother

\usepackage{animate}
\begin{document}
%\animategraphics[controls,autoplay,loop,scale=<integer>]{<frame rate>}{<PDF filename without extension>}{<left blank>}{<left blank>}
\animategraphics[controls,autoplay,loop,scale=1]{10}{"heart animation"}{}{}
\end{document}

How to make \animategraphics happy with a file name with spaces?

Answer 1

The problem is that \animategraphics uses LaTeX's \IfFileExists that uses the space as end marker of the file name. Then the result \@filef@und contains the file name including a final space. \animategraphics then removes the space via \zap@space that also kills spaces in between.

The following workaround redefines \animategraphics. It uses package grffile \grffile@IfFileExists instead of \IfFileExists, sets \@filef@und to the file name without the final space and neutralizes \zap@space.

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{animate}
\usepackage{grffile}
\usepackage{letltxmacro}
\makeatletter
\@ifdefinable{org@animategraphics}{%
  \LetLtxMacro\org@animategraphics\animategraphics
  \renewcommand*{\animategraphics}{%
    \begingroup
    \@ifnextchar[{%
      \def\anigrf@opt{[}%
      \anigrf@animategraphics
    }{%
      \let\anigrf@opt\@empty
      \anigrf@animategraphics
    }%
  }%
  \newcommand{\anigrf@animategraphics}[5][]{%
    \renewcommand{\IfFileExists}[3]{%
      \grffile@IfFileExists{##1}{%
        \let\@filef@und\grffile@file@found
        \def\zap@space####1 \@empty{####1}%
        ##2%
      }{##3}%
    }%
    \ifx\anigrf@opt\@empty
      \org@animategraphics{#2}{#3}{#4}{#5}%
    \else
      \org@animategraphics[{#1}]{#2}{#3}{#4}{#5}%
    \fi
    \endgroup
  }%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
  \animategraphics[controls,autoplay,loop,scale=1]{10}{heart animation}{}{}%
\end{document}

Answer 2

For some reasons, animate doesn't like spaces in file names. In general they should be avoided whenever possible. What happens when you feed \animategraphics with the file name "heart animation", the package tries to includeheartanimation.pdf`, removing spaces in the name.

A solution is to change the category code of the space before absorbing the second mandatory argument of \animategraphics

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{animate}

\newcommand{\myanimategraphics}[2][]{%
  \begingroup
    \def\myagtempopt{\unexpanded{#1}}%
    \def\myagtempmand{\unexpanded{#2}}%
    \catcode`\ =12 \myanimategraphicsaux
}
\def\myanimategraphicsaux#1#2#3{%
  \begingroup\edef\x{\endgroup
    \noexpand\animategraphics[\myagtempopt]{\myagtempmand}}%
  \x{#1}{#2}{#3}\endgroup}

\begin{document}
\myanimategraphics{3}{"heart animation"}{}{}
\end{document}