How do i create a movie from a set of images using qtj and java?

Question

I have a set of images i want to add one after another and create a movie. I will be using Quicktime for java for this(I'm on a mac).

I searched the web i have found lots of examples that show how to play movies using qtj, but i can't find any code snippets or tutorials showing how i can create a movie frame by frame using qtj?

Answer 1

I've done this through QTJ with the MovieMaker class from processing libraries (GPL). Processing is pure java, though it can hide it for beginners.

Small tutorial: Download Processing, open it, go to Sketch -> Show Sketch Folder, create a folder called "data", and put all your images inside that folder, named "filename01.gif" through "filename09.gif". Paste the following code into the editor, and hit play:

/**
 * Makes a QuickTime movie out of an array of images.
 */

import processing.video.*;

MovieMaker mm;
PImage[] imageFrames;
int index;

void setup() {
  size(320, 240);
  int numFrames = 9;
  imageFrames = new PImage[numFrames];
  for( int i = 0; i < imageFrames.length; i++ )
  {
    imageFrames[i] = loadImage( "filename" + nf(i+1,2) + ".gif" );
  }
  // Save uncompressed, at 15 frames per second
  mm = new MovieMaker(this, width, height, "drawing.mov");
  // Or, set specific compression and frame rate options
  //mm = new MovieMaker(this, width, height, "drawing.mov", 30, 
  //                    MovieMaker.ANIMATION, MovieMaker.HIGH);
}

void draw() {
  if( index < imageFrames.length )
  {
    // show the image
    image( imageFrames[index], 0, 0 );
    // Add window's pixels to movie
    mm.addFrame();
    index++;
  }
  else
  {
    mm.finish();
    // Quit running the sketch once the file is written
    exit();    
  }
}

This will create a file "drawing.mov" from your images in the sketch folder. If you go to file --> export application, and then open the sketch folder and navigate to the folder application.macosx/source or application.windows/source, there should be a .java file that has the actual code, which should look like this:

import processing.core.*; 
import processing.xml.*; 

import processing.video.*; 

import java.applet.*; 
import java.awt.*; 
import java.awt.image.*; 
import java.awt.event.*; 
import java.io.*; 
import java.net.*; 
import java.text.*; 
import java.util.*; 
import java.util.zip.*; 
import java.util.regex.*; 

public class movie2 extends PApplet {

/**
 * Makes a QuickTime movie out of an array of images.
 */



MovieMaker mm;
PImage[] imageFrames;
int index;

public void setup() {
  size(320, 240);
  int numFrames = 9;
  imageFrames = new PImage[numFrames];
  for( int i = 0; i < imageFrames.length; i++ )
  {
    imageFrames[i] = loadImage( "filename" + nf(i+1,2) + ".gif" );
  }
  // Save uncompressed, at 15 frames per second
  mm = new MovieMaker(this, width, height, "drawing.mov");
  // Or, set specific compression and frame rate options
  //mm = new MovieMaker(this, width, height, "drawing.mov", 30, 
  //                    MovieMaker.ANIMATION, MovieMaker.HIGH);
}

public void draw() {
  if( index < imageFrames.length )
  {
    // show the image
    image( imageFrames[index], 0, 0 );
    // Add window's pixels to movie
    mm.addFrame();
    index++;
  }
  else
  {
    mm.finish();
    // Quit running the sketch once the file is written
    //exit();    
    println( "done" );
  }
}

  static public void main(String args[]) {
    PApplet.main(new String[] { "--bgcolor=#e0dfe3", "movie2" });
  }
}

To use pure java, you'll need to use core.jar and video.jar from the processing application folder on your classpath, and then compile this java code. Here's a function reference and a javadoc for the processing library. Here are the javadocs for the MovieMaker class. If you want, you can see the source to the MovieMaker class.

HTH