Recording Alice output as video file

[Will Barrows]

To Alice developers:

Because of the number of avi and mov files on this site which are recordings of Alice sessions I thought the option to record the session was part of the program.

However, when I installed the program I found the option to save as a movie is not yet implemented :confused:

My interest in Alice is to use it to produce an animated cartoon series. Without this feature it is only of passing interest to me.

How did you do it?

||!/\/\

[Taunus]

I was able to get excellent recordings from Alice with hypercam. This is shareware, and you can get it for a trial period. Enjoy

[Will Barrows]

G'day mate,

After my original post, I did a search of Shareware.com for screen recorders, and tried River Past Screen Recorder, which dropped frames, and locked up.

Hypercam didn't appear in the search results, but I'll look it up.

||!/\/\

[Victoria Webb]

The movie recording feature in Alice has been disabled for some time now as the videos it produced tended to be excessively large. As it stands, the team is looking at 3rd party software and will post a faq on how to install and run it sometime soon.

For the more adventuresome, here's the run down. Alice doesn't use the buffer on your video card so frame recording programs like Fraps won't work. However screen recording programs of the type used to create demos of the windows environment will. There are many options and it all depends on how much you are willing to pay for such a program and what kind of watermark you are willing to settle for if you are using the demo version.

A couple of weeks back I did a survey of possible screen recording programs. Hypercam was one of the many I looked at. However I settled on a different option as the one the Alice team would recommend.

Bulent's Screen Recorder has an unlimited trial period with a minor watermark. The program costs a mere $17.99 for those who want to pay for the full version. There is also a shareware version of it for those who ar
e willing to do a little bit of digging.

When using any screen recording software, I recommend using a click-to-start screen in your Alice world to give you more control over when your movie begins. An example of click-to-start can be found in the "Snow Love" demo that ships with Alice. Although using a black billboard is easier then dimming and raising the environmental lights as "Snow Love" does.

To record your movie you'll want to:
1) Run Alice and open the world you wish to record.
2) Under Edit->Preferences, click on the rendering tab. Under "render window position and size:" you will see a box next to width and height. Put in a reasonable value for the size of the video to be played. The larger the video the bigger the file will be. If the values aren't taking then resize the run window manually.
3) Click play to run your Alice program.
4) Open your screen recording software (the rest of the instructions assumes you are using Bulent's Screen Recorder although the process is similar with all screen recording packages).
5) Click the Select Source button and click on the "A Window" option. A dialogue box will appear with instructions. Move your mouse cursor over the window your Alice world is running in and hit Enter or F4.
6) Click on the Configuration button. The screen recorder window will expand to include a new frame. This panel will control the quality of the recording and conversely affect the size of the file that is generated.
7) Click the Compression button to open up a new window. The default for is to use the Microsoft Video 1 codex at 80% quality. That looks pretty bad. I recommend bumping the quality up to 100%. Click OK.

Note: Codex are the software algorithms used to encode videos. Each codex has varying strengths and weaknesses as they deal with the encoding process in different ways. The idea is to maintain a certain level of quality at the smallest possible file size. Raw or uncompressed video is the highest quality but eats up a lot of file space. It's a good option if you are planning on bringing the video into another program for further editing as there is no data loss from the initial grab. However the video needs to be compressed before it can be shared. One thing to remember about codex is that not everybody has the same codex you do. If you want to share your work to the largest audience it is best to pick a common codex even if it is not the most efficient compression.

Now you are ready to record your Alice video.

8) Restart your Alice world (if it has been running) or click on it to start, and press the camcorder button. Right below the Select Source button is red text that tells you what the program is doing. Confirm that it is recording (if it isn't search through the options to figure out why it's not recording. It may be waiting for you to press a key).

9) When the world has finished playing click on the stop button and press the play button to see your video. If you are satisfied, click on the save button to save it to your hard drive.

Other screen recording programs include Hypercam, Camtasia, My Screen Recorder and Quick Screen recorder. Try them out and find one that's right for you.

The Alice team is still looking at options for a 3rd party Mac screen recording program. If you find any that work well for you, post about it and we'll go through them.

- Victoria Webb
Member of the Alice Team

[Will Barrows]

Thanks for that Victoria. Just one minor thing...
A Codex is an ancient manuscript.
A Codec is an [en]COder/DEcoder.
Both of them are of interest to me, as codexes (codi?) form part of the topic of the Anime I want to produce.

[Victoria Webb]

Thanks for the correction. You're right. My brain must of gotten all muzzy typing up that long post.

- Victoria

[usoppnut625]

Anime? SOmethign about anime? need a production partner?

