I have done all the raw rendering and now I just need to use ImageMagick to do motion-blur, cross-fades, and add the nanosecond/rotation display. Given a clear plan, that is relatively quick work, so I hope to get the DVD in the mail to John some time in the next week. Here is the last version of the video I did before we brought in John: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-199611355948259531 Here are the various animation speeds. This is really a note to myself about how to do correct motion blur.0 Fast: fastpng/fast_cpk_png, use raw frames directly 0.15 ps/sec (5 fs/frame) Medium: fastpng/fast_cpk_png, average 4 frames 0.6 ps/sec (20 fs/frame) Slow: slowpng/slow_cpk_png, average 10 frames 6 ps/sec (200 fs/frame) Slow jumpy: slowpng/slow_cpk_png, use every 10th frame 6 ps/sec (200 fs/frame) All animations are done at 30 FPS. CPK = van der Waals atom display, fat spherical atoms B+S = ball-and-stick atom display ("tubes" display) The sequence: (1) Titles 1 & 2: Medium speed, CPK, 23 seconds I didn't render enough raw frames for this entire piece, so I ran for 8 seconds with title 1, then started over and re-ran the animation for 15 seconds for title 2. I have enough raw frames for 18 seconds of medium-speed animation. (2) Cross fade: 5 secs medium CPK, half-second fade, 5 secs medium B+S, (3) Title 3: 18 seconds fast B+S (8 secs with title, 10 secs without) (4) Title 4: 18 seconds medium B+S (8 secs with title, 10 secs without) (5) Title 5: 18 seconds fast B+S (8 secs with title, 10 secs without) (6) Titles 6 - 8: 25 seconds, fast jumpy B+S (7) Cross fade: 5 secs slow jumpy B+S, half-second fade, 5 secs slow jumpy CPK (8) Titles 9 & 10: 27 secs slow CPK (not jumpy) Whenever there is no title on the screen, the nanoseconds and rotations show in the upper left, in fixed-width font, with three digits after the decimal point. Since adding these is trivial, I will produce all sequences both with and without them, and you can decide when to cut them in or out. My plan is to make a DVD with two top-level directories (with nsecs/rots, and without) and in each of those, put eight subdirectories with the 640x480 frames for the eight pieces shown above. ============================== I won't be doing anything with titles, but just for reference, here is what was previously used for titles. I've used HTML tags to notate line breaks, peragraphs, boldface, a horizontal dividing line (hr), and indentation (blockqoute). Titles 7 and 8 appear along the bottom of the screen. 1: Molecular dynamics of a small bearing at 300K, Computational modeling by NanoEngineer-1, , (c) 2006 Nanorex, Inc. 2: The device shown is a low-friction bearing with a tight ring that holds a rotating shaft.

All dynamics are at room temperature (300K) with a shaft frequency of 5 GHz. Apparent motions will be compared at several display rates and with different imaging methods.

Initial display rate: 0.6 ps per second
Imaging: multiple position samples per frame 3: Base rate: 0.15 ps per second

At this speed, the thermal motion of individual atoms is clearly visible. Shaft rotation is almost imperceptible. 4: 4 times base rate: 0.6 ps per second

At this speed, the thermal motion of larger structures becomes obvious. Shaft rotation remains inconspicuous. 5: 40 times base rate: 6.0 ps per second

The 5 GHz rotation is conspicuous. Atomic vibrations are now a blur of motion.

Each animation frame shows merged images from many position samples.
6: Same rate, 6.0 ps per second, but imaging only one sample per frame. This omits realistic motion blur.

Imaging a single position sample per frame creates the false appearance that atoms oscillate at the frame rate. This illusion is common in molecular animations. 7: A stroboscopic illusion: motion speeds appear wrong 8: Realism requires multiple samples per frame 9: Covalent structures of the kind shown in this video can be realistically simulated using current molecular dynamics techniques.

Producing structures of this kind, however, will require molecular nanofabrication techniques that have yet to be developed. 10: Simulation and animation by Will Ware

Molecular dynamics by NanoEngineer-1

Device design from Nanosystems

(K. E. Drexler, Wiley Interscience, 1992)

(c) 2006 Nanorex, Inc.

Rendering powered by POVray I think that last one should say "POV-Ray" rather than "POVray". That seems to be the spelling preferred by its developers.