#566 Option to generate animation as video file (mpeg or mp4)

[Eric Marceau]

Is it possible to expand Gnuplot's relevance by adding a built-in function to generate a mpeg or mp4 format file as an alternate to displaying the animation in a window?

Such an option would permit the results of Gnuplot to be shared away from the environment/point of creation and present those results to a wider audience (in their more receptive mode/environment) when trying to communicate results from various research/analyses (i.e. Frame3DD animations of multiple structural analysis dynamic modal simulations).

The attached plot instruction file (Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results.plt) gives you an idea of the "script" file that calls upon a large number of data files (other files in the tar file) to create dynamic simulations of structure vibrational modes.

Thank you,
Eric Marceau, 68, retired
member of Google Geodesic Help Group

[Ethan Merritt]

Current gnuplot supports creating animation as a webp file, although it uses the rather limited API provided in WebPAnimEncoder rather than the full API used by the standalone webpmux encoding utility.

I attach the result of running your test script with 2 lines added at the top

set term webp size 400,400 animate
set output 'icosahedron.webp'

# FRAME3DD ANALYSIS RESULTS  http://frame3dd.sf.net/ VERSION 20140514+ 
# Proof-of-concept problem:  Icosahedron frame - static and dynamic analysis (in  kip) 
# Thu Nov 16 14:35:13 2023

Does that meet your needs? If not, what modifications to the existing driver capabilities would you like to see?

[Eric Marceau]

Thank you very much, Ethan!

[1] My version doesn't accept that option

The WEBP file you provided look very good but, for some reason, my
version is not offering that option.

ericthered@OasisMega1:/DB001_F4/GEODESIC/geodesic/GEO__ForceBalance$
gnuplot -c Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results.plt

         set term webp size 400,400 animate
          ^
         "Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results.plt" line 1: unknown or
ambiguous terminal type; type just 'set terminal' for a list

ericthered@OasisMega1:/DB001_F4/GEODESIC/geodesic/GEO__ForceBalance$
gnuplot

     G N U P L O T
     Version 5.2 patchlevel 8    last modified 2019-12-01

     Copyright (C) 1986-1993, 1998, 2004, 2007-2019
     Thomas Williams, Colin Kelley and many others

     gnuplot home: http://www.gnuplot.info
     faq, bugs, etc:   type "help FAQ"
     immediate help:   type "help"  (plot window: hit 'h')

         (...snip...)

      unknown  Unknown terminal type - not a plotting device
            vttek  VT-like tek40xx terminal emulator
               wxt  wxWidgets cross-platform interactive terminal
               x11  X11 Window System interactive terminal
               xlib  X11 Window System (dump of gnuplot_x11 command
stream)
           xterm  Xterm Tektronix 4014 Mode
gnuplot>

I just re-ran "apt install gnuplot", and it is only providing me with
the above version and options.
I am running UbuntuMATE 20.04 LTS.

Is there a way to force the install of a more recent gnuplot which would
give me access to that option?

[2] Solution Fulfills Needs

The WEBP option would indeed satisfy the need completely, since I could
convert the webp to an mpeg, if and when that is needed.

[3] GIF option

I tried the GIF option, but that took a very long time (10 minutes
???)!  Any hints?  Also, that looks like an all or nothing option. I
need to run the program twice, once without the header lines (for visual
inspection) and once with the header lines (to create the animation
file).  Correct?  or is there another trick that would let me have both
(screen display while background conversion and storage for GIF)?

[4] Selective scope redirect ?

Is there a way to limit which portions of the file are "redirected" to a
webp file?  Namely, can I set up such a WEBP creation only for each
segment of the file (one each for the 6 resonance frequency simulation
modes)?  The file you provided lumped all 7 groupings into one video
file.  I will look at the documentation to see what I need to do, but if
you have any examples that specifically show how to close a first
redirect file and open a second/third/etc. target file would be very
much appreciated.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of my request and for all
your assistance.

Eric

On 2023-11-16 20:58, Ethan Merritt wrote:

Current gnuplot supports creating animation as a webp file, although
it uses the rather limited API provided in WebPAnimEncoder rather than
the full API used by the standalone webpmux encoding utility.

