Animation Recording

The Simulink^® 3D Animation™ software enables you to record animations of virtual scenes that the Simulink or MATLAB^® product controls. You can record simulations through either the Simulink 3D Animation Viewer (described in Simulink 3D Animation Viewer) or the MATLAB interface. You can then play back these animations offline, in other words, independent of the MATLAB, Simulink, or Simulink 3D Animation products. You can generate such files for presentations, to distribute simulation results, or to generate archives.

Note

If you are working with virtual scenes controlled from MATLAB, you can record virtual scenes through the MATLAB interface. Optimally, use the Simulink 3D Animation Viewer to record animations of virtual worlds associated with Simulink models. This method ensures that all necessary virtual world and vrfigure properties are properly set to record simulations. For details, see Record Offline Animations.

Recording Formats

You can save the virtual world offline animation data in the following formats:

• 3-D virtual world file — The Simulink 3D Animation software traces object movements and saves that data into a virtual world 3D file using VRML97 standard interpolators. You can then view these files with the Simulink 3D Animation Viewer. 3-D VRML files typically use much less disk space than Audio Video Interleave (AVI) files. If you make any navigation movements in the Simulink 3D Animation Viewer while recording the animation, the Simulink 3D Animation software does not save any of these movements.

  Note

  If you distribute virtual world 3D animation files, be sure to distribute all the inlined object and texture files referenced in the original virtual world 3D world file.

• 2-D Audio Video Interleave (AVI) file — The Simulink 3D Animation software writes animation data into an .avi file. The Simulink 3D Animation software uses vrfigure objects to record 2-D animation files. The recorded 2-D animation reflects exactly what you see in the viewer window. It includes any navigation movements you make during the recording.

  Note

  While recording 2-D .avi animation data, always ensure that the Simulink 3D Animation Viewer is the topmost window and fully visible. Graphics acceleration limitations can prevent the proper recording of 2-D animation otherwise.

Manual and Scheduled Animation Recording

You can use MATLAB to either manually record an animation or schedule a preset time interval for recording. For details, see:

• Manual 3-D Recording with MATLAB

• Manual 2-D AVI Recording with MATLAB

• Scheduled 3-D Recording with MATLAB

• Scheduled 2-D AVI Recording with MATLAB