[Jeremy]

However, when I installed the program I found the option to save as a movie is not yet implemented :confused:

My interest in Alice is to use it to produce an animated cartoon series. Without this feature it is only of passing interest to me.

How did you do it?


I've used Camtasia Studio (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp) (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp) to capture Alice playback and convert them into movies.

Studio does a decent job of converting it into flash. Though I have not tested, it will convert alice movies into about 10 other formats including quicktime.

The only problem is that you need to keep the screensize of your movie pretty small to prevent dropped frames if your movie is complicated.

[Fulkrum]

Sorry about the play with words but I am so severely frustrated with this movie capturing ordeal.

Thank you Victoria for your detailed answer. Unfortunately, I kept getting really low capture quality eg. worse clipping than the actual Alice movie and even worse sound synchro. I tried your suggested configurations at first. Then I tried fiddling with some of the options and taking the suggestion the programme gave when it told me that my capture quality was 0.9/10 ! Bad, yeah? Actually the best I got was 3.1/10 ! Bad, right?

I have a decent amount of music and sound, and also some quick movements in the 'movie' I'm trying to make.

Do I have any other options available? I'll be glad to try any other configurations you may suggest.

If you have the time, I'd appeciate the help.:)

[DickBaldwin]

A couple of weeks back I did a survey of possible screen recording programs. Hypercam was one of the many I looked at. However I settled on a different option as the one the Alice team would recommend.

Bulent's Screen Recorder has an unlimited trial period with a minor watermark. The program costs a mere $17.99 for those who want to pay for the full version. There is also a shareware version of it for those who ar
e willing to do a little bit of digging.

My thanks go out to Victoria Webb for publishing the information identifying and explaining how to Bulient's Screen Recorder.

I have found a great need for the ability to create movies of lab projects so that the students can view them on their own schedule. I have just completed my first attempt to do this. You can view the results at

http://www.dickbaldwin.com/alice/Alice0125.htm#Lab_project

The biggest problem that I encountered was synchronizing the playing of the world with the recording so as to avoid long awkward pauses at the beginning and the end of the movie. You must be quick with the mouse to accomplish that.

So, I went looking for some free software that can be used to trim the pauses from the beginning the end. I discovered that, although somewhat tedious, this can be done using Windows Movie Maker, which is in Accessories in WinXP.

I will probably use the combination of these two programs to produce movies showing the execution of all the lab projects for use in my Programming Fundamentals class this semester.

Dick Baldwin

[DrJim]

You can set up BSR to start and stop recording with a function key - forget the details but it's on the web site if not in the help. Really useful to avoid dead space in the recording. Another good option (which again I don't remember how to set up right now) is to turn the cursor arrow on and off.

Finally, the .avi files from Movie Maker can be a bit of a problem with some CODECs. .wmf files are safer - and if you use the Movie Maker optomizer, quite a bit smaller. (Looks like you may already have discovered this.)

[DickBaldwin]

Thanks DrJim,

I was aware that you can stop recording with the F6 key, but was not aware that you can also start recording with a function key. I will try that. It should help. (It may also be the F6 key.) I also wasn't aware of the Movie Maker optimizer. I will give that a try as well.

A procedure that seems to work pretty well is to insert some code at the beginning of the default startup method to:

1. Set the isShowing property of all objects to false in zero seconds duration.
2. wait for 2 (or more) seconds
3. Set the isShowing property of all objects to true in zero seconds duration.

Assuming that the sky is blue, this produces a blue screen lasting for two seconds when you play the world.

The procedure then is to:

1. Play the world and immediately click the Pause button on the world window while only the blue screen is showing.
2. Start the recorder.
3. When you hear the click from BSR indicating that recording has started, click the Resume button on the world window.

When you get to the end, press the F6 key.

This causes the movie to begin with an innocuous blue screen and the pause doesn't seem so objectionable.

All in all, I am pleased with this ability to create movies of Alice worlds in action. I don't need large high quality movies for my purposes. Small low-quality movies serve my needs and this approach works well for that. However, I don't know how well it would work if a larger high quality movie is needed.

Once again, thanks to Victoria Webb for her detailed information.

Dick Baldwin

[DrJim]

I don't know how well it would work if a larger high quality movie is needed.

I have found that BSR is basically WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), so basically if you go full screen mode on a high resolution display, the movie is quite good indeed. Also if you set Movie Maker to a high resolution mode and 24 or 30 fps (not an "optimum" setting), it extrapolates between capture frames to get the full frame rate there is essentially no flicker or other motion problem.

The main difficulty is you are now getting an additional large video file during screen capture and since Alice already has difficulty with large files, you can really degrade overall performance or crash the system. Sounds like you are doing the right thing to stay with relatively low quality.

