From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Fri Mar 11 2011 - 10:31:21 CST

Jun,
  Jacob is referring to the "snapshot" rendering mode that is built into
VMD. VMD can eiether capture images from its own OpenGL window and use those
to make the movies ("snapshot" mode), or you can use high quality ray tracing
packages like Tachyon, POV-Ray, and others to make the movies, by selecting
the rendering mode in the graphical interface for the VMD Movie plugin.

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 03:36:49PM +0000, Jun Cheng wrote:
> Thanks, Jacob.
> I have ppmtompg installed. But I only know how to take screenshot,
> haven't heard of recording a video on screen. Is screencapture a
> software being able to do this?
> Cheers,
> Jun
>
> On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 3:20 PM, Goldsmith, Jacob <jgoldsmith_at_uky.edu> wrote:
> > I use Linux to make movies in VMD.  Generally I use screencapture and ppmtompg (might need to download this plug-in).  See if that works.
> >
> > -Jacob
> > ________________________________________
> > From: owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu [owner-vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu] On Behalf Of Axel Kohlmeyer [akohlmey_at_gmail.com]
> > Sent: Friday, March 11, 2011 6:58 AM
> > To: Jun Cheng
> > Cc: vmd-l_at_ks.uiuc.edu
> > Subject: Re: vmd-l: problem on making a movie
> >
> > On Fri, Mar 11, 2011 at 5:42 AM, Jun Cheng <chengjunw_at_gmail.com> wrote:
> >> Hi all,
> >> I am trying to use vmd movie generator to make a movie to visualize a
> >> MD trajectory. I have tried different renderers without success so
> >> far.
> >> I first used snapshot, and got garbled .ppm images, probably because
> >> of the problem Linux OpenGL video drivers (My OS is ubuntu), as
> >> explained in the vmdmovie webpage.
> >> Then, I installed povray, and ended up with the error: Parse error:
> >> degenerate cylinder, base point = apex point, which is apparently a
> >> very old problem after digging in the mailing list. This leaves me the
> >> only hope, tachyon. I do get a movie at the end after a long wait.
> >> However, the bond length labels (I intend to monitor the bond lengths
> >> changing along the MD run) are mysteriously missing.
> >> Can anyone help me here? Many thanks in advance
> >
> > try the latest VMD 1.9 beta instead.
> >
> > axel
> >
> >> Jun
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Dr. Axel Kohlmeyer
> > akohlmey_at_gmail.com  http://goo.gl/1wk0
> >
> > Institute for Computational Molecular Science
> > Temple University, Philadelphia PA, USA.
> >
> >

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