[General] Saved Animation Quality is Too Poor?

ronwelty · February 10, 2017, 12:52

Hi, I have been using Paraview for quite some time now, and I am really happy with it. I recently switched to a Mac Machine, so I downloaded the newer version of the program (I am using 5.1 because 5.2 is buggy and crashes quite a lot on my machine). Everything works fine except for the quality of the animations. I use that feature quite a lot and Ver 4.2 on an older Windows machine works perfectly. The videos generated with the 5.1 version on Mac, on the contrary, are very "pixellated" and the overall quality is very poor.
Is there a way to fix this?
Thanks!

EDIT: I am using the same resolution that I always used to save animations (1080p). The resulting video is terrible, but saving screenshots with the exact same resolution yields good quality images. So I guess the issue is in the Video export format?

flotus1 · February 10, 2017, 18:45

So creating the animation from the images (e.g. with ffmpeg) is no alternative?

ronwelty · February 10, 2017, 18:49

That would require quite some time and an unnecessary step. I just need to understand why is the program encoding images at a so poor quality. Probably bitrate? But I couldn't find any preference about that.

flotus1 · February 11, 2017, 02:51

Me neither. Exporting animations directly from ParaView always led to unacceptable results for me, no matter which version of ParaView I used.
Don't consider encoding the video afterwards as an unnecessary additional step but as an addition to your workflow that gives you more flexibility

And it really does not take that much time. ffmpeg never took longer than a few minutes for the animations I made.

ronwelty · February 23, 2017, 12:52

Most of my simulations run on more than 5000 time steps. Saving screenshots is, unfortunately, not an option..!
Anyone has any workaround for this?

flotus1 · February 23, 2017, 13:30

You are not supposed to save screenshots manually for every time step

When saving an animation, you can choose an image format instead of a video format. ParaView will save one image every time step. Automatically.

ronwelty · February 23, 2017, 14:17

Can't seem to find it.

flotus1 · February 23, 2017, 15:08

Click on "save animation". Then in the next window there is a dropdown list "files of type". I usually choose png.

ronwelty · February 23, 2017, 15:12

The screenshot I attached is what I obtain after clicking on "Save Animation". They took it out on last version?

flotus1 · February 23, 2017, 16:41

Come on, you have to help me a little bit. What happens when you click on "save animation" in the window you showed? No additional menu where you can specify the name and location of the animation? Where does PV save your animations then? Which version are you using?
animation1.png
animation2.png

February 10, 2017, 12:52	Saved Animation Quality is Too Poor?	#1
ronwelty New Member Alessandro Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Italy Posts: 19 Rep Power: 12	Hi, I have been using Paraview for quite some time now, and I am really happy with it. I recently switched to a Mac Machine, so I downloaded the newer version of the program (I am using 5.1 because 5.2 is buggy and crashes quite a lot on my machine). Everything works fine except for the quality of the animations. I use that feature quite a lot and Ver 4.2 on an older Windows machine works perfectly. The videos generated with the 5.1 version on Mac, on the contrary, are very "pixellated" and the overall quality is very poor. Is there a way to fix this? Thanks! EDIT: I am using the same resolution that I always used to save animations (1080p). The resulting video is terrible, but saving screenshots with the exact same resolution yields good quality images. So I guess the issue is in the Video export format?

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February 10, 2017, 18:45		#2
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 49	So creating the animation from the images (e.g. with ffmpeg) is no alternative?

February 10, 2017, 18:49		#3
ronwelty New Member Alessandro Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Italy Posts: 19 Rep Power: 12	That would require quite some time and an unnecessary step. I just need to understand why is the program encoding images at a so poor quality. Probably bitrate? But I couldn't find any preference about that.

February 11, 2017, 02:51		#4
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 49	Me neither. Exporting animations directly from ParaView always led to unacceptable results for me, no matter which version of ParaView I used. Don't consider encoding the video afterwards as an unnecessary additional step but as an addition to your workflow that gives you more flexibility And it really does not take that much time. ffmpeg never took longer than a few minutes for the animations I made.

February 23, 2017, 12:52		#5
ronwelty New Member Alessandro Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Italy Posts: 19 Rep Power: 12	Most of my simulations run on more than 5000 time steps. Saving screenshots is, unfortunately, not an option..! Anyone has any workaround for this?

February 23, 2017, 13:30		#6
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 49	You are not supposed to save screenshots manually for every time step When saving an animation, you can choose an image format instead of a video format. ParaView will save one image every time step. Automatically.

February 23, 2017, 15:08		#8
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 49	Click on "save animation". Then in the next window there is a dropdown list "files of type". I usually choose png.

February 23, 2017, 15:12		#9
ronwelty New Member Alessandro Join Date: Apr 2014 Location: Italy Posts: 19 Rep Power: 12	The screenshot I attached is what I obtain after clicking on "Save Animation". They took it out on last version?

February 23, 2017, 16:41		#10
flotus1 Super Moderator Alex Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: Germany Posts: 3,426 Rep Power: 49	Come on, you have to help me a little bit. What happens when you click on "save animation" in the window you showed? No additional menu where you can specify the name and location of the animation? Where does PV save your animations then? Which version are you using? animation1.png animation2.png