scratch that - their info site talks about the copyright - it's public domain, so it would seem that since these images are gov't source they are public domain.

Dave

First, I'm glad you checked before accusing me of copyright infringements. You just happen to be dealing with someone who goes against the grain of many people on the Net. I'm ethic compulsive. I don't even steal animated gifs for my website. :)

Second, I have a Pentium D dual core, 2 Gb. 4200 DDRM2, 2 extra pagefiles, etc. That's not the issue, it's a fps one. You can have all the power you want, but most (affordable) Screen capture apps do a lousy job since most do under 10 fps.

then perhaps you've already answered your question right there, Camtasia does a good job of screen capping, and I've spent a good long while searching their support forums for info on how to remove the loading tiles (that seems to be what they were calling them) and I can't seem to find anyone giving any answer (or asking the question for that matter).

As for the copyrights, make sure that the plugins/images that are being accessed for your work are ones that are under the public domain list - they said that those are but those that aren't are not under the public domain list and are subject to copyright infringement.

Dave

That said...

I just tried out a little kind of funky looking program called CaptureWizPro which only recorded at 8.7 fps, and once I rendered it to uncompressed .avi in Vegas, it looked a bit smoother.

The problem is source material -- apps like WW and Celestia can create granulated artifacts which look "shimmery" in certain areas of the image. There are probably tricks and tips of which I am totally unaware.

That's why I'm asking those who've had direct experience, perhaps even professionally in converting catpures from these apps. They would know how to reduce/eliminate such artifacts.

While not a total newbie at NLEs, I'm still learning how to use Vegas for I only got it a few months ago.

game players use FRAPS for screen video capture. If it can do Doom 3 then I'm sure it can do what you want. :)

I just made a movie of the demo script & it rendered flawlessly. 720x480, 29.97fps, uncompressed AVI. I then did the same thing with me moving aorund the solar system, worked perfectly. making a .cel file might be the best bet for ya.

What kind of animation do you need? Perhaps if you give an example of an exact shot someone could try to make the same shot.

You've got a better PC then me & I had no problems capturing. The key seems to be to use uncompressed though, i go best results with that (I also recorded to a dedicated video drive).

I believe you might even be able to get what you need from NASA in a format that can be loaded into a 3D app. You could then render out as an image sequence, might be more work than it's worth though.

I've worked on an intro for a local observatory that runs a 3D theatre that takes you on a tour through the universe and it's interactive, very impressive use of 3D.

Thanks for replies (and hi, again, TheHappyFriar -- the guy who turned me on to Celestia in the first place :) Fraps sounded familiar, recognized the homepage and it was one of the apps to consider.

As far as I have found so far, freeware versions of this kind of app just don't have the right fps, so I'll have to go shareware. I'll try Fraps. But I'm going to hit Tucows and others to look around a bit more. I never buy without doing (at times overkill) research to get best bang for buck or dinar or yen :)

Hasta la later.

TheHappyFriar,

You said, "What kind of animation do you need? Perhaps if you give an example of an exact shot someone could try to make the same shot."

I'm assuming your referring to Celestia.

Well, I'm still trying to figure out how to install extra texture maps (night, clouds, etc.) so I've paused on using Celestia for now pending my posted questions at the Celestia BBS board.

So I'm experimenting with WorldWind -- also since one of the developers at Celestia suggested that it may be better for one particular set of sequences (cities and surroundings details) that I wish to make. So let me use that kind of shot for example purposes. Hopefully you're familiar with WW.

Here is one thing I did:

--- I go to Mumbai, India (WW coordinates: worldwind://goto/world=Earth&lat=18.89687&lon=72.87717&alt=46774&dir=-65.9&tilt=46.6 (Using the measuring tool provided, measured diagonally corner to corner of the window, we're looking at a range of about 150 Kilometers.)

--- Then I tilt it enough to give it slightly more of a 3D/perspective feel and do a slow circular "flyover"* using the mouse to adjust the view in lower altitude or whatever it takes to try to avoid different colored tiles. This type of circular motion is done by dragging the cursor across the bottom of the screen horizontally.

* (With WW, the most smooth result is achieved having "Planetary Inertia" and "Motion Momentum" -- which it results in a perpetual motion once one releases the mouse).

In essence, the camera is watching the terrain slowly revolve below respecting the chosen perspective. Then, one captures in .avi.

As stated above, the only problem is that there is some pixel shimmer in the busier parts of the terrain in what WW shows (probably Celestia in certain ways also) which no capture, whatever the fps can fix.

Now, regarding what you did that seemed to work: My guess is that this pixelation wouldn't occur or be minimal in capturing the Celestia intro demo or space flight sequences since most images are not as detailed -- and that there is much of the screen that is black outer space real estate.

It's them thar trees and hills and Earth stuff that gets pixel warped...

Again, I wish this board provided image inclusion or even a way to put up a 3 second .avi or .wmv so I could show you what I mean.

And the saga continues...