AnimatedGif

A library for the programming environment processing to record and save animated gifs.

Contents

• Download
• Installation
• Initialization
• API
  • Constructor
  • Setter and Getter
  • Control
  • Others
• Example
• GifSequenceWriter

<a name"download">Download

Download the animatedgif library from the releases section of this repository.

<a name"installation">Installation

unzip the zip file that you downloaded from above, then place the animatedgif folder into the libraries folder inside Processing's sketchbook folder. Where is the sketchbook folder? For osx users this folder by default is located at ~/Documents/Processing/libraries. For windows users this folder is probably located at c:/My Documents/Processing/libraries also see this tutorial. After putting the library into the libraries folder, restart processing to activate the library.

<a name"initialization">Initialization

Initialize a GifRecorder by creating a new instance of GifRecorder, the recorder automatically attaches itself to the tail of your draw procedure so that it can record the screen when instructed to do so.

	import sojamo.animatedgif.*;
	
	GifRecorder gif;
	
	void setup() {
		gif = new GifRecorder(this);
	}
	
	void draw() {}
	

<a name"api">API

<a name"constructor">Constructor

Create a new GifRecorder instance

	GifRecorder gif = new GifRecorder(this); // this is of type PApplet

<a name"setter-and-getter">Setter and Getter

Use the following setter and getter functions to customize the seetings of a gif recording session.

Duration

Set the duration of a recording session in milliseconds. When gif.record() is called, the length of the recording will correspond to the duration set with gif.setDuration(int)

	gif.setDuration(5000); // sets the duration to 5 seconds
	gif.getDuration(); // returns an int representing milliseconds

File Name

Set the filename under which an animated gif will be saved, by default gifs will be saved into the sketch folder if no other folder is specified. The GifRecorder does add a timestamp to the filename so that more than one gifs can be saved under the same name, differentiated by the timestamp suffix.

	gif.setFileName("myGif.gif"); // myGif will be saved to the sketchfolder
	gif.getFileName(); // returns a String

Frames per Second

Set the frames per second that will be used during record.

	gif.setFramesPerSecond(10); // sets the update rate to 100ms
	gif.getFramesPerSecond(); // returns an int

Millis between Frames

Set the interval between frames in milliseconds during record.

	gif.setMillisBetweenFrames(100); // sets the update rate to 100ms
	gif.getMillisBetweenFrames(); // returns an int

Number of Frames

Set the number of frames that will be recorded and calculates the duration based on the millis between frames.

	gif.setNumberOfFrames(20); // limits the frames to be recorded to 20
	gif.getMillisBetweenFrames(); // returns an int

Scale

Scales the animated gif when saved by default the scale is set to 1.0 to double the size, use 2.0, to half the size use 0.5.

	gif.setScale(0.5); // shrinks the original size to half
	gif.getScale(); // returns a float

Loop

Set the loop status of the currently recorded animated gif

	gif.setLoop(true); // gif will loop
	gif.isLoop(); // returns a boolean

<a name"control">Control

Use the following commands to control the and save gif recordings.

add

Add a frame to the current array of frames, use gif.clear() to reset the frame-array.

	gif.add();

clear

Clear the frame array of recorded frames

	gif.clear(); // deletes all recorded frames

record

Start recording frames over time based on the frames-per-second and duration settings. After recording has finished, the animated gif will be saved to the file defined by setFileName(String).

	gif.record(); // starts the recording procedure
	gif.isRecording(); // returns a boolean

pause

Pause the current active recording

	gif.pause();

resume

Resume the currently paused recording session

	gif.resume();

stop

Stop the currenlty active recording session. To start over again, use gif.record

	gif.stop();

save

Save the current gif recording under the name set by gif.setFileName() with timestamp-prefix

	gif.save();

saveAs

Save the current gif recording

	gif.saveAs("newGif.gif");

<a name"others">Others

Settings

Request the state of current settings

	gif.settings(); // returns a HashMap including current settings

Key Control

De/activates the pre-defined key controls for GifRecorder, by default the key controls are deactivated. When active, use

• the space bar to add a frame
• s to save the current frame-array
• backspace to clear the frame-array

	gif.setKeyControl(true); // activates the pre-defined key control
	gif.isKeyControl(); // returns a boolean

Use TimeStamp

Use a Timestamp as a prefix for recorded and saved gifs to avoid overriding, this feature is active by default

	gif.useTimeStamp(false); // deactivates the timestamp prefix
	gif.isTimeStamp(); // returns a boolean

<a name"example">Example

And some example code which you can also find inside the examples folder that comes with the library.

	import sojamo.animatedgif.*;
	
	GifRecorder gif;

	void setup() {
	  size(500,200);
	  // create a new GifRecorder to record animated gifs 
	  gif = new GifRecorder(this);
	  // set the update time per second, here 100ms
	  gif.setMillisBetweenFrames(100);
	  // set the duration of the gif
	  gif.setDuration(5000);
	  // loop the gif 
	  gif.setLoop(true);
	}

	void draw() {
	  background(frameCount%255);
	}


	void keyPressed() {
	  switch(key) {
		// press key 'r' to start recording 
		// after the recording has finished, the gif
		// will be saved to disc automatically
	    case('r'):gif.record();break;
	  }
	}

<a name"gifsequencewriter">GifSequenceWriter.java

The GifSequenceWriter.java code was created by Elliot Kroo link

9 March 2015