3D Movie output is based on Animations set from the 3D viewer controls and can be generated only after Animation views have been set.
To set Animation views:
From the Animations disclosure (at right), you can set custom views and play them sequentially.
The first view created is the starting point of the animation. Rotate the perspective of your plot to the view from which you want to start animation, then hit the + button to save that view. Rotate the perspective of your plot and hit the plus button for each successive view you wish to be included in the final animation. Views can be deleted by selecting a view and then clicking on the - button.
Once all the desired views have been created, click the play button to animate the view series.
Pauses and transitions can also be customized by inputting desired times (in seconds) in the Pause per View and Transition input fields.
Once Animation views are set, click on the Graph menu and select Movie.
You will be presented with the following dialog. If your computer has a low amount of memory (~500MB or less) you may experience slow or unstable performance. Regardless of memory, it is recommended that you close other programs when generating a movie in order to maximize memory. Click Yes when ready to continue.
The Movie Specification dialog will open (at right).
There are four options for the movie output:
1. Run for: ___ seconds - runs through views sequentially in the specified time.
2. Run for: ___ rotations - treats your first view as the start of a rotation and your last view as the end of a rotation, and will loop through the views the number of rotations specified.
3. Run for: ___ frames - can be used in conjunction with the "Frames per Second" to run your animation through a specified number of frames.
4. Run through all views - based on views generated in Animations, this option will run exactly once through your view set, using the pauses and transitions specified during in Animations.
Once you have selected your option, choose a value for "Frames per Second" (FPS). High FPS will make the animation of the final movie smoother. Keep in mind high FPS will utilize more memory and take longer. Next, select an Output Format. Both GIF Animation and PNG Image Sequence are available.
You can choose to Loop Animation. If checked, the final movie will run continuously using viewing option selected above (seconds, rotations, frames, all views).
When finished, click Make Movie. You will be asked to save the movie file to a location.
A progress bar will appear and indicate the number of frames being generated.
When finished, the progress bar will say "Movie Created Successfully". Navigate to your movie file and double click to open/play it.