I attach the result of running your test script with 2 lines added at
the top

|set term webp size 400,400 animate set output 'icosahedron.webp' #
FRAME3DD ANALYSIS RESULTS http://frame3dd.sf.net/ VERSION 20140514+ #
Proof-of-concept problem: Icosahedron frame - static and dynamic
analysis (in kip) # Thu Nov 16 14:35:13 2023 |

Does that meet your needs? If not, what modifications to the existing
driver capabilities would you like to see?

Attachments:

• icosahedron.webp
  https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/_discuss/thread/89338888c1/63be/attachment/icosahedron.webp
  (8.5 MB; image/webp)

---

[feature-requests:#566]
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/ Option to
generate animation as video file (mpeg or mp4)

Status: open
Group:
Created: Thu Nov 16, 2023 11:58 PM UTC by Eric Marceau
Last Updated: Thu Nov 16, 2023 11:58 PM UTC
Owner: nobody
Attachments:

• Icosahedron__1v_iter5.tar
  https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/attachment/Icosahedron__1v_iter5.tar
  (2.5 MB; application/x-tar)

Is it possible to expand Gnuplot's relevance by adding a built-in
function to generate a mpeg or mp4 format file as an alternate to
displaying the animation in a window?

Such an option would permit the results of Gnuplot to be shared away
from the environment/point of creation and present those results to a
wider audience (in their more receptive mode/environment) when trying
to communicate results from various research/analyses (i.e. Frame3DD
animations of multiple structural analysis dynamic modal simulations).

The attached plot instruction file (Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results.plt)
gives you an idea of the "script" file that calls upon a large number
of data files (other files in the tar file) to create dynamic
simulations of structure vibrational modes.

Thank you,
Eric Marceau, 68, retired
member of Google Geodesic Help Group

---

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https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/

To unsubscribe from further messages, please visit
https://sourceforge.net/auth/subscriptions/

[Ethan Merritt]

[1] My version doesn't accept that option

You'll have to take that up with Ubuntu, or ask for help on an Ubuntu forum. Or you could build from source. Current version is 5.4, released July 2020. Release of version 6 is imminent, release candidate 6.0.rc3 is available for testing. There are some contributed guidelines for building under Ubuntu in the INSTALL file of the version 6 source distribution package.

[2] Solution Fulfills Needs

Good to hear.

[3] GIF option

Yeah. Animated gifs were OK when it was mostly cartoon kitty icons waving a paw but they are not really suited for larger use. Also the library used to create them does lower-quality graphics than the newer terminals can produce.

[4] Selective scope redirect ?

Is there a way to limit which portions of the file are "redirected" to a
webp file? Namely, can I set up such a WEBP creation only for each
segment of the file (one each for the 6 resonance frequency simulation
modes)? The file you provided lumped all 7 groupings into one video
file. I will look at the documentation to see what I need to do, but if
you have any examples that specifically show how to close a first
redirect file and open a second/third/etc. target file would be very
much appreciated.

I didn't really look at your script in detail. I just ran it as-is after editing to read files from the current directory rather than /tmp. Here's a quick go at a script that creates a separate file for each mode. I may not understand the file naming system correctly but it does produce reasonable looking output. FWIW the run time was about 2 seconds total for the two 50-frame animations.

set term web size 400,400 animate

#
# Mode 1
#
set output 'mode1.webp'
meshfile = "Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results-msh"
do for [i=0:50] {
   j = (i > 25) ? 50-i : i
   polyfile = sprintf("Icosahedron__1v_iter5-m-01.%03d", j)
   splot meshfile u 2:3:4 w l lw 1 lt 5, polyfile u 1:2:3 w l lw 1 lt 3
}
unset output

#
# Mode 2
#
set output 'mode2.webp'
meshfile = "Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results-msh"
do for [i=0:50] {
   j = (i > 25) ? 50-i : i
   polyfile = sprintf("Icosahedron__1v_iter5-m-02.%03d", j)
   splot meshfile u 2:3:4 w l lw 1 lt 5, polyfile u 1:2:3 w l lw 1 lt 3
}
unset output

[Eric Marceau]

Hello again Ethan,

I am going thru the configure process and finding that required packages
are missing.  I installed all the ones the config.log stated were
missing, but it is still not accepting to offer the webp as an option.

libgd

glib

libwebp        0.6.1-2ubuntu0.20.04.3

pango1-tools    1.44.7-2ubuntu4

cairo

But from the log files that I created from the "configure" run, it seems
it is looking for other packages or versions which Ubuntu does not have
... at the UbuntuMATE 20.04 distro level.

