ftp.nice.ch/pub/next/graphics/movie/ToMPEG.0.8.README

This is the README for ToMPEG.0.8.NIH.bs.tar.gz [Download] [Browse] [Up]

AUTHOR: Robert F. Cahalan [cahalan@clouds.gsfc.nasa.gov]

CATEGORY: Utility

DESCRIPTION:
This program reads a sequence of files representing N frames in an animation sequence, translates each to PPM format, and then compresses the resulting sequence into a single MPEG movie file, using the "mpeg-encode" program available from 
ftp://mm-ftp.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/multimedia/mpeg/mpeg_encode-1.3.tar.Z

All frame files within the animation directory must have the same prefixname, and the extension of the frame files must be .framenumber, followed by lowercase .tiff.

The TIFF frame format may be replaced by PPM or YUV, as well as GIF or any of the formats supported by Jeff Poskanzer's public domain pbmplus package.  Any format NOT TIFF, PPM, YUV, or SPECIAL requires that you specify the search path to the pbmplus executable. Frame formats RAW and YUV contain no header information, and thus require that you provide the frame width and height, in that order, separated by "x" or "X".  Frame format RGB3 requires three PGM files for each frame, with extensions .framenumber followed by .r, .g, or .b, indicating red, green, or blue.  All other formats must follow the same naming convention as the NeXT "anim" format, i.e. "Name.*.type", where 
	Name	= 	name of the animation directory, 
	*  	=	integer framenumber, 
	type 	= 	lowercase Frame Format (tiff, gif, yuv, etc)
except for RGB3, as noted above.

Full source is included here, as well as a triple-fat binary.  I haven't used it
for any formats besides TIFF, so please let me know if you do.  Please either report
bugs to me, or better yet send me some improved code!

EXAMPLE USE: The "defaults" button assumes that the animation is in a NeXT-style "anim" bundle, for example "~/Library/Images/Movies/Globe.anim", holding 24-bit RGB TIFF files, possibly compressed by NeXT's LZW or JPEG algorithms, and in this example named "Globe.framenumber.tiff" where framenumber takes all integer values from 1 to 72 inclusive.  For this example, a 214 Kb animation gets compressed to a 22 Kb file,
giving a factor of 10 compression.  Of course, results vary with each case.  If you're using your own SPECIAL image format, consult the "Help".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Robert F. Cahalan              #  Laboratory for Atmospheres
cahalan@clouds.gsfc.nasa.gov   #  NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center
 *** NeXTMail accepted ***     #  Greenbelt, MD 20771
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.