Video Creator

Configure and create multibody animation videos


Video Creator is a Mechanics Explorer tool that lets you configure and create videos of multibody animations. You can modify the video playback speed, frame rate, file format, and frame size. Click Create to generate a video with the specified properties. Use the smwritevideo function for a programmatic alternative to Video Creator.

Open the Video Creator App

From the Mechanics Explorer menu bar, select Tools > Video Creator. You must simulate the model in order to use Video Creator or the programmatic equivalent smwritevideo function.


Video playback speed relative to real time, specified as a positive number. The video plays faster than real time at values greater than 1 and slower at values smaller than 1. For example, a ratio of 2 doubles the playback speed while a ratio of 0.5 halves it.

Number of video frames per second of playback time, specified as a positive integer. Larger frame rates result in smoother video playback time but also larger file sizes.

File format to save the video in. The dropdown list provides various formats to select from, including compressed and uncompressed formats.

Video frame width and height, specified in pixel units as the two-element row vector [Width Height]. The frame dimensions must be positive integers. For example, the vector [800 400] sets the video frame dimensions to 800 pixels in width and 400 pixels in height. To use the current dimensions of the active visualization tile in Mechanics Explorer, select auto.

See Also

Introduced in R2016b