Tools / Create Movie   ()

Summary

Creates a movie of the frontmost simulation while it is evolving.

Description

When you select this command, a small dialog will be displayed allowing you to specify what type of movie you would like to make. This provides you with the following options.

• The Area drop-down menu specifies which of the following areas are to be visible in the movie.
  • Main Area Only specifies that the movie is to show the main area of the active window, excluding both the tool bar and the status bar.

  • Main Area & Status Bar specifies that the movie is to show the main area and status bar of the active window, excluding the tool bar. The status bar will only appear in the movie if it is visible in the active window while the movie is being recorded.

  • Entire Window specifies that the movie is to show the entire active window, including the tool bar, the status bar, and the window decorations. The tool bar, status bar, and window decorations will only appear in the movie if they are visible in the active window while the movie is being recorded.

  • Entire Screen specifies that the movie is to show the entire screen, including anything that is visible from other applications or the operating system.

• Movie Format specifies whether to create the movie in AVI format or QuickTime format.

• Frames Per Second specifies the number of frames per second that the movie is to have. Each step of the simulation's evolution is recorded as one frame, so that this option can also be thought of as the number of evolution steps that the movie is to have each second. The speed of the movie can also be adjusted by using the Evolve / Evolve To... command to change the time step.

• Compression specifies the compromise between small file size and high image quality. At one extreme you can specify Small Size to create a movie with the smallest file size at the lowest image quality, and at the other extreme you can specify High Quality to create a movie with the largest file size at the highest image quality. In most cases, the default should be acceptable.

• Include Logo specifies whether or not to include a Created with AstroGrav logo in the bottom-right corner of the movie.

If you accept this dialog, a Create Movie file chooser dialog will be displayed. This allows you to navigate your computer's file system to choose a location and name for the movie file. If you accept this file chooser dialog and you specified an area other than the entire screen, a small panel that displays the area size (in pixels) will appear over the active window. This gives you the opportunity to adjust the size of the area (and movie) if you desire, after which you use one of the commands in the Evolve menu to run the simulation and make the movie. While creating the movie, the small panel displays the length of the movie in both seconds and frames, and movie creation stops when evolution stops. Evolution is likely to seem slower than usual due to the processing time required to create the movie as the simulation runs.

Note

Some versions of Windows Media Player refuse to the play the movies that this command creates, but you should no trouble playing them with QuickTime Player.

See Also:

• Evolve / Run Backward()that evolves the frontmost simulation backward one time step after another until it is stopped.

• Evolve / Stop()that stops the evolution of the frontmost simulation.

• Evolve / Run Forward()that evolves the frontmost simulation forward one time step after another until it is stopped.

• Evolve / Evolve To...()that evolves the frontmost simulation forward or backward to a specified date/time, or evolves to the next or previous event of a particular type.

• Evolve / Settings...()that sets the evolver settings of the frontmost simulation.

Copyright © 2005-2024, AstroGrav Astronomy Software