By the way, Movie Maker (and the Mac equivalent) both have nice simple, drag and drop fades and other effects. If you are pushing Alice's memory limits, you can always add these and the sound in the movie editor.

[DickBaldwin]

For starters, I know almost nothing about CODECs. I barely know how to spell CODEC.

Over the weekend, I created four movies using BSR, saved them as wmv files, and posted them on my web site from home.

One of the four had an excessive amount of dead space at the beginning and the others were OK. In those three cases, I simply posted the wmv file produced by BSR.

I used Windows Movie Maker to get rid of the dead space on the other one, and wrote the output from Movie Maker as a wmv file. I posted that file on my web site, and it played just fine on my laptop from home.

However, when I came to the campus on Monday morning and attempted to play that same movie using both FireFox and IE (which in turn invoked Windows Media Player), I got a message about a missing CODEC. There was a link to download the CODEC which I clicked. However, then I got a message that it wasn't available on that site (which I believe was a MS site) and I should search the web using the name of the CODEC. (I don't remember now what the name of the CODEC was.)

The irony of all of this is that out of four movies created using BSR, the only one that caused me any problems using Windows Media Player running under WinXP was the one that I modified using Windows Movie Maker.

Anyway, I went back and made the movie again without using Movie Maker and posted it on my web site. I'm getting ready to go into the lab and see if it plays OK.

On well, this is just a typical first school day in the life of a college professor. Mr. Murphey seems to stand at the door shaking everyone's hand when they come to school on the first day of a new semester to remind them of his law.

Dick Baldwin

[DrJim]

For starters, I know almost nothing about CODECs.
Actually think you learned half the basic truths about CODECs - you will never have the one you need.
Truth number two - when you do finally get it installed, the first software upgrade will uninstall it.

Movie Maker will typically give you a choice of which CODEC you want to use to render the movie. Look on all your machines and pick the one that is most universal - I tend to pick Microsoft Video 1 or one of the Intel ones. If you do figure out a better way - please post it. If there isn't a common choice, you'll have to pick one, download it from the net and install it - really don't have a recommendation here, sorry.

Note: You might try playing it directly using Media Player (or Movie Maker)- it might be a browser setting that is wrong. Also Mac's tend to need a special converter for .wmf - so it might not be a CODEC problem at all if you are using a Mac, though I think you must be on a PC if you are using BSR and Movie Maker.

Note 2: Looked through my links for CODEC refernces. This is the best I found for .wmf and has a lot of other formats plus Mac and Linux sections - haven't personally tried anything but Media Player 10 which did play the video you uploaded.
http://www.afreecodec.com/win/226/windows-media-player-10/

[litomd]

Has anyone tryied to connect a VGA to TV converter device and then save that with a DVD recorder or even a VCR?

I know there are some fine converters that can generate a nice TV signal with the VGA or SVGA output.

Saving that output to a DVD will get the digital version.

The advantage is that the computer focus on generating the animation not on saving it to a video file, and the converter focus on saving it to video.

Regards,

Leonel

[DrJim]

Has anyone tryied to connect a VGA to TV converter device and then save that with a DVD recorder or even a VCR?
I've gone from the S-video output of my computer to a regular TV - never took the next step of recording but since the TV also has an analog video out, can't see that would be a problem.

If you have the capability, this might be a way to go - but I wouldn't buy hardware just for that. Also, my hardware (fairly old) didn't give a very good picture on the TV, but a more modern system might.

[PopnTheDeerInHumanForm]

:( Does Anybody Know any good FPS Settings for BSR?

[islandfever]

:confused: If I get the recorder for free, is the logo that is at the bottom of your screen recording big, or is it small and slightly opac? Just wondering because I don't have the "funds" for it. :D :)

[DickBaldwin]

Relatively small.

You can download and run a sample movie at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/alice/Alice0125.htm#Downloads

PS: This sample movie was purposely made small to keep the file size small. When you play it, be sure to play it at its actual size. Don't enlarge it. If you do, the quality will be poor.

[islandfever]

Relatively small.

You can download and run a sample movie at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/alice/Alice0125.htm#Downloads

PS: This sample movie was purposely made small to keep the file size small. When you play it, be sure to play it at its actual size. Don't enlarge it. If you do, the quality will be poor.

Thanks! That really cleared that up! :D

PS Do you have 98 or is that XP with that format? :eek: Just wondering.

[DickBaldwin]

XP professional edition

[islandfever]

aw man mines "home" edition...

