QuickTime^TM Movies, Windows AVI Movies and Animated GIFs
Any time you have a 3D Image open in ANIMOIDS, you can record it as a movie or animated GIF. I.e. you can record the images from a "Movie Scene", "Movie Set", "Behavior" and even from "Characters and Props".

Proprietary ANIMOIDS files can be opened only using a copy of the ANIMOIDS program. However QuickTime/AVI movies and animated GIFs are standard movie formats that can be played by most PC users. This makes it easier for you to pass your movies to family and friends.

When you view a 3D Canvas using the ANIMOIDS program it runs real time. So your PC can update the image only as fast as your PC will allow. This can lead to low frame rates and "jumpy" images if you don't have a fast enough PC.

When you record a movie or animated GIF, you get to specify the frame rate and ANIMOIDS can take longer than real-time to create the movie file. So, when you play back the movie/gif it can be of higher quality than you would get from viewing the image real-time.

Movies created by ANIMOIDS don't yet support sounds - sounds associated with your Animoids will be ignored when the movie is created. (But you can use software like QuickTime Pro to add the sound back onto your movie!)

QuickTime is a trademark of Apple Computer. You can download a free QuickTime player from QuickTime download.

ANIMOIDS comes with a Media Player that can play many QuickTime and AVI movies. Start this Media Player by selecting File, Play Movie... from the ANIMOIDS main menu.

ANIMOIDS Media Pack
The ANIMOIDS Media Pack is an option that allows you to record movies/gifs of your ANIMOID images.

If you don't want to purchase the Media Pack you can still record movies/gifs for free. However, the movie/gif will have a small "animoids.com" logo on the top left of the movie. This allows you to test your ability to record and playback movies/gifs before you make a purchase.

Start recording a Movie/GIF
Start the process of recording a movie/gif by invoking the ANIMOIDS "File", "Save as Movie..." action.

Selecting the         button from the ANIMOIDS toolbar has the same effect as selecting "File", "Save as Movie..." from the ANIMOIDS main menu.

If you have already purchased the Media Pack you'll go to Recording Parameters.

Most first time users will see the Media Pack dialog:

If you want to create a test movie, click the "Next>>>" button and continue with section Recording Parameters section of this tutorial.

To start purchase of the ANIMOIDS Media Pack, click the red "About ANIMOIDS Media Pack" button continue with the next section (Purchase Media Pack) of this tutorial.

Purchase Media Pack
Note that the purchase price and conditions shown in this tutorial may change. See the live page for current details.

Click "Next >>>" to enter your Credit Card information:

Enter the requested information and click "Purchase Now" to purchase the Media Pack.

After a few seconds, you'll see a confirmation screen like:

If you incorrectly entered your credit card information you'll get an error message and you'll be able to click the "<<<Back" button to fix the information.

Once you get the confirmation screen you are already setup to make unlimited length movies. So, just click "Next>>>" to setup the configuration of your movie as shown in the next section (Pecording Parameters) of this tutorial.

Recording Parameters

Use this dialog to specify the type, name and quality of your movie file.

Click the "Make Movie" button to start recording your movie file or animated GIF.

A dialog will open to show you the status of your file:

When the file is complete, ANIMOIDS will try to open your movie player to let you view your new movie.

You can switch between using the ANIMOIDS Movie Player and your system Movie Player by selecting the Use ANIMOIDS Media Player checkbox on the ANIMOIDS View menu.

ANIMOIDS Media Player
You can play your QuickTime movies in a QuickTime player, your AVI movies in your Windows Media Player and your Animated GIFs in any web browser.

However, ANIMOIDS 2.2.00 and later comes with a simple Media Player that can also play these movie file types.

To select the ANIMOIDS player to play a movie immediately after recording, select View then Use ANIMOIDS Media Player from the ANIMOIDS main menu.

You can also play any movie in the ANIMOIDS Media Player by selecting File, Play Movie... from the ANIMOIDS main menu.

Sometimes, movies created with ANIMOIDS will run ok on your system QuickTime/Windows players but not in the ANIMOIDS Media Player. This problem can affect a few ANIMOIDS users.

If this problem affects you: select Help, Troubleshooting from the ANIMOIDS main menu then select the Video Playback link for help on how to avoid it.

Transcoding Movies
Transcoding a movie file means changing the format of the file.

From the ANIMOIDS Media Player window you can select File, Export... to transcode your movie. I.e. save it as a new file in a different format.

You can change an AVI movie to a QuickTime movie, change the size of the picture or change the encoding format within the file.

The encoding support is most useful for AVI files. ANIMOIDS builds AVI files in raw (RGB) format - so they are very large. Transcoding the RGB AVI file to, say a MJPG file, can reduce the file size by 95%. (E.g. a 20 Mb file is reduced to about 1 Mb.)

The transcode dialog is very similar to the Make Movie dialog. It allows you to select the format of the new file.

One new feature is the Encoding option. You need to experiment to find out which options are supported by your PC. However CVID and MJPG are two compact, well supported options.

The type of transcoding you can perform is limited by the version of Java Media Framework (JMF) you have installed (and also by the capabilities of your PC). Select Help, Troubleshooting from the main Animoids menu then click on Video Playback for help in changing your version of JMF.

Some transcoding options require standard image sizes (or at least an image size that is a multiple of 8).

The default encoding for ANIMOIDS QuickTime Movies is JPEG. You should at least be able to change the frame size of your .mov files as long as you select JPEG encoding.

The default encoding for ANIMOIDS AVI Movies is RGB. You should be able to build smaller .avi files by selecting more efficient encoding. E.g. CVID, MJPG.

Setting a start or end time may sometimes cause the transcode to fail. (Leave these fields blank to transcode the entire movie.) Experiment to see what works for you.

Although AVI to QuickTime transcoding works, QuickTime to AVI does not appear to work with the currently available versions of JMF.

JMF - Java Media Framework for Mac OS X
Microsoft Windows version of ANIMOIDS are all shipped with a version of JMF. This section affects only some Mac users.

Mac users may need to use ANIMOIDS SmartUpdate to download the Java Media Framework before they can create a test movie. If you need this 2 Mb update you'll be prompted to load it when you try to make a movie.

      Important information for Mac OS X users only.

When you try to record a movie/gif you'll see the following if you do not have Java Media Framework installed:

If you see this dialog, click the Install Java Media Framework button to start a free download of JMF using ANIMOIDS SmartUpdate.

More
Go to the start of the Tutorial.

Try the Upload tutorial.