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Arena 3DPlayer User's Guide.book Page 100 Wednesday, June 1, 2005 9:21 AM
ARENA 3DPLAYER USER’S GUIDE
The AVI Capture dialog box provides Recording Time, AVI Settings, and Camera Control
features. The Recording Time feature allows you to determine the duration of the AVI
movie. Clicking the top option button allows you to set the start and end simulation time
of the AVI capture. Clicking the second option button allows you to set the movie duration
in seconds, and the third option button allows you to record for an unspecified time (or
until the animation completes). The AVI Settings feature allows you to choose the codec
used for recording and playback and the number of frames per second for movie playback.
The Play-on-Completion option determines whether the movie will automatically begin
playing in your default media player upon completion of recording. The Camera Control
feature allows you to set the speed at which the camera moves when manipulating the
viewpoint with the keyboard. Selecting the Show Keyboard Commands button invokes
a dialog providing the keyboard commands for manipulating the viewpoint.
The AVI capture begins once you click the OK button. If a layout and playback file are
loaded but Arena 3DPlayer is not currently running an animation, Arena 3DPlayer will
begin running the animation and start recording an AVI.
The AVI Capture tool provides the flexibility to start and stop capture at any point in the
animation along with having the flexibility to create a movie of a desired duration. The
AVI Capture tool continuously computes the duration of the movie by dividing the
number of frames captured by the playback frame rate and displays the movie duration in
flashing red text in Arena 3DPlayer’s status bar. To create a movie of a desired duration,
simply click OK to close the AVI Capture dialog and begin recording and then click the
Stop AVI Capture toolbar button or select Tools > Stop AVI Capture to end recording
once the movie time has reached the desired duration.
Once a capture stops, the Save As dialog appears, prompting you to select a file name and
location where you wish to save the AVI file. If the AVI Capture setting “Play on
completion” is set, the AVI movie will begin playing in your default media player once
saving is complete.
Once you have mastered the art of making movies from a single camera viewpoint, you
can consider ways to make the movie more interesting by varying the viewpoint.
Varying the viewpoint
The viewpoint, also called the camera, is the location from which you are viewing the
geometry. The entire set of standard 3D navigation controls work while you are recording
a movie. These include left-dragging to rotate and tilt, right-dragging to zoom, and
middle-click to pan by jumping to a new center point. However, it may be awkward to use
the mouse during a recording session (primarily because recording may be taking place at
a speed different from the playback speed), so keyboard equivalents are available that
move the viewpoint in increments.
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