[vtkusers] vtkAVIWriter with renderer gradient background shows distinct lines

Discussion:

Santosh Biradar

2018-11-27 13:55:03 UTC

I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has distinct
lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it possible to
get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter and write an
image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.

A code snippet of what I am doing:

window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()

writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())

I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows

Thanks,
Santosh

Cory Quammen

2018-11-27 14:01:14 UTC

Permalink

Sounds like quantization/compression artifacts. You can try changing the
quality setting to reduce compression via vtkAVIWriter::SetQuality().

HTH,
Cory

Post by Santosh Biradar
I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has distinct
lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it possible to
get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter and write an
image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.
window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()
writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())
I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows
Thanks,
Santosh
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Santosh Biradar

2018-11-27 14:26:17 UTC

Permalink

Thanks for the quick response Cory.
I tried setting quality to 0,1,2. The quality of the movie was best for 2
and worst for 0 but the background remained the same in each case.
The quality of the output of the filter (in this case, a vtkContourFilter)
reduces with reduction in SetQuality but the background remains of the same
quality.
There is no difference in the quality of the background.

I also get the same behavior in Paraview's Save Animation feature (version
5.5 on windows)

Thanks,
Santosh

Post by Cory Quammen
Sounds like quantization/compression artifacts. You can try changing the
quality setting to reduce compression via vtkAVIWriter::SetQuality().
HTH,
Cory

Post by Santosh Biradar
I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has
distinct lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it
possible to get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter
and write an image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.
window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()
writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())
I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows
Thanks,
Santosh
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Kitware, Inc.

Cory Quammen

2018-11-27 16:11:16 UTC

Permalink

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of experience with the AVI compression
options. You might experiment with vtkAVIWriter::SetCompressorFourCC() to
see if you can find a compressor that gives more satisfactory results.

Personally I prefer to dump animation frames and assemble them with outside
video software.

Cory

Post by Santosh Biradar
Thanks for the quick response Cory.
I tried setting quality to 0,1,2. The quality of the movie was best for 2
and worst for 0 but the background remained the same in each case.
The quality of the output of the filter (in this case, a
vtkContourFilter) reduces with reduction in SetQuality but the background
remains of the same quality.
There is no difference in the quality of the background.
I also get the same behavior in Paraview's Save Animation feature (version
5.5 on windows)
Thanks,
Santosh

Post by Cory Quammen
Sounds like quantization/compression artifacts. You can try changing the
quality setting to reduce compression via vtkAVIWriter::SetQuality().
HTH,
Cory

Post by Santosh Biradar
I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has
distinct lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it
possible to get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter
and write an image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.
window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()
writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())
I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows
Thanks,
Santosh
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Search the list archives at: http://markmail.org/search/?q=vtkusers
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Kitware, Inc.

Andras Lasso

2018-11-28 07:31:33 UTC

Permalink

In 3D Slicer we use VP9 codec with MKV container and it works well. VP9 is not as widely used as H264 but it is completely royalty-free and offers good compression ratio and acceptable speed even with lossless settings.

We build required libraries (VP9, libwbm, yasm) using CMake superbuild on Windows/Linux/Mac. Container file reading/writing implementation is here: https://github.com/IGSIO/IGSIO/blob/master/Source/VideoIO/MKV/vtkMKVWriter.cxx, and VP9 codec is here: https://github.com/IGSIO/SlicerIGSIO/blob/master/VideoIO/Codecs/vtkVP9VolumeCodec.cxx.

Andras

From: vtkusers <vtkusers-***@public.kitware.com> On Behalf Of Cory Quammen
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 10:11 AM
To: santosh <***@gmail.com>
Cc: vtkusers <***@vtk.org>
Subject: Re: [vtkusers] vtkAVIWriter with renderer gradient background shows distinct lines

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of experience with the AVI compression options. You might experiment with vtkAVIWriter::SetCompressorFourCC() to see if you can find a compressor that gives more satisfactory results.

Personally I prefer to dump animation frames and assemble them with outside video software.

Cory

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 9:26 AM Santosh Biradar <***@gmail.com<mailto:***@gmail.com>> wrote:
Thanks for the quick response Cory.
I tried setting quality to 0,1,2. The quality of the movie was best for 2 and worst for 0 but the background remained the same in each case.
The quality of the output of the filter (in this case, a vtkContourFilter) reduces with reduction in SetQuality but the background remains of the same quality.
There is no difference in the quality of the background.

I also get the same behavior in Paraview's Save Animation feature (version 5.5 on windows)

Thanks,
Santosh

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 7:29 PM Cory Quammen <***@kitware.com<mailto:***@kitware.com>> wrote:
Sounds like quantization/compression artifacts. You can try changing the quality setting to reduce compression via vtkAVIWriter::SetQuality().

HTH,
Cory

On Tue, Nov 27, 2018 at 8:55 AM Santosh Biradar <***@gmail.com<mailto:***@gmail.com>> wrote:
I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has distinct lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it possible to get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter and write an image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.

A code snippet of what I am doing:

window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()

writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())

I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows

Thanks,

Santosh

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Santosh Biradar

2018-11-30 13:30:20 UTC

Permalink

Thanks Cory. I was able to try different compression options and was able
to remove the background lines appearing because of the gradient albeit
with large size of the AVI files.
Thanks Andras for pointing me to an alternate to vtkAVIWriter. I will
explore the MKV container.

