From: portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi)
Subject: Re: Making QT movies from single-frame Insight images
Keywords: Quicktime Insight movies snapshot
Organization: Silicon Graphics Inc.
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 17:14:45 GMT

In article <1992Aug19.065725.22381@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au>,
apa@ccadfa.cc.adfa.oz.au (Alan P Arnold) writes:
|> 
|> Hello again,
|> 	perhaps someone out there can help with advice on this problem...
|> 
|> I want to make a movie (Apple's Quicktime or VHS video
|> for teaching purposes) of a series of single-frame screen
|> snapshots of Biosym's InsightII images.  Our SGI4D/20GT is
|> not fast enough to rotate/move the types of images
|> we want in real time, so real-time video capture is out. 
|> 
|> As an example to illustrate the task, assume I want to show
|> a rotating CPK (space-filled) picture of a protein:
|> 
|> The plan is as follows:
|> 1. set up the molecule in Insight [...]
|> 2. with 'snapshot' running in another window, snap this
|>    screen image [...]
|> 3. For an eventual QuickTime movie, convert the .rgb to
|>    .pict [...]
|> 4. ftp snap.pict.001 to a MacII folder and hope you have
|>    enough diskspace.
|> 5. rotate the image in Insight, and repeat steps 2-5
|>    until finished.
|> 6. On the Mac, use one of the Quicktime tools to convert
|>    all those PICT's to a PICS or MOOV, and voila.
|> 
|> This should work OK, and for a few frames I could do all
|> this manually. For *many* frames, most of this can be done\
|> from a macro, but...... How can I automate step 2?

[...]

|> ... or is there a better way to do the whole thing?


Yes, there is a better way, and best of all, no
Macintosh is necessary.

Get yourself a copy of IRIX 4.0.5, and the Media Mosaic
software package.  Included are two programs you will
find very useful:  moviemaker and movieplayer.

Movieplayer plays back compressed digital movies, just
like Apple's Quicktime movie format.  Your movies may
also have an optional mono or stereo soundtrack (of
course, you can hear the soundtrack only on IRIS
systems with audio).

Moviemaker will combine a series of image files, together
with an optional sound file, into a movie file.  You can
also edit movie files, decompose movies into images and
audio, and even perform simple image processing on the
individual frames of a movie.

The latest release of Moviemaker (which will definitely
be included with the Indigo R4000, I'm not sure when it
will be available to all) now includes a graphical user
interface.  You can view the entire movie, together
with its soundtrack, as a scrollable "filmstrip"
onscreen.  You can select regions of the movie with the
mouse and edit the movie with Cut, Copy and Paste
commands.  Also included is the program "svtomovie",
which will record live video off the IndigoVideo board
into a movie file.

Finally (and this may be of interest to you), the
program "imgsnap" (part of the ImageVision Utilities
software package, and free with the system) has been
enhanced to automate frame grabbing, in order to work
better with the movie tools.  To create a movie from
Insight, you might do the following:

	1. Start imgsnap, sweep select the
	   region of the screen you wish to
	   capture as a movie.
	2. Click the "Save in Same File" button.
	   Now imgsnap will save consecutive images
	   in the same image file.
	3. Click the "Save" button each time you
	   want to snapshot an image.
	4. When done, start up Moviemaker.  Choose
	   "Insert" from the menu.
	5. Click on the image file in the file
	   browser.  Choose "Accept."  Moviemaker
	   creates a movie from the image file and
	   presents it in the display.  To view it,
	   click the "Preview Movie" button.
	6. Choose "Save" from the menu.  Name
	   your new movie.

Contact your sales rep for availability of the Media
Mosaic package.  Release 1.0 is currently available,
though the new release (which is just now in the
process of release to manufacturing) should be
available soon.  Much of the release is specific to
Indigo and the 4D/35, however the movie tools should
run on any IRIS system.

Hope this info helps.

-- 
Michael Portuesi   Silicon Graphics, Inc.   portuesi@sgi.com