[DickBaldwin]

I doubt that you will notice any difference between the Home edition and the Professional edition related to the use of Alice or the generation of videos of Alice worlds. The main differences that I have identified have to do with very advanced OS characteristics, such as local area networking security.

[DickBaldwin]

:( Does Anybody Know any good FPS Settings for BSR?

Here is a partial quotation from the excellent textbook titled Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java, A Multimedia Approach:

"Early silent pictures were 16 fps. Motion pictures standardized on 24 fps to make sound smoother. ... Digital video (e.g., video cameras) capture at 30 fps. ... Video game players say that they can discern a difference between 30fps video and 60 fps video."

So, take your choice. Just remember that the higher the frame rate, the larger will be the video file and the more computational stress will be placed on your computer while you are concurrently playing your Alice world and capturing video. My HP laptop has a hard time accomplishing both tasks reliably even at low frame rates.

Dick Baldwin

[DrJim]

The whole video frame rate subject would be a great subject for a new one of Dick's tutorials - to cover the subject even moderately well would take something of that length.

In addition to the caution that higher frame rates will really stress your hardware, one other thing to be aware of is that, regardless of the frame rate they operates at, BSR, Camtasia, etc. are "screen capture" programs - and do just that. You can get very interesting (or strange :p ) effects from the difference between the display frame rate and the capture rate. My best advice here is to experiment before you try to "screen capture" a video you really want to keep in a high quality version.

[DickBaldwin]

... You can get very interesting (or strange :p ) effects from the difference between the display frame rate and the capture rate. ...

Case in point, remember how the wheels on the stagecoaches on the old cowboy movies used to look like they were turning backwards. With a little effort, you could probably create a similar effect using the fan or the airplane propellor in the Alice gallery by carefully adjusting the rotational speed of the fan or the prop relative to the frame rate. Of course, here we have even a third parameter to deal with, which is the scan rate on the screen.

Dick Baldwin

[ChyTheTasmanianTiger]

Here is a partial quotation from the excellent textbook titled Introduction to Computing and Programming with Java, A Multimedia Approach:

"Early silent pictures were 16 fps. Motion pictures standardized on 24 fps to make sound smoother. ... Digital video (e.g., video cameras) capture at 30 fps. ... Video game players say that they can discern a difference between 30fps video and 60 fps video."

So, take your choice. Just remember that the higher the frame rate, the larger will be the video file and the more computational stress will be placed on your computer while you are concurrently playing your Alice world and capturing video. My HP laptop has a hard time accomplishing both tasks reliably even at low frame rates.

Dick Baldwin

Well actually I've found ZD Soft Game Recorder is one of the few that can record alice

[DickBaldwin]

Well actually I've found ZD Soft Game Recorder is one of the few that can record alice

The web page at http://www.zdsoft.com/game-recorder/ shows a price of $39 but also has a free download button. What is the difference between the free version and the version that costs $39?

[DrJim]

With a little effort, you could probably create a similar effect using the fan or the airplane propellor in the Alice gallery by carefully adjusting the rotational speed of the fan or the prop relative to the frame rate.

Very true - hence this quote

"And DrJim my high rotation is set to 4 rps and it actually distorts the blades and makes it look like they are turn backwards as a real fan would."

from the thread
http://www.alice.org/community/showthread.php?t=476&highlight=speed

The fan problem discussed is from one of the texts (I think Dunn, et al). It's sort of fun to watch the visual effects when you add a control to smoothly adjust the fan's speed.

[ChyTheTasmanianTiger]

The web page at http://www.zdsoft.com/game-recorder/ shows a price of $39 but also has a free download button. What is the difference between the free version and the version that costs $39?

I think the free one has a limit of 30 seconds to a minute :confused:

[watti]

Hi. I am a rank newbie but I have found a program which will record the avi's and swf of Alice productions.

Here is an example of the demo:

http://video.tinypic.com/player.php?v=29nyxe0&s=2

Note there is not sound, I am still working on this. But the software si free and does a passable job making an avi.

The program is http://camstudio.org/ and there is instructions for downloading on the site.

I hope this helps.

[DrJim]

A friend of mine also just recommended CamStudio to me - said he had better results with it that with BSR. I haven't used it personally :o but plan on trying it. Do believe, at least from the notes, that you can get sound and it has a lot of potential in other areas, not the least being that the source code is available.

I suggest you read the notes and even the blog about the program if you are trying to use it - the 2.5 version especially looks like it is truely Beta software, with all the "fun" that implies. (Also notice the oddity that 2.0 is actually a later release than 2.1.)

Will post some updates as I learn more.

[autoteck]

I know this is a old post but I've had this question put to me reciently. You can see alice in action here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t7Ow5Et6hU


or here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9NeLFnS-bk