Santosh

Post by Andras Lasso
In 3D Slicer we use VP9 codec with MKV container and it works well. VP9 is
not as widely used as H264 but it is completely royalty-free and offers
good compression ratio and acceptable speed even with lossless settings.
We build required libraries (VP9, libwbm, yasm) using CMake superbuild on
https://github.com/IGSIO/IGSIO/blob/master/Source/VideoIO/MKV/vtkMKVWriter.cxx,
https://github.com/IGSIO/SlicerIGSIO/blob/master/VideoIO/Codecs/vtkVP9VolumeCodec.cxx.
Andras
Quammen
*Sent:* Tuesday, November 27, 2018 10:11 AM
*Subject:* Re: [vtkusers] vtkAVIWriter with renderer gradient background
shows distinct lines
I'm afraid I don't have a lot of experience with the AVI compression
options. You might experiment with vtkAVIWriter::SetCompressorFourCC() to
see if you can find a compressor that gives more satisfactory results.
Personally I prefer to dump animation frames and assemble them with outside video software.
Cory
Thanks for the quick response Cory.
I tried setting quality to 0,1,2. The quality of the movie was best for 2
and worst for 0 but the background remained the same in each case.
The quality of the output of the filter (in this case, a
vtkContourFilter) reduces with reduction in SetQuality but the background
remains of the same quality.
There is no difference in the quality of the background.
I also get the same behavior in Paraview's Save Animation feature (version 5.5 on windows)
Thanks,
Santosh
Sounds like quantization/compression artifacts. You can try changing the
quality setting to reduce compression via vtkAVIWriter::SetQuality().
HTH,
Cory
I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has distinct
lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it possible to
get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter and write an
image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.
window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()
writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())
I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows
Thanks,
Santosh
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Cory Quammen via vtkusers

2018-11-30 14:22:47 UTC

Permalink

Great, glad to hear it. What compression options did you settle on in
case someone runs into this issue in the future?

Thanks Cory. I was able to try different compression options and was able to remove the background lines appearing because of the gradient albeit with large size of the AVI files.
Thanks Andras for pointing me to an alternate to vtkAVIWriter. I will explore the MKV container.
Santosh

--
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Staff R&D Engineer
Kitware, Inc.
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Santosh Biradar

2018-12-06 12:27:29 UTC

Permalink

Sorry for the late reply Cory
I tried the following options via vtkAVIWriter's SetCompressorFourCC()
method

'MSVC'(default) - works but gives the scattered lines in the background
for gradient background
'DIB' - Full Frames (Uncompressed) - works well and removes the gradient
background problem - creates large AVI files (upto 300 MB for a 4-5 second
animation)
'LAGS' - Lagarith Lossless Codec - got unknown compressor error
'MJPG' - got unknown compressor error
'DIVX' - got unknown compressor error
'XVID' - got unknown compressor error
'H264' - got unknown compressor error

Thanks,
Santosh

Post by Cory Quammen via vtkusers
Great, glad to hear it. What compression options did you settle on in
case someone runs into this issue in the future?

Post by Santosh Biradar
Thanks Cory. I was able to try different compression options and was

able to remove the background lines appearing because of the gradient
albeit with large size of the AVI files.

Post by Santosh Biradar
Thanks Andras for pointing me to an alternate to vtkAVIWriter. I will

explore the MKV container.

Post by Santosh Biradar
Santosh

Post by Andras Lasso
In 3D Slicer we use VP9 codec with MKV container and it works well. VP9

is not as widely used as H264 but it is completely royalty-free and offers
good compression ratio and acceptable speed even with lossless settings.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
We build required libraries (VP9, libwbm, yasm) using CMake superbuild

on Windows/Linux/Mac. Container file reading/writing implementation is
https://github.com/IGSIO/IGSIO/blob/master/Source/VideoIO/MKV/vtkMKVWriter.cxx,
https://github.com/IGSIO/SlicerIGSIO/blob/master/VideoIO/Codecs/vtkVP9VolumeCodec.cxx
.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
Andras

Quammen

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2018 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [vtkusers] vtkAVIWriter with renderer gradient background

shows distinct lines

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
I'm afraid I don't have a lot of experience with the AVI compression

options. You might experiment with vtkAVIWriter::SetCompressorFourCC() to
see if you can find a compressor that gives more satisfactory results.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
Personally I prefer to dump animation frames and assemble them with

outside video software.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
Cory
Thanks for the quick response Cory.
I tried setting quality to 0,1,2. The quality of the movie was best for

2 and worst for 0 but the background remained the same in each case.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
The quality of the output of the filter (in this case, a

vtkContourFilter) reduces with reduction in SetQuality but the background
remains of the same quality.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
There is no difference in the quality of the background.
I also get the same behavior in Paraview's Save Animation feature

(version 5.5 on windows)

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
Thanks,
Santosh
Sounds like quantization/compression artifacts. You can try changing

the quality setting to reduce compression via vtkAVIWriter::SetQuality().

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
HTH,
Cory
I am trying to create a movie of an animation using vtkAVIWriter.
The renderer has a gradient background. The .avi file created has

distinct lines/bands in the background because of the gradient. Is it
possible to get rid of these lines. I notice that if I use a vtkBMPWriter
and write an image, the image seems fine without any such lines/bands.

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
window_to_image = vtk.vtkWindowToImageFilter()
window_to_image.SetInput(renWin.GetRenderWindow())
window_to_image.SetInputBufferTypeToRGB()
window_to_image.ReadFrontBufferOff()
writer = vtk.vtkAVIWriter()
writer.SetInputConnection(window_to_image.GetOutputPort())
I am running python wrapper of VTK-6.3.0 on windows
Thanks,
Santosh
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http://www.kitware.com/opensource/opensource.html
http://www.vtk.org/Wiki/VTK_FAQ

Post by Santosh Biradar

Post by Andras Lasso
Search the list archives at: http://markmail.org/search/?q=vtkusers
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Kitware, Inc.
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--
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