VMD-L Mailing List

From: Samir Unni (srunni_at_gmail.com)
Date: Mon Jul 21 2008 - 07:57:59 CDT

Hi,

Sorry I'm so late in getting back to you. Anyway, that code doesn't work on
the Mac either. It just briefly opens the video (for one frame, I think) and
then closes. I'm using the 1.8.6 version of VMD—is that the one you're
using?

Thanks,

Samir

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 10:19 PM, Samir Unni <srunni_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I tried that, but it didn't work for me. When I attempted to play the video
> file with MPlayer, the window appeared for a second and then disappeared,
> just like before. I think only one frame is being recorded.
>
> Right now I'm trying this on my Linux machine at home, but I'll try it
> again on the Mac at work tomorrow morning and see if it works there.
> However, this was the exact same problem I was previously having on the Mac,
> so I don't think it will. If it's working for you, it might have something
> to do with the state file I'm using, which I created by importing the DX
> output file from APBS into VMD.
>
> I had meant to attached the modified version of vmdmovie.tcl to the last
> email; it's attached now, if you want to take a look.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Samir
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 9:56 PM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi,
>> I'm not sure how you changed your copy of the vmdmovie.tcl file,
>> but I'd ask that before we delve any further, that you first try the
>> original vmdmovie plugin and the command I emailed earlier. If that
>> works for you, then we can proceed with debugging whatever has been
>> changed in your modified version. Starting with your modified version
>> is likely to add more confusion so I'd rather leave that for a second
>> step. Please try the example sequence I sent earlier and let me know
>> if that works with the unmodified script on your system, or not.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> John Stone
>> vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 09:18:24PM -0500, Samir Unni wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > That character resulted from an issue with the email formatting; it was
>> not
>> > actually part of the command that I used. The command I used was:
>> >
>> > ::MovieMaker::makemovie /Users/srunni/dev/vmd_tests/1fas 1fas ppmtompeg
>> > snapshot 10
>> >
>> > Also, I sent an update a few hours after my initial email, but it seems
>> not
>> > to have made it onto the mailing list. I will repost it here:
>> >
>> > --------------------
>> > I've got a small update. I slightly changed vmdmovie.tcl, so that the
>> > framerate can be passed to the 'makemovie' method. When I did this,
>> defined
>> > 'framerate' as the extra variable being passed now, and defined
>> 'numframes'
>> > as the product of the framerate and the duration, a working movie was
>> > created. Though it would seem that only 2 of these 3 variables need to
>> be
>> > defined for the program to be able to determine the 3rd, when I
>> eliminated
>> > any one of them, the movie was not generated correctly. I have attached
>> the
>> > working version of vmdmovie.tcl, if anyone wants to look at it.
>> >
>> > I would still like to know if there is a way to generate a movie from
>> the
>> > command line without modifying any files that are a part of VMD, if
>> > possible.
>> > --------------------
>> >
>> > I still have not found a workaround for this issue. The command I am
>> using
>> > now is:
>> >
>> > ::MovieMaker::makemovie /Users/srunni/dev/vmd_tests/1fas 1fas ppmtompeg
>> > tachyon 5 40
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> >
>> > Samir Unni
>> >
>> >
>> > On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 5:02 PM, John Stone <johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu> wrote:
>> >
>> > >
>> > > Hi,
>> > > The ">" character you have in your example below shouldn't be there,
>> > > that would cause some trouble for sure.
>> > >
>> > > Here's a proper example command sequence to make a movie from text
>> mode:
>> > > package require vmdmovie
>> > > mkdir /tmp/mytmpdir
>> > > ::MovieMaker::makemovie /tmp/mytmpdir example ppmtompeg snapshot 10
>> > >
>> > > This worked fine for me.
>> > >
>> > > Try that and let me know how it goes.
>> > >
>> > > Cheers,
>> > > John Stone
>> > > vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu
>> > >
>> > > On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 09:32:37AM -0500, Samir Unni wrote:
>> > > > Hi,
>> > > >
>> > > > I'm trying to create a Tcl script that will use output from APBS to
>> > > create a
>> > > > video file, with no user interaction. So far, I have managed to
>> manually
>> > > > create a state file, to which I can then add a few lines of code for
>> the
>> > > > Movie Plugin, to automatically generate the video file and then exit
>> VMD.
>> > > > However, I can't seem to get VMD to properly generate the video file
>> when
>> > > I
>> > > > use the script. It creates a file, but it doesn't seem to contain
>> any
>> > > actual
>> > > > data (it's only about 20 KB), and doesn't play correctly when I open
>> it
>> > > with
>> > > > MPlayer. This is the line of code that seems to be the problem:
>> > > >
>> > > > ::MovieMaker::makemovie /Users/srunni/dev/vmd_tests/1fas 1fas
>> ppmtompeg
>> > > > > snapshot 10
>> > > >
>> > > >
>> > > > When I load this exact same state file, but with that line removed,
>> and
>> > > > manually use the Movie Plugin, there are no problems. I figured out
>> the
>> > > > syntax for the above code by taking a look at vmdmovie.tcl, and
>> imitating
>> > > > the calls made when the Movie Plugin is launched from the GUI. As
>> far as
>> > > I
>> > > > can tell, I have made no mistakes in the syntax. Does anyone know
>> why
>> > > this
>> > > > isn't working correctly?
>> > > >
>> > > > Thanks,
>> > > >
>> > > > Samir Unni
>> > >
>> > > --
>> > > NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
>> > > Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
>> > > University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
>> > > Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
>> > > WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/><
>> http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/%7Ejohns/>
>> > > Fax: 217-244-6078
>> > >
>>
>> --
>> NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
>> Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
>> University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
>> Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu Phone: 217-244-3349
>> WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/ <http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/%7Ejohns/>
>> Fax: 217-244-6078
>>
>
>