You can make movies in Matlab using avifile and related Matlab commands. The basics of this are

aviobj = avifile(filename, 'fps', fps);
for n=1:N; 
  ...make a plot...
  fr = getframe(gcf);
  aviobj = addframe(aviobj, fr);
end
aviobj = aviobj(close)

See makemovie.m in the channelflow distribution for a complete example.

On Linux Matlab produces only uncompressed AVI files. These can be huge (gigabytes). You can compress the AVIs and convert to other formats using mencoder (a command-line utility that usually is installed as part of the Mplayer package.

To compress and save as AVI, run

  mencoder -nosound -ovc lavc -of avi -lavcopts vcodec=wmv2:vbitrate=1600 input.avi -o output.avi

To compress and save as FLV (flash video), run

  mencoder -nosound -of lavf -lavfopts format=flv -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vmax_b_frames=0:vbitrate=1600 input.avi -o output.flv

You will probably need to adjust the bitrate (here 1600) to get a good balance of file size and video quality. For convenience you can turn these commands into shell functions by placing the following in a bash start-up file (probably either ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_aliases).

 function avicompress() {
   mencoder -nosound -ovc lavc -of avi -lavcopts vcodec=wmv2:vbitrate=$1 $2 -o $3
 }
 function flvcompress() {
   mencoder -nosound -of lavf -lavfopts format=flv -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=flv:vmax_b_frames=0:vbitrate=$1 $2 -o $3
 }

which can then be run as follows

 avicompress 1600 input.avi output.avi
 flvcompress 1600 input.avi output.flv   

I used to be able to convert to Quicktime and MP4 using these scripts, but mp4creator is now unsupported and it no longer compiles.

function mp4compress() {
  mencoder $2 -ovc x264 -x264encopts bitrate=$1 -nosound -o tmp.avi
  mplayer -nolirc -nojoystick tmp.avi -dumpvideo -dumpfile tmp.h264
  rm -f $3
  mp4creator -create=tmp.h264 -rate=10 $3
  rm tmp.h264 tmp.avi
  mp4creator -hint=1 $3
  mp4creator -optimize $3
  mp4creator -list $3
}
function movcompress() {
  mencoder -nosound -ovc x264 $1 -o tmp.avi
  mplayer tmp.avi -dumpvideo -dumpfile tmp.h264
  mp4creator -create=tmp.h264 -rate=29.97 tmp.mp4
  mp4creator -hint=1 tmp.mp4
  mp4creator -optimize tmp.mp4
  mencoder -nosound -ovc copy -of lavf -o $2 tmp.mp4 -lavfopts i_certify_that_my_video_stream_does_not_use_b_frames
}
function mp2compress() {
  ffmpeg -i $2 -vcodec mpeg2video -b ${1}k  $3 
}
function mp1compress() {
  ffmpeg -i $2 -vcodec mpeg1video -b ${1}k  $3 
}

Please make all videos and images in standard sizes and colors. This makes it much easier to display them in web tutorials etc. –Predrag

• Create a flash video file NameFile.flv and a NameFile.png image of the same size
  • for 3D video of a plane Couette solution use 400 x 300 pixels
  • for a dual view state space/3D fluid use 720 x 300 pixels
  • NameFile:
    • for periodic orbits NameFile.flv = P35p77.flv if the period is T=35.77
    • for equilibria follow Halcrow et al papers, as in channelflow.org database
    • if you are replotting the same solution, DO NOT give it a new name (dokuwiki has old versions saved)
  • color: use white background
  • framing: please crop movies so they have as little dead area along the edges as possible

• pre-publication quality images
  • for pdflaTeX: NameFile.png (not NameFile.jpg, etc.) 800 x ??? pixels (fixed width, not sure 800 is optimal…)
  • for laTeX (inclusion in ChaosBook.org, etc): NameFile.eps not larger thank 60KB, preferably 5-10KB

To convert a PNG figure to the pixel size you prefer, use the ImageMagick convert command. For example,

convert -resize 400x300 bigfig.png justright.png

converts the 560×420 pixel figure bigfig.png to a 400×300 pixel figure justright.png.