This article describes how you can create a HD video from your openFrameworks application which you can put online on Vimeo or Youtube or any other of your favorite video site. When I started I tried to use After Effects to create a HD video though the quality and size were not as I expected. Also, creating a video from the visualisation I did was not just a couple of clicks as I hoped for. For the flocking tutorial I needed to create a good looking video which is on vimeo.

These are the steps you need to do:

1. Create png images from each frame
2. Create a HD movie from these stills / image sequence.

1. Create png images from each frame

In your application you should add this code which writes each frame to an image file sequence.

// img_saver is of type ofImage
static char file_name[255];
sprintf(file_name, "output/output_%0.4i.png", saved_image_num);
img_saver.grabScreen(0, 0, ofGetWidth(), ofGetHeight());
printf("Saving file: %s\n", file_name);
img_saver.saveImage(file_name);
saved_image_num++;

This saves each frame to a file named output_001.png, output_002.png etc.. Make sure you create the output directory in your bin/data/ folder.. saved_image_num is of type int and a member of the testApp class. I also tried to use memo's threaded image saver, but this one skipped some frames. I got files like 001, 003, 004, 006 etc..

Also make sure your application has a window which is conform HD:

int main( ){
    ofAppGlutWindow window;
    ofSetupOpenGL(&window, 1280,720, OF_WINDOW);        
    ofRunApp( new testApp());
}

2. Create a HD movie from these stills / image sequence.

Now, download Avidemux and make sure you've got the Xvid codec installed. Once you've installed Avidemux, run it. Now follow these steps:

• File > Open and select the first file of the image sequence
• At the video selectbox, select MPEG-4 ASP (XVid4)
  

• Click on "Configure" under Video and use these settings:

• Click on the "Filters" button > Interlacing > Add the "yadiff" (click green plus sign to add it)
  

• Than you only need to save the video and it starts rendering. That's all! So File > Save> Save Video...

• As format I used "avi"