Creating a Movie from Volume View

Creating a Movie Step by Step
Special Options
Effects palette

The following procedure expects that you are using the Standard engine for rendering volumetric data, this is default. If you, for some reason, have switched the renderer to the Compatibility engine, a simplified movie maker will appear - the same used for EDF Surface View. See Creating a Movie from EDF Surface View .

Creating a Movie Step by Step

Display the current volumetric data set (an ND file containing a Z dimension) using the View > Image > ND View > Volume View command and click on the Show Movie Maker icon.
Rotate and zoom your image to find an initial position of the video. Then click on the Add Key frame button.
Modify your image position and add another key frame. Repeat this procedure until your desired movie sequence is finished.
Tip
Apart from positioning of the current scene, other components can be inserted to the video:
Any still image
Drop the Insert other image from discicon into the time line
An image currently opened in NIS-Elements
Drop the Insert snapshot of open view icon into the time line.
Split components
Run the View > Image > ND View > Switch to Split Component View command and add a key frame of this view.
Viewing a single channel
Click on a channel in the bottom of the image window to select a channel. Only this channel will be shown after adding a new key frame. If one channel frame is followed by a different channel frame, cross dissolve effect is automatically applied.
Duration of each movie block (in seconds) can be set in its bottom right corner. Multiple blocks can be selected (using Shift) and freely moved around the time line using drag and drop. The total movie duration can be adjusted in the Open movie settings dialog window.
You can play the sequence ( at 1x speed), rewind it (, ), change the playback speed () or loop (). Use the time line slider to navigate through the sequence. Use the + and - keyboard buttons to play and pause the movie.
When all the key frames are properly set, press the Export Movie button. Export options dialog window opens and you can browse () to the output folder for the video file, set the prefix of the file and choose its file format. Click Export Movie to render the video. The movie is created and the file will open in a new image window.
The same movie definition can be applied to multiple files at once. Click on the arrow next to Export Movie and select Batch Rendering. The Batch Rendering dialog window opens. Add files () which will be used for the video rendering using the current movie definition. Any image (row in the list) can be selected and then deleted from the list using the Remove button. The whole list can be cleared using Remove all.
Set the output folder () for the video file, set the prefix of the file and choose its file format. Click Export Movie to render all the videos in a batch.

Note

Not only zoom and position changes can be used in the movie. Blending changes, grid, scale, volume information, cropping or split components view can be added and exported as well. Cutting planes are not supported at the moment.

Special Options

Movie Maker Settings

Frames per second

Defines frame rate of the whole movie.

Default duration

Defines the default duration of a movie block (from one key frame to the next key frame) in seconds. Duration of a particular block can be changed in its bottom right corner.

Movie resolution

Defines the resolution of the exported movie. Resolution of the current image is used by default.

Movie duration

Sets the duration of the whole movie. If you change this value, duration of all movie blocks will be recalculated.

Default interpolation

Sets the default interpolation method applied between two key frames.

Default fading

Sets the default fading effect for specific movie cuts (e.g. a movie sequence going from a split component view to a 2D still image).

Default font

Defines the default subtitle font.

Load from file,

Save to file

Loads/saves the settings of the whole movie sequence from/to a *.mma file.

Restore Defaults

Reloads default values of the dialog.

Context menu over a key frame

Play from

Plays the movie from the beginning of the selected key frame.

Remove block

Removes the selected key frame.

Remove selected blocks

Removes multiple selected key frames. You can also use the Delete movie button on the right to clear the whole movie sequence.

Set duration of selection

Sets length of the selection in seconds.

Set duration of selected blocks

Sets length in seconds for each block in the selection.

Duplicate block

Duplicates the selected block and places the copy after the current block. A warning symbol appears on duplicated blocks to indicate the new block is the same as its source - so that the user is not surprised that “nothing happens” during playback of this block. Once you move the block elsewhere, the warning disappears.

Context menu over a subtitle

Remove

Removes the selected subtitle.

Customize

Opens the Subtitles Settings dialog window used to set the subtitle properties.

Move to other line

Moves the subtitle to the other subtitle line.

Effects palette

These effects can be dragged and dropped into the time line.

Images:

Insert other image from disc

Inserts an image from a file.

Insert snapshot of open view

Inserts an image currently opened in NIS-Elements. Each opened image window is represented by an icon in the Images section of the effects palette.

Subtitles:

Drag and drop these effects into the gray subtitle line. Then click on “Subtitle text goes here...” to write down the subtitle text which will be shown in the top/center/bottom part of the movie over a duration which can be adjusted by pulling the sides of the subtitle rectangle.

Add top aligned subtitle

Adds subtitles aligned to the top.

Add center aligned subtitle

Adds subtitles aligned to the middle.

Add bottom aligned subtitle

Adds subtitles aligned to the bottom.

Note

Use the show/hide subtitles button to display/hide subtitles and add/remove them to/from the final movie. Secondary mouse click over the gray subtitle line reveals an option to Delete all subtitles.

Others:

Add wait block

Inserts a static image of the last scene.

Add loop block to smoothly interpolate between the end and the start of the movie

End of the movie will be smoothly interpolated with its start.

Add current scene

Drag and drop effect which adds a key frame to the time sequence (same as the button at the end of the time sequence).

Presets:

Add rotation 360° around screen X axis,

Add rotation 360° around screen Y axis,

Add rotation 360° around screen Z axis

Performs a 360° rotation around the selected axis of the whole scene.

Add rotation 360° around object X axis,

Add rotation 360° around object Y axis,

Add rotation 360° around object Z axis

Performs a 360° rotation around the selected axis of the object.

Add Z-axis build up

Z planes are build up from the bottom to the top.

Note

A warning symbol may appear when it is impossible to use the build up preset because the volume image is already fully uncovered (no crop is applied).

Add Z-axis build down

Z planes are removed from the top to the bottom.

Add Time Loop

This function works only with a timelapse volume image. It plays back the timelapse from the selected time frame and fits the length of the whole timelapse into the length of the effect.