I plan to migrate to 24.04 when that comes out, but ugrading distro
versions is always a pain, and prefer to skip both the non-LTS and
everyother LTS distro.

I may have to wait until the coming April/May to test with 24.04, but I
have 23.04 installed on a second disk for verifying packages, so I will
give it a try there some time soon (1-2 weeks).  I hope you can keep
this request open/on-hold until then.

Thank you for your guidance and assistance.

Eric

On 2023-11-17 00:55, Ethan Merritt wrote:

[1] My version doesn't accept that option

You'll have to take that up with Ubuntu, or ask for help on an Ubuntu
forum. Or you could build from source. Current version is 5.4,
released July 2020. Release of version 6 is imminent, release
candidate 6.0.rc3 is available for testing. There are some contributed
guidelines for building under Ubuntu in the INSTALL file of the
version 6 source distribution package.

[2] Solution Fulfills Needs

Good to hear.

[3] GIF option

Yeah. Animated gifs were OK when it was mostly cartoon kitty icons
waving a paw but they are not really suited for larger use. Also the
library used to create them does lower-quality graphics than the newer
terminals can produce.

[4] Selective scope redirect ?

Is there a way to limit which portions of the file are
"redirected" to a
webp file? Namely, can I set up such a WEBP creation only for each
segment of the file (one each for the 6 resonance frequency simulation
modes)? The file you provided lumped all 7 groupings into one video
file. I will look at the documentation to see what I need to do,
but if
you have any examples that specifically show how to close a first
redirect file and open a second/third/etc. target file would be very
much appreciated.

I didn't really look at your script in detail. I just ran it as-is
after editing to read files from the current directory rather than
/tmp. Here's a quick go at a script that creates a separate file for
each mode. I may not understand the file naming system correctly but
it does produce reasonable looking output. FWIW the run time was about
2 seconds total for the two 50-frame animations.

|set term web size 400,400 animate # # Mode 1 # set output
'mode1.webp' meshfile = "Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results-msh" do for
[i=1:50] { j = (i > 25) ? 50-i : i polyfile =
sprintf("Icosahedron__1v_iter5-m-01.%03d", j) splot meshfile u 2:3:4 w
l lw 1 lt 5, polyfile u 1:2:3 w l lw 1 lt 3 } unset output # # Mode 2

set output 'mode2.webp' meshfile =

"Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results-msh" do for [i=1:50] { j = (i > 25) ?
50-i : i polyfile = sprintf("Icosahedron__1v_iter5-m-02.%03d", j)
splot meshfile u 2:3:4 w l lw 1 lt 5, polyfile u 1:2:3 w l lw 1 lt 3 }
unset output |

Attachments:

• mode1.webp
  https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/_discuss/thread/89338888c1/e0dd/attachment/mode1.webp
  (380.2 kB; image/webp)
• mode2.webp
  https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/_discuss/thread/89338888c1/e0dd/attachment/mode2.webp
  (386.4 kB; image/webp)

---

[feature-requests:#566]
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/ Option to
generate animation as video file (mpeg or mp4)

Status: open
Group:
Created: Thu Nov 16, 2023 11:58 PM UTC by Eric Marceau
Last Updated: Fri Nov 17, 2023 01:58 AM UTC
Owner: nobody
Attachments:

• Icosahedron__1v_iter5.tar
  https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/attachment/Icosahedron__1v_iter5.tar
  (2.5 MB; application/x-tar)

Is it possible to expand Gnuplot's relevance by adding a built-in
function to generate a mpeg or mp4 format file as an alternate to
displaying the animation in a window?

Such an option would permit the results of Gnuplot to be shared away
from the environment/point of creation and present those results to a
wider audience (in their more receptive mode/environment) when trying
to communicate results from various research/analyses (i.e. Frame3DD
animations of multiple structural analysis dynamic modal simulations).

The attached plot instruction file (Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results.plt)
gives you an idea of the "script" file that calls upon a large number
of data files (other files in the tar file) to create dynamic
simulations of structure vibrational modes.

Thank you,
Eric Marceau, 68, retired
member of Google Geodesic Help Group

---

Sent from sourceforge.net because you indicated interest in
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/

To unsubscribe from further messages, please visit
https://sourceforge.net/auth/subscriptions/

[Ethan Merritt]

My apologies for providing misleading information. I had thought that the webp terminal was introduced sometime during the development of gnuplot version 5.4. But I was mistaken; it exists only in gnuplot 6, which has been the development version for some years. The first official release of version 6.0 is expected by the end of 2023.

