[Chimera-users] Chimera-users Digest, Vol 54, Issue 16

[Jonathan Hilmer]

Regarding Chimera movies in PowerPoint:

I'm not sure exactly what the end result is like on a Mac, but using a
standard Windows setup, PowerPoint will degrade the quality of any
movie that you just drop into it.  I haven't investigated exactly why
this occurs, but it is noticeable.  I was able to restore the full
quality by embedding a Windows Media Player object into the PowerPoint
file, with VB code that loads the movie of interest by default.

This might not be an option for a Mac, but perhaps someone else might
find it useful: I can give details on the method if anyone would like.
 As a useful secondary effect, by using an absolute pointer to the
movie file rather than an embedded (and relative) link to the
directory and file as PowerPoint usually stores, you can place movies
in a central repository via http server: this makes it possible to
have smaller, more mobile PowerPoint files that don't require a full
copy of every included embedded movie.

Regarding the quality of output from Chimera, it is possible to
composite movies from individual frames.  It's not a simple method,
but it does remove all limitations on resolution, sampling, etc, and
simplifies post-processing as well.  One example of a Chimera-produced
movie that might not have been possible another way can be found on
our server (11MB, mpeg-4):
ftp://guest@dratz2.chemistry.montana.edu/capsid_visuals/movies/non-capsid/20060401_both_02.zip

Jonathan



> Hi
>
> We have just installed Chimera on a MacPro running OS X 10.4.    I would
> like to be able to record simple movies of rotating peptides for use in
> PowerPoint ( 2003) presentations.
>
> I  have been able to record and insert the avi format into PowerPoint
> and the movie does play correctly.  But I am noticing a considerable
> loss in resolution as compared to the original molecule in Chimera.
>
> Is there some adjustment I should be making in Movie Recorder to improve
> the image resolution?
>
> Should I be running POV-Ray on these files?
>
> Thanks for any suggestions.
>
>
> Gene
>
> (Eugene Coats)