Creating MPEG animations using xfpp3d / xflat2d / xflat2d_rgb


The visualization utilities xfpp3d, xflat2d and xflat2d_rgb all have a box-less button labelled Mpeg located near the upper right of their respective GUIs. Clicking on the button will bring up the mpeg window:

The widgets in this window function as follows:

Following is a recommended sequence of operations for the creation of an animation using either of the two utilities:

  1. Prepare the data to be animated via a user program and redirection of standard output to a file. This will in general include a choice of an appropriate number of time steps for the animation.
  2. Start xflat2d / xfpp3d with standard input redirected from the file generated in the previous step. Keeping the Pause button activated, adjust the view of the data (using Zoom in/out, Tumble speed etc.) as appropriate.
  3. Bring up the mpeg panel, and depress Record.
  4. Deactivate the Pause button in the main GUI to initiate the recording process.
  5. When all time steps of the data have been visualized, reactivate the Pause function.
  6. Press Generate on the mpeg panel to make the mpeg animation.
  7. Press Playback to verify that the animation was properly created.