Render > Convert Frames to Movie

Compiles an .avi file or a .mov file from a series of frames that have already been rendered.

Images may be in any format Alias supports. Bitmaps are the ideal image filetype. Other formats are converted to bitmaps before adding the frames to the video, which slows the process down.

To convert a series of rendered images to a single movie file

Choose Render > Convert Frames to Movie .
Note
When choosing the tool the first time, it takes a few seconds to load all the codecs for AVI and Quicktime.
Set the type of the output movie file (AVI or QuickTime), the codec, the frames per second, and other options. (Some options, for example Quality, are only available for some codecs).
Click Go.
The file browser opens and you are prompted to
```
Choose the first frame.
```
Select a file in the browser to use as the starting frame. A series of files must be numbered sequentially; for example, image.tif.1, image.tif.2,image.tif.3,image.tif.4, and so on.
Note
The image filename formats that are accepted are “filename.num.ext” or “filename.ext.num” or “filename.num”, where “num” is the sequence number and “ext” is the image format extension.

After the frames are chosen, an external program creates the movie in either AVI or QuickTime format.

Note
QuickTime format is only available if QuickTime has been installed. The software is available at http://www.quicktime.com.

Convert Frames to Movie Options

Output: Specifies the type of movie that will be output: AVI or Quicktime.
Codec: Specifies the coder/decoder application that will be used for compression.
Quality: This option is only enabled for codecs that support it. It may appear as a slider with numerical values, or a pull-down with a choice of Low or High quality.
Frames per second: Specifies the number of rendered frames contained within each second of the movie.
Control maximum number of frames: If this option is turned on, you can set the maximum number of frames to include in the movie by using the Maximum number of frames field.

If this option is off, the tool will create a movie from all the frames in the continuously-numbered sequence of images.

The image selected in the browser is always the first frame.
Control keyframe positions: This option only applies to AVI movies. If turned on, it lets you specify the frequency at which you want to position keyframes through the Keyframe every field.
Control datarate: This option only applies to AVI movies. If turned on, it lets you specify the maximum data rate through the Datarate (kilobytes/second) field.

Tip
The data rate is the speed at which data can be transferred. The higher a video file's data rate, the higher quality it will be, but the more system resources (processor speed, hard disk space, and performance) it will take to work with it.

Note
Quality, Control datarate and Control keyframe positions are only enabled for codecs that support them. Some codecs also have their own configuration windows, which can be accessed by using the Configure Codec button.