Hi Tanja, I will describe a method that can be used in the current release (1.3) and then another newer method for which you need a recent daily build. The newer method should be easier, so maybe skip to read that first! OLDER METHOD: In the past I have done this by using a Chimera command script for the part before the morph. That script must specify the directory and naming pattern for the image files. For example, # session littlepmm2.py - movie segment before morphing movie record directory /tmp/meng pattern elaine-* supersample 2 rock y 2 68; wait wait 10 sc 1.01 20; move y -0.15 20 movie stop That only saves several images without encoding a movie. You could either create the morph before or after running the first script; if that model is not supposed to be shown in the first part of the movie, you could hide it using the Model Panel or modeldisplay command before running the script. Then I set up the display as desired for the morphing part, in my case hiding the other models, showing the morph trajectory model, and changing the 2D labels. Then using MD Movie "File... Record Movie" I would record that part. The important thing is to use the SAME directory and naming pattern as in the first part. Following the example above, you would enter the following in the "Additional recording options" area: directory /tmp/meng pattern elaine-* (the supersampling, if you wanted it, would be specified elsewhere in the dialog). Then it knows to add the additional frames to the pre- existing ones instead of starting over at 1. You could have another script after the morphing part if you wanted. If so, it would be necessary to use another option when recording the morphing part. In the MD Movie "File... Record Movie" dialog, you would put in the "Additional encoding options" area: resetMode none because this tool will always encode the movie, and you would need to prevent it from then deleting the images if the morphing were not the last part. If you had another script, it would also need to specify the same image directory and naming pattern, of course. NEWER METHOD: Although I have not gone through the full process myself, I believe it is now possible to use just a single script, where the morph- playing part could be accomplished with the "coordset" command: <http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/chimera/docs/UsersGuide/midas/coordset.html> Then you don't have to worry about specifying the image file directory and naming pattern, or making sure the images are kept when a movie is encoded at some intermediate step. I hope this helps, Elaine ----- Elaine C. Meng, Ph.D. meng@cgl.ucsf.edu UCSF Computer Graphics Lab (Chimera team) and Babbitt Lab Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry University of California, San Francisco http://www.cgl.ucsf.edu/home/meng/index.html On Jun 2, 2009, at 11:56 PM, Schulz-Gasch, Tanja wrote:
Hi there, I used Chimera so far only for making pictures. Now I am doing the first movie steps. I want to combine features like
hide, show, rock,... with the MD Movie module to show a morph between different protein conformations. How can this be done?
The movie should start with the display part (using hide, show, rock,...) followed by the morphing. However, when using the MD movie
module the morph starts at frame 1.
Thanks, Tanja