If you decide to try again at building from source, please use the release candidate for gnuplot 6
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot/files/gnuplot/testing/gnuplot-6.0.rc3.tar.gz
The INSTALL file has a section with hints for building on Ubuntu. I append the relevant section below.

Ubuntu  
------   
  These instructions were tested on Ubuntu 22.04

  Install build tools, libraries, and documentation tools (TeX) for
  building gnuplot binary (5.4.2).
        sudo apt build-dep gnuplot

  Install additonal tools and libraries for development version

        sudo apt install gfortran libcerf-dev libwebp-dev adwaita-icon-theme-full \
                unzip texlive-science

        # openspecfun provides the Amos routines (except for cexint)
        git clone https://github.com/JuliaMath/openspecfun.git
        cd openspecfun
        make
        sudo make install

  Debian packages required to configure with Qt5:
        qtbase5-dev
        qtbase5-dev-tools
        qttools5-dev-tools
        libqt5svg5-dev

  Add the below to ~/.profile
        export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib

[Eric Marceau]

Thank you for replying, Ethan.

Just an FYI, I did try to compile 6.0 RC3 but it did not allow the webp
because it can't find, and I can't download, the necessary packages that
it needs to build the cairo as precursor for webp.

So ... I will live with what I have for now, as I said, until the spring
when I can look at the new release of UbuntuMATE 24.04 .

Thank you again for all your help and for contributing and making such a
high-quality tool available to the general public.

Eric

On 2023-11-18 16:07, Ethan Merritt wrote:

My apologies for providing misleading information. I had thought that
the webp terminal was introduced sometime during the development of
gnuplot version 5.4. But I was mistaken; it exists only in gnuplot 6,
which has been the development version for some years. The first
official release of version 6.0 is expected by the end of 2023.

If you decide to try again at building from source, please use the
release candidate for gnuplot 6
https://sourceforge.net/projects/gnuplot/files/gnuplot/testing/gnuplot-6.0.rc3.tar.gz
The INSTALL file has a section with hints for building on Ubuntu. I
append the relevant section below.

|Ubuntu------TheseinstructionsweretestedonUbuntu22.04
Installbuildtools,libraries,anddocumentationtools(TeX)for
buildinggnuplotbinary(5.4.2). sudoaptbuild-depgnuplot
Installadditonaltoolsandlibrariesfordevelopmentversion
sudoaptinstallgfortranlibcerf-devlibwebp-devadwaita-icon-theme-full\
unziptexlive-science # openspecfun provides the Amos routines (except
for cexint) gitclonehttps://github.com/JuliaMath/openspecfun.git
cdopenspecfun make sudomakeinstall
DebianpackagesrequiredtoconfigurewithQt5: qtbase5-dev
qtbase5-dev-tools qttools5-dev-tools libqt5svg5-dev
Addthebelowto~/.profile
exportLD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/lib |

---

[feature-requests:#566]
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/ Option to
generate animation as video file (mpeg or mp4)

Status: open
Group:
Created: Thu Nov 16, 2023 11:58 PM UTC by Eric Marceau
Last Updated: Fri Nov 17, 2023 05:55 AM UTC
Owner: nobody
Attachments:

• Icosahedron__1v_iter5.tar
  https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/attachment/Icosahedron__1v_iter5.tar
  (2.5 MB; application/x-tar)

Is it possible to expand Gnuplot's relevance by adding a built-in
function to generate a mpeg or mp4 format file as an alternate to
displaying the animation in a window?

Such an option would permit the results of Gnuplot to be shared away
from the environment/point of creation and present those results to a
wider audience (in their more receptive mode/environment) when trying
to communicate results from various research/analyses (i.e. Frame3DD
animations of multiple structural analysis dynamic modal simulations).

The attached plot instruction file (Icosahedron__1v_iter5_Results.plt)
gives you an idea of the "script" file that calls upon a large number
of data files (other files in the tar file) to create dynamic
simulations of structure vibrational modes.

Thank you,
Eric Marceau, 68, retired
member of Google Geodesic Help Group

---

Sent from sourceforge.net because you indicated interest in
https://sourceforge.net/p/gnuplot/feature-requests/566/

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