[Sea-mat] new to group, movie question

Tue May 4 11:03:31 EDT 2004

hello again!

i got so many fantastic replies, thank you all so very much for your
help (special thanks to those whom i have not yet thanked personally)!

rich asked me to post a summary of the responses i got for future list
use.  here it is (i apologize in advance if i am stepping on any toes by
reprinting some of the following):

most replies suggested printing the figures from the matlab loop into a
PNG or PPM format and then using an outside software (the favorite is
videomach from www.gromada.com) to create the movie.  printing out to
JPEGs automatically reduces resolution so that format was not
recommended, but the PPM images reduce to GIFs well without much
resolution loss.  the anim_frame.m and anim_make.m option to output
PCX images (to later convert to PPM) is described below.

another idea was to use MakeQTMovie.m (from
http://www.phys.ocean.dal.ca/~lukeman/projects/argo/) which uses
getframe, frame2im and writejpg_map to output each directly to a
quicktime movie.  since the images are appended directly as opposed to
storing each and then bringing them all together later, memory issues are
avoided.  AVIFILE in the iofun toolbox (in my matlab installation this is
only found in the 13 release) works in a similar way and has a
few more manipulation tools.

also, if you have mpeg2encode installed on your UNIX box you can simply
use 'convert' to create an MPEG from GIF!   however, again, MPEGs have
compression issues so the FLIC (described below) or AVI format is the
preferred movie format of the list.

thanks again to everyone, i appreciate your help!

lynn

On Tue, 4 May 2004, Richard Signell wrote:

> Lynn,
>
> I still use the "anim_frame.m" and "anim_make.m" m-files that
> you can get on the sea-mat site:
>
> http://sea-mat.whoi.edu/RPSstuff-html/anim_make.html
>
> This uses screen capture so what-you-see-is-what-you-get (doesn't
> use the print function), saves the images as PCX and then converts
> them into a .FLC animation using "ppmtofli".  The flc format is
> still a good format for many applications (better than mpeg for
> most of the movies I make) and has viewers for all
> platforms.  See:
>
> http://woodshole.er.usgs.gov/operations/modeling/flc.html
>
> Also if you need to convert FLC to AVI, say for use in
> MS Powerpoint, you can use shareware tools
> such as "videomach" from http://www.gromada.com (use the RLE
> codec for compression, as it is similar to FLC).
>
> The only drawback with the "capture" method is that you can't
> obscure the figure window while you are making the movie, which
> can take a long time if you have 800 frames.  So you can do it
> overnight, or you can use the trick that I use:  I start a
> VNC server on my machine, connect to the server using VNC viewer,
> start Matlab in the VNC viewer window, and then run my movie maker
> in this window.  Since it's a virtual server, you don't have
> to worry about obscuring the window.  Maybe there is a smarter way
> (if someone knows, please tell me), but this works.
>
> -Rich
>
>
>
>
>  Yarmey wrote:
> >
> > hello!
> >
> > i am hoping someone on this list can help me convert a timeseries of
> > figures into a movie with decent resolution, speed and size, how hard can
> > it be! :)
> >
> > i have a long timeseries (800 timesteps) of 2D filled contour subplots.  i
> > initially attempted to use the matlab capture/getframe/movie features,
> > though the loop eventually crashed matlab (and then my computer) with a
> > memory error.  i tried these feature in both matlab 12.1 and earlier
> > releases with the same result.
> >
> > i then printed each figure to a jpeg from the loop and used outside
> > software to convert the individual files into a movie. gifwrite created a
> > decent movie, but it was so large i could not easily work with it.  imovie
> > on the mac crashed out due to memory errors as well.   the iphoto program
> > would export to quicktime however the max speed was one frame/second so
> > my final movie is 15 minutes long.   my department IT manager is having
> > some problems installing the latest mpeg software into UNIX so i am
> > turning to the list for any and all advice!
> >
> > has anyone created large movies with matlab figures, and if so, how did
> > you do it?
> >
> > all help is appreciated!
> >
> > many thanks for your time!
> > lynn yarmey
> >
> > ___________________________________________________________
> > Lynn Yarmey
> > Integrative Oceanography Division - 0209
> > Scripps Institution of Oceanography
> > University of California, San Diego
> > 9500 Gilman Dr. La Jolla, CA  92093
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Sea-mat maillist  -  Sea-mat at whoi.edu
> > http://mailman.whoi.edu/mailman/listinfo/sea-mat
>
> --
> Dr. Richard P. Signell                 |  signell at saclantc.nato.int
> NATO/SACLANT Undersea Research Centre  |    Tel: (+39) 0187 527 381
> Viale San Bartolomeo 400               |    Fax: (+39) 0187 527 331
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>
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___________________________________________________________
Lynn Yarmey
Integrative Oceanography Division - 0209
Scripps Institution of Oceanography
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Dr. La Jolla, CA  92093