Diamond Version 5 User Manual: Printing, copying, and exporting structure pictures

Creating video sequences and image series

This article in brief:
- Video sequences can be recorded to create AVI video files or a series of single images. The commands are available from the Tools/Video Sequence sub-menu.
- The Tools/Take Image command adds single images, e.g. as additional frames to a recording video sequence, or to generate a video later using Tools/Save Images...
- How to skip unwanted frames in your video sequence.

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Recording a video sequence

This describes how to start a video recorder and create the frames for a video sequence step by step whenever the structure picture changes.

The commands to start recording a video sequence as well as to pause and to stop (finish recording) it, are in the Video Sequence sub-menu of the Tools menu. There is also a Start Recording button at the end of the main toolbar with a dropdown menu for the Pause and Stop commands:

The procedure of recording a video sequence in Diamond is rather similar to recording some radio program on your tape deck or to creating a cartoon. In general, it works as follows:

1. The first thing you have to do is of course to decide what you would like to show in your video sequence. You should precisely define which pictures shall be included in the video sequence, and in which order.
2. When you are ready to go, create the first picture.
3. Afterwards, start the recording. Diamond will now add a picture to the video sequence each time it redraws the structure picture. Note: The Start Recording toolbar button changes to Pause Recording while a video sequence recording is running.
4. Modify your picture step by step while Diamond is recording.
5. If you would like to perform some intermediate drawing steps without recording, please press the Pause button, and Continue, rsp., when you would like Diamond to continue recording.
6. Once your final picture has been created, stop the recording by using a Stop command or double-clicking the Pause button. This will bring up a dialog in which you can define things like speed (frames per second), quality, and especially the filename to which you would like to save your video sequence to.
7. The video sequence file will be a so-called ”AVI-file” which can easily be viewed using e.g. the Windows Media Player or imported as a ”film” into Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

You find an example how to record a video sequence in part B (Advanced examples) of the Diamond Tutorial handbook (e.g. available through the Help menu): Creating video sequences.

When all pictures have been recorded, you can stop the recording mode, either by selecting the Stop command in the Tools/Video Sequence submenu, or by double-clicking the Pause Recording toolbar button. The Save Video Sequence dialog will be displayed where you have to select what to do with the sequence of structure pictures you have recorded:

You can either create an AVI-file which can directly be imported e.g. into PowerPoint, or create a series of individual graphic files in some directory which can be imported in typical video creation software like Ulead GIF animator or similar products.

Note: There is more information about the compression handlers and the Preview utility in the above mentioned tutorial sample as well as via the F1 help key in the dialog.

Creating a video sequence from selected picture thumbnails

This describes how to create a video of N frames from N selected structure picture thumbnails rather than changing a single structure picture step by step.

The Create from Pictures command from the Tools/Video Sequence sub-menu creates a video sequence from two or more selected structure pictures. To run this command, you must be in the Picture Thumbnails View, while the command is not available when you are in the regular Picture Edit View, cf. the article "Picture Edit View and Thumbnails Preview". The command is disabled unless at least two thumbnail pictures have been selected.

On execution this command first creates temporary bitmaps from the selected pictures, then opens the Save Video Sequence dialog (see above), where you can define frame rate and target directory.

Taking single images

Besides collecting frames for a video sequence by starting and stopping (or pausing) a video recorder, you have the choice to record single images either as frames for a video sequence or for a series of single image files.

The Take Image command in the Tools menu adds a single 2D image (photo) of the current structure picture to the image buffer (if you are in Picture Edit view) or N photos of the N currently selected thumbnail pictures (when you are in Thumbnails Preview). The image buffer is the buffer where the frames for a video sequence are buffered.

The Take Image command can be used to drop additional images into the image buffer while a video sequence is recorded and the video recording is pausing. (Images cannot be added while the video recording is running.)

It can also be used to create the frames for a video sequence manually or just a series of images to be saved later as a series of image files.

The Save Images command in the Tools menu creates either a series of 2D image files or one AVI file using these images as frames.

Frame selection in video sequence creation

The "Save Video Sequence" dialog, which comes up when you finalize recording a sequence of structure pictures with the "Tools/Video Sequence/Stop" command, now offers to edit the recorded pictures, i.e. the frames before saving them as a series of image files or compile them into an AVI video file.

Before you create a video from a sequence of bitmap files that Diamond has stored during a pair of "Start" and "Stop" commands ("Tools/Video Sequence" submenu), you have the chance to skip unwanted pictures ("frames") from being included in the video file (or in the series of image files, rsp.). The de-selection of unwanted frames is done in the new "Choose Frames" dialog.

Every recorded structure picture image is represented as a thumbnail. (You can change the thumbnail size with the "Size" control in the bottom left of the dialog window.) To prevent an image from becoming a frame in the video or part of the image series, rsp., clear the corresponding checkmark.

Previous article: Saving the Structure Picture as 2D Image File
Next article: Exporting 3D structure picture data

[1] COD: 9000684. Hazen, R. M.; Finger, L. W.; "Crystal structure and compressibility of zircon at high pressure crystal No. 1, 1 atm - before P"; American Mineralogist, 64, 196-